You may recall that last summer I went to the Arch Street PennDot location to get my photo taken for my driver’s license only to find that the line stretched around the block and I was told it was quite lengthy even once one got inside, so I gave up and decided to go to the Oregon location which my neighbor said had a much shorter wait time. Except— 

It’s over two miles down to Oregon Avenue, so I’d have to take some form of transportation and my Septa card had also expired. When I went to get that renewed, the pleasant woman refused to accept my expired driver’s license as proof of my age (remember I was merely renewing the card for which I had previously proven my age) so I had to return the next day with my birth certificate (which didn’t have my picture on it, but that was acceptable because it doesn’t expire).

Still, with one thing and another I kept putting off getting the photo taken for the new driver’s license as I don’t drive anymore, I only need it for ID purposes.

Now in the meantime, I lost my old driver’s license, don’t ask me how, but it’s gone. And the instructions that PennDot sent say that I needed some sort of ID in order to get my photo taken. One of the things they’ll accept is a passport.

Well, I think I know where my passport is:

But I checked in those files several times and I couldn’t find it.

Finally, a couple days ago I decided to go through them one at a time and discovered the passport right at the front—it was merely behind a couple other folders and so thin that I had kept missing it. I must have intentionally put it in the front so I wouldn’t lose it, but then at some point I put those other folders there and— 

So Tuesday morning I got on a Septa bus and headed to Oregon Avenue.

To my great dismay, when I got to the PennDot Driver License Center, there was a long line. I almost turned back. But I asked the woman at the back of the line and she said she thought the line would move quickly once the center opened.

A few minutes later a man came out and as best as I could hear him—the people in line behind me were talking, making it difficult to hear him, and I hate when people do that—he was saying that if you were just there to renew your photo ID you could jump to the front of the line. The woman I had just spoken to jumped, and so did I.

I was something like the fifth or sixth person for a photo ID, and I noticed that no one seemed to be showing any identification. I wondered if I had worried about getting my passport for nothing. When it was my turn, all the woman asked was for my birthdate—no ID needed.

She took my picture with a sudden, very bright flash and asked if it was OK. Surprisingly my eyes weren’t closed, so I OK’ed it.

I had to wait a few minutes for it to be printed, and then I was on my way.

I decided to go back to Septa to wave my new driver’s license in the face of that pleasant woman who had refused to accept the expired one as proof of my age and tell her how simple and painless it had been to get a new driver’s license and that PennDot didn’t make me jump through hoops the way she had done, nyah, nyah, nyah!

Well, ok, I didn’t actually do that. But I thought about doing it.

PS Lest you think that PennDot is too lax in renewing driver’s licenses merely on someone correctly coming up with the date of birth, I’ve thought about that and I think what happened is when I handed the woman the card that the DMV sent me after I sent in my renewal fee, she scanned it and a copy of my previous driver’s license came up on her terminal. So she was presumably looking at my image as she confirmed my identity by asking for my birth date. At least, I hope so.