What is up with?

tonktank · August 9, 2009

Here in WA and OR it seems that there are lots of cars with lime green tape on the rear wipers of suvs. Is this some kind of trend or club?

August 9, 2009

Don't ask questions tonk, you'll get :inot :beer ...it's the Oregon green tape posse :beer

TintDude · August 9, 2009

I've seen one of those, I thought it was holding the wiper on :inot

Probably something idiotic.

TintDude · August 9, 2009

I was right, it is idiotic:

The green tape phenomenon: the truth behind the trend
by Bill Barlow

Are they some sort of gang? Stoners? These days, swarms of green-tape-toting underclassmen walk the halls, perplexing teachers and students alike.

The many rumors surrounding this trend are all a joke to the man behind it all, sophomore Harrison Edwards. Last St. Patrick's Day, Edwards wasn't wearing any green. In a resourceful move, he pulled a strand of lime green tape from a dwindling roll that he was using to make a crude wallet, and carefully wrapped it around his backpack strap. Soon, those who had failed to wear green on St. Patrick's Day were flocking to him, demanding tape, and unknowingly creating a phenomenon that would become something more than itself.

Edwards said he is "proud to be the leader of the green army." He also said that he's trying to get as many people as possible to wear the tape. It has cost him four rolls so far, and he expects to use more.

Students have mixed feelings about Edwards and his green tape. Freshman Kris Monson doesn't wear the tape and said that he's indifferent to it, that it's "a part of my daily life," and that the rumors are "stupid."

Freshman Luis Avendano heard that it has something to do with drugs, but it "doesn't bother me."

Edwards said that the fabrications circling around "are prohibitive. Honestly, I just started giving [tape] to my friends."

Tape wearers themselves seem like they are used to it. Most said that it meant nothing. Others, such as sophomore Christine Beatty, said that the tape is a status symbol, and that people "feel cool when they wear it." She concurred with Monson's comment, speaking negatively of rumors that have plagued tape wearers.

The tape, in reality, is little more than, well, tape. Edwards is only taking swaths of it and wrapping them around his friends' backpacks, though it's natural for students on the outside to fill their uncertainty with fairy tales. It's no fashion statement, no gang, and no drug ring, just people who decided that it would be funny to wear tape on their backpacks.

The students involved with the tape do not purport to endorse any devious organizations or practices. All laughed at the notion that they actually were druggies, or "the cool kids club," as some prefer to call them. They all said that they simply wear the tape because they feel like it or because they want to be a part of a group.

Sophomore Alex Zorychta's backpack also has a piece of green tape clinging to one of its straps. He says, "[the green tape] will be a legend." At any rate, this is often how legends start. Zorychta says he will "think back to high school and say, 'Oh yeah, that green tape.'"

On a more humorous note, it may be the green tape wearers who spread the lies that have been the bane of its existence. When people ask Zorychta what the green tape is, he just laughs and tells them a lie. He says that he has fun doing it because no one truly knows what it is, except the wearers themselves. People find it hard to believe the tape means nothing.

Counselor Karen Brett had no idea what the green tape meant, but she surmised that artistic students wore it. She thought that it was "just a fad. Some people wear Abercrombie, and some don't buy into it. The tape is the same way."

Brett pointed out that it was "just another way that people express themselves."