Thankfully, renewal is complete

Thank goodness that is over. I am now in possession of a brand new driver’s license. I only had to return home once to get the rest of the documentation they wanted. The only problem is that the picture looks like I’m an ax murderer impatiently waiting for the next victim. 

Granted, most people’s driver’s license photos make them look like a criminal. We are told not to smile because if we get stopped by the police we won’t be smiling.  

The only person I knew who ever liked their picture was my mom. She always wanted to keep her old license because she said it was a good picture of her. Once she quit driving she was issued an identification card from the state. She didn’t like the pictures nearly as much after that.

My grandmother never had a photo on her license. She learned to drive before licenses were required and died before pictures were common on the face of the card. Somewhere I have a paper copy of her license. 

It won’t be long before my granddaughter Emma gets her driving permit. Her mom is concerned because they have to mail her original birth certificate and social security card to get the process started. I remember feeling that same concern when I applied for my original license. 

Lately, Emma has been experimenting with stage makeup. One day I received a cluster of pictures of Emma with a fake gunshot wound to the forehead and equally fake blood dripping down her cheek. In one of the pictures she looked so much like her mom that I had to study the image to make sure it was Emma and not Beth. 

I wonder what her license photo would look like if Emma “decorated” her face beforehand. Maybe it would actually look good. Or maybe they would tell her to wash her face and come back later. We have a few months before we need to worry about this. 

I find it difficult to believe that Emma is almost old enough to drive. It seems like just yesterday that I was reading “The Tawny, Scrawny Lion” to her before she was even a day old. 

She has gone through a phase where she looked just like me, She was four or five at the time. A picture of me at that age was indistinguishable from a picture of her. These days she looks more like her mom. 

One of her step-daddy’s friends once remarked that Emma and Beth looked so much alike. He told his friend that there were three of us that looked alike. At that time there were actually four of us, Emma, Beth, me and my mom who looked enough alike that there was no mistaking the fact that we were related. 

I am so grateful that I don’t have to worry about renewing anything else for a good long time. I had read several articles about the difficulty of renewing a driver’s license. The ladies at our local license branch made the process easy. There were no long lines. Even though I thought I had brought the correct documentation they were very polite when they told me that they needed originals of a couple of things. I went back home and found the papers they wanted. I handed them over and proceeded to the eye test. This one always scares me but by some miracle, I passed. 

As nice as the people at the license branch were, I am glad there are several years before I have to see them again.