By Olivia Sugg, Staff Writer
It’s 1999 and you are standing in line at Island Pharmacy in Manteo during your lunch break, but you’re not there waiting to get a prescription filled or to grab a new tube of toothpaste, you are standing there hoping to get a new OBX license plate at the DMV counter.
The idea all started when late state Senator Marc Basnight approached Jim Douglas who patented the term “OBX”. Basnight thought that special license plates issued on the Outer Banks with the OBX slogan on them would be a cool idea, but the popularity of the license plates was unexpected.
“I didn’t think the locals would take to it, so I was totally unprepared for the melee,” said Becky Luton, local expert on OBX plates.
Luton has worked at the DMV counter in Island Pharmacy since before the OBX plates were introduced and she has many stories about the craze over the years.
“I have had people try to bribe me to get a certain number, and people skip back and forth in line to get certain numbers,” Luton said. “We even have people that call us and want to do it over the phone and have the plates mailed to them”.
Anyone in North Carolina can get an OBX plate and they do not require an extra charge, but they are only issued at the DMV counter in Island Pharmacy. Anyone who has an OBX plate knows that going to get the plate at Island Pharmacy is part of the experience, there is something special about standing in line at the DMV counter in between a display of greeting cards and some fishing supplies.
The OBX plates stand for so much more than a car registration. The Outer Banks are a very special place for many tourists who vacation here and the plates help remind them of that.
“The Outer Banks is a place that inspires good memories, we have people come from all over the state because they want a reminder of their memories here,” Luton said.
The OBX plates are not just special to tourists, they are just as special to Outer Banks residents. The Outer Banks is already a tight-knit community and the OBX plates reinforce that. Many Outer Banks residents have stories about running into people with OBX tags on a car while away from home, whether it’s the comfort of knowing there’s another local on your college campus or the unlikely coincidence of running into “neighbors” in the middle of Yellowstone National Park.
“You really get that feeling of community when you see an OBX plate while away from home and that is one of the reasons why the plates are so special,” Luton said.
The OBX license plates bring joy to so many people all over North Carolina and Luton attributes the popularity of the plates to this.
Due to the unexpected popularity of the plates, the first set in the form OBX – #### ran out as soon as 9,999 plates were issued. The plates were still in high demand so a fifth digit was added and the hyphen was taken away to create more plates. The plates ran out yet again and letters were added to the end.
According to John Brockwell, communications officer for the NC DMV, 6,200 of the OBX plates were issued in 2020. It’s been several years since the numbers reached OBX99999, but now that letters have been added to the end, Brockwell said running out of OBX plates shouldn’t be an issue.
Currently, the letter at the end of the series depends on whether or not customers want the “First in Flight,” “First in Freedom,” or “In God We Trust” styles.
“They have A, B and C as a suffix,” Luton said. “First in Flight has A, First in Freedom has B and In God We Trust, the state motto has C, so they can keep going to infinity”.
The plates are produced through the Department of Public Safety Correction Enterprises program at the DPS Women’s Prison facility in Raleigh
Many residents who got their OBX tags when they first came out take pride in their low numbers and try to spot original plates under a thousand while driving up and down the Outer Banks. And it’s a sad day when the plate becomes so faded that the state makes you get a new one without that low number.
“The first 12 were kept in Raleigh, so they could be awarded to certain people,” Luton said. “The first two went to the creators of OBX, then Andy Griffith got three and the rest were saved to be awarded to county commissioners for their position the county”.
More than 20 years later, no one could have guessed that a simple license plate could bring so much joy to so many people, whether they have lived on the Outer Banks their entire lives or they just visit for a week each summer.
Olivia Sugg is a sophomore at First Flight High School. She wrote this story as part of the partnership the Chamber enjoys with Nighthawk News Magazine students. She can be reached at 23suggol52@daretolearn.org.
