DEPARTMENT of Motor Vehicles office in Los Angeles (Shutterstock).
In a very dignified panic, I got myself to the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Westminster this week, anxious to get my renewed driver’s license before it expired.
Now, there were all kinds of reasons why I was in a rush, not the least of which was that I have a heightened fear of being caught by a law enforcement official without a valid CDL.
Few people I know drive the straight and narrow more straight and narrow than me. On the freeway, I tend to hover at 64.5 miles an hour. I turn on my turn signal 100 feet or so before changing lanes and I always keep my “following” distance to the prescribed one car-length per 10 miles an hour.
Those drivers’ training classes really made an impression.
It’s in this state of mind that I got in line at the line over on Hoover. Not having had the presence of mind to arrange for an appointment to get renewed – I just needed a new photo (and when you looked at the horribly ugly snapshot I got last time, you know I really needed a replacement) – I steeled myself to Bureaucratic Hell.
You know the reputation of the DMW. Dingy offices, heart-breakingly long and slow lines, employees who moved with the speed and cheerfulness of gulag prisoners.
Well, Santa Maria. Once I got to the right place, I was whisked from one smiling employee to another, had a much nicer photo taken and was out in the parking lot faster than you can say “Henry Ford’s mother wears Army boots.”
As pleasing as this was, it shook me a bit. What other prejudices did I have to update? Maybe Frenchmen do not all constantly wear berets and dine on croissants while surrendering to Germans?
Could it be that (pick your bias here) that all Republicans don’t have a picture or Mel Gibson up in their garage or all Democrats a photo of Jane Fonda?
Could it be that potato salad isn’t as deadly as unfiltered cigarettes?
I came away with a new attitude and a much better photograph and am happy about both.
Categories: Opinion
Sorry, no DMV is more crowded than the Westminster DMV. It’s almost impossible to get an appointment there, but sometimes you might get lucky. The DMV is one place where they do not care about the customer, because they got you over a barrel. I live closest to the Westminster DMV, so I always try there first. Their parking lot is so small. I usually have to wait for someone to leave and follow them to their car to get a space there. Actually the Long Beach DMV is better. They have a big parking lot and it’s where I end up when I can’t get into Westminsters DMV. The LB DMV is a longer drive, but it seems like a larger office overall.