Don’t lose your driver’s license

Where my driver’s license disappeared to, I have no idea. Not just my driver’s license, but my insurance card disappeared, as well! I have always kept the two cards together in the same little place made for them in my billfold. I have been known to take them out of my billfold, and carry them in a secure pocket. I do this on the rare occasion that I don’t want to bother to carry my purse with me. So, when I opened my billfold and they weren’t there, I assumed I had not put them back where they belonged. Therefore, the hunt was on to look in every pocket of anything I’ve ever worn this past hot summer. It is very tiring to keep looking and looking, and knowing they had to be here somewhere, but never finding them. My only guess is that when I took them out of my pocket to put back in my billfold, I must have absent-mindedly put them down somewhere, and I have no idea where they ended up.

So, after about a week, I began the process to get new ones. This is the year I had to renew my driver’s license anyway, so it wasn’t a bad time to have this happen.

Since it was just a matter of one phone call, I called my health insurance company, told them my problem, and they sent a new card immediately. Now came the more complicated situation. I had to figure out what I had to take with me to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to get a new license. So, I gathered up every bit of identification I could find that I thought would be necessary. Without my driver’s license, I thought I would have to have another form of photo ID. Not finding any other, I packed a copy of Wednesday’s Gazette that had my picture in it, with my name underneath. Since I had an old sheet of photo copies of almost everything I carry, I took that piece of paper, as well. I even found my original birth certificate and marriage license to take along.

So, with the big manila envelope full of identification in hand, as well as my money, I went to the BMV office. The first thing I found out was that I didn’t need my copy of the Gazette. A photo ID was not necessary. I thought everything was going well until I was told that I could not use the copy of my original Social Security card. It had to be the original. However, I could get a regular driver’s license without the original Social Security card, just not the kind I will need to fly on a plane anywhere. Well, since I fly to Florida each year, to see our daughter, I would have to have the new compliant drivers license, which does not go into affect until 2020. Not knowing where on earth my original Social Security card might be, I went ahead and said I would take the regular one. I was surprised when I was handed a piece of paper with my new picture on it. This is what I would be using until the new license arrives in the regular mail in a week or so. In the picture of me on the piece of paper, I looked more like a ghost than what I usually thought I looked like. I casually asked where to get another original Social Security card, and was told to go to the Social Security Office. At that moment, I wasn’t sure where the office was, but decided it would come to me eventually.

So, as I write this, I am in the process of finding time to go to the Social Security Office in Marion and get an original card. However at this point, I am wondering what kind of ID I will have to have to get another original Social Security card. Maybe my piece of paper with my looking like a ghost on it, will be of some help. I should not have been so organized as to have already put all of the various pieces of ID back in their proper places. I should have been smart and just left everything in the big manila envelope. I understand that the Social Security Office sits behind a field of corn that has not yet been harvested, so I hope to be able to find it. Then with my original card, I will go back to the BMV for the new compliant drivers license. I am assuming I will have to pay full price to get another one, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. You might wonder why I am putting myself through all of this rigmarole when I tell you that I don’t drive anymore. Oh, but I do fly.

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By Kay Conklin

Kay E. Conklin is a retired Ohio recorder. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in sociology and anthropology.