We have moved a great many times, and usually my wife has a better-looking driver’s license picture when it is all said and done.
With every move there is always the given things you need to go through. Find a house… find a house with a big enough yard for our 2 ‘kids’ and of course, a fence that the ‘kids’ can’t escape from… then find a grocery store, Post Office and so on. When you first look for a Post Office, you can spend hours just looking for one. After that is accomplished, you find one at almost every corner, just like a Starbucks.
Along with that, of course comes the inevitable registering of vehicles and Driver’s License. To date, California was the toughest and South Carolina the easiest.
Now, let’s discuss Texas. When we moved, we were given a guide on where to register the rigs and where to get our Driver’s Licenses. We read the guide, gathered up all the required documentation and headed towards the Galveston County Annex in League City to register the cars. We waited in line with some 30 odd folks and watched the 2 Clerks working at ‘breakneck speed’ to get people through the line. It was amounting to about ‘10 minutes per transaction’.
A lot can be said about Texas and certainly one of these would be the outspoken ‘Senior’s’. A few days prior to this attempt, I was at the local HEB grocery store getting some food for a BBQ. With me, was a good friend who with his wife, were visiting us from Washington State. We waited ‘in line’ behind a mother and daughter who were stocking up on their own supplies.
The ‘checker’ was a young African American woman who clearly had not passed on many of the free food samples in the store. The mother ahead of us looked to be somewhere between 70 or 80. She was skinny as a rail and had skin the texture of beef jerky left out in the sun a bit too long. She was clearly getting agitated at the length of the process; my sense was that there was probably an unfiltered Lucky Strike waiting to be fired up.
She turned and mumbled something to my friend who smiled in return and politely said he didn’t quite hear her. Undaunted, she merely cleared her throat and nodding in the direction of the checker, declared, “She hasn’t missed many meals.”
Her ‘sister’ was behind us in line at the County Annex. When someone offered to let her sit on the bench, she looked around and in a gravelly voice said “ Naw… I’m fine, just wish they would get something done around here other than bullshitting and looking like they are important.”
Well, we finally got our turn. My wife would rather have teeth pulled than go through all of this. We didn’t have the right forms and in spite of what the helpful guide we were given said, these folks were not taking a check to cover the costs. She explained that without a valid Texas Driver’s license, CASH was our only option. When I said then maybe we should go get our Drivers License first. The Clerk “snickered” and replied that you had to “register your vehicles first, before you could get a license”.
I was in the mood to play the “chicken and the egg” debate; but, the look of panic on my wife’s face made me think this might be a bad thing.
We left to grab lunch and then to pick up the needed cash from the local B of A. Freshly fed, we went back with CASH in hand and all our forms done in order. This time, we were able to conduct our business quickly and soon we were given our Texas plates and tags. As we concluded the transaction the new Clerk asked if this would be “Cash or check?” Ok then, not a word.
We handed over the cash and the woman in great detail began to talk to me about where she was from and how long she had been in Texas and so on…
As we retreated from the Annex, we both commented on how “nice” it was that the Clerk “liked me a lot.” I told my wife she was delusional.
Next, we set off to get our Driver’s Licenses. We first went to the local office in Texas City, as our guide had recommended. After listening to the Clerk try to explain to a young man that “not only could she not issue him a license because of unpaid tickets, there was also an arrest warrant out for him because of this.” The young man was not easily put off. He continued to explain that he had forgotten to pay the tickets and it didn’t seem fair that he should be punished because of it. I am thinking through this why doesn’t the Clerk simply ‘wave over the Texas Highway Patrol dude’ who is working at the same office, and make the introductions.
We opted to proceed to the next office in Clear Lake. We noticed this seemed a much more efficient operation. We handed our forms and ID’s to the woman at the greeting table. She looked at everything we had, old license, Passport, insurance cards and of course, our ‘newly’ registered vehicle cards. We however did not produce a Social Security Card….back to the house we go.
About six months prior, I had gone to get my Social Security Card changed to reflect my legal name. Valid identity and 9-11 sort of stuff… when I got to the Social Security Administration office in Bellingham, they looked up my info and asked for my Alien Green Card.
I explained I had become a citizen back in 1985. The Clerk explained they had no record of this. She then added the different agencies rarely exchange that type of information.
Well, we got that fixed and we headed to the local Post Office to get my passport. We followed the sign to the back of the Post Office. We saw the Passport dude sitting at his desk and walked in. He asked if he could help us and I replied, “Yes, he could. I needed a passport.” He looked a bit concerned and asked if I had an appointment. After a brief pause, I acknowledged that I did not. He opened a book and said he would see what was available. I hurt something in my head trying not to say “There is nobody here, You Moron.”
He finished looking and said he had an opening at 11:35 on the 5th. I looked at the clock and noticed it said 11:20 and yep, today was the 5th. He looked at us and asked, “Can you make that time?” I remember as we walked back through the lobby of the Post Office, I would have time for a smoke before we would have to walk back through the lobby to make my appointment.
Ok, so now we are back in line for the Driver’s License. All the paperwork is in order; nothing could possibly go wrong now.
My wife goes first and I patiently, wait my turn. I answer all the questions and so on. I glance up and see that my bride has finished with her paperwork… although; I don’t recall having seen her picture being taken. Oh, well, I was pretty busy.
I now have my License, the world is ‘good’ and yet, I notice my wife is back in the line we just came from. The look on her face is similar to what my daughter had when she was younger and was caught telling a lie or something else ‘earth shattering.’ I think, “Oh no, it’s the stolen sod thing and she is going down for it.”
Ok, here is the deal. When you get married, you need to change your Social Security Card to reflect your ‘new’ married name. They take this pretty serious in the Lone Star State. So on that condition, we head directly to the Social Security Administration office in Galveston and the State of Texas grants my wife her license. They also said they would be checking with Social Security to make sure she did the right thing.
Remind me to share what life is like at the Social Security office in Galveston sometime…..
