License is ticket to freedom (02/09/2009)

I haven't been this worried since February of 2005. It's time to renew my driver's license. Whenever the dreaded date comes around I am convinced I will fail the eye exam.

I can see perfectly well to drive but for some reason I have a great deal of trouble when I squint into that awful machine. All I see is a bunch of jumbled dots that don't make any sense. I say the first letter or number that comes to mind and pray that I am right.

The last time I had to renew my license I was overjoyed to find a short-lived program whereby I could renew my license over the internet. All I had to do was fill out a very long form and send them money. I guess they figured if I could see well enough to work a computer then I could see well enough to drive. Plus I didn't have to get a new picture taken. They used the last one they had on file.

I'm not so lucky this time. It took me forever to find out when the local license branch was open. I couldn't find the listing in the phone book. I looked under Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles, US Government listings, Driver's License, Indiana Department of Motor Vehicles and a few other things. Lo and behold it is listed under "License Branch."

The first driver's license ever issued was to Karl Benz of Mannheim, Germany in 1888. It wasn't an actual driver's license as much as written permission to operate his "Motorwagen" on public roads despite complaints from the locals. Benz has a reputation as being the inventor of the modern automobile. The picture I saw of his "Motorwagen" looked more like an oversized tricycle with tiny handlebars than it did a car.

His design eventually evolved into a more-complex four-wheel vehicle. He merged his company with Daimler (another inventor of the modern automobile) creating Daimler-Benz. One of Daimler's other business partners was Emil Jellinek who had a daughter named Mercedes.

I doubt very much if I or any of my family will ever own a Mercedes but we are still required to obtain driver's licenses. Maybe if Benz's vehicle had been more acceptable to the local populace I wouldn't have to worry about a simple eye test.

My grandmother learned to drive before licenses were required. The first state to require driver's licenses was New York and initially applied only to chauffeurs. This was way back in 1910.

Grandma had never been to New York. She lived in Dayton, Ohio and it wasn't until 1935 that driver's licenses were required of all Ohio drivers. This tells me that she had been driving for many years without a license. Somewhere I have the last license she was ever issued. It is made of paper and doesn't have a picture on it.

A driver's license is so much more than a simple piece of paper or plastic. It is a written record of your vital statistics except for weight. Weight is usually listed as whatever you weighed when you first received your license and bears no relation to what the bathroom scales said this morning.

It is a ticket to freedom. With a valid license and a somewhat reliable car you can go where you want, when you want. You don't have to rely on public transportation (if there is any) or the generosity of others. You can stop by Dairy Queen on your way home from the gym and nobody has to know.

You can poke along on a back road or zip down the highway. You can drive fast over small hills creating an effect that my daughter used to call a "whoop-boom" because you would go whoop over the top then boom as you landed on the other side. You can stop to watch a herd of deer by the side of the road.

Best of all you can create your own schedule without having to rely on others. I don't want to lose that freedom so I'll be studying for my upcoming eye exam. Wish me luck.[[In-content Ad]]