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MobilityBundle
Regular user
Las Vegas/Boston
117 Posts
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Posted: Nov 14, 2011 4:41am
I went to graduate school at Penn State. For those who don't know, Penn State is kind of in the middle of nowhere. In particular, it's a long drive from the town to the nearest Dept. of Motor Vehicles. And there isn't a bus that goes there.
At the time of this story, I didn't have a driver's license. But I needed to go to the DMV and get an ID card. An easy transaction, I thought.
We showed up at around 1:30 pm, and the line was out the door. My friend said he had some stuff to do, so he'd come back in two hours and pick me up. That should be plenty of time. And besides, I had a book with me.
After about an hour, I get to the front of the line. I show all the stuff I need to prove I am who I am, and the lady fills out all the forms, and finally asks for ten dollars: check or money order. I hadn't thought about this, but all I had was six dollars in cash and a credit card. I figured EVERYWHERE takes credit cards, right? I guess not. And obviously, there was no ATM. There wasn't even a "nearest" ATM, as far as the lady knew.
Not defeated so easily, I decided to do a little impromptu busking. After all, I had about an hour to kill... what's the harm? I asked the lady to put my stuff to the side, and that I'd be back. I'm going to try to earn $4 by doing magic.
This is where it gets all Twilight Zone. Usually, the people at a DMV office are cranky and unhelpful. But this lady says, "Are you serious? [Yes, yes I am.] Well, okay... in that case, you should start with the manager, Bob. His office is right around that corner. He loves magic."
How helpful!
So I go to Bob's office. As I approach, I hear him screaming into his phone: "What?! No! N... n... Look, I can't make this any easier. We CAN'T do that! I already told you! Okay, BYE!" Then, looking up at me, "Yeah?!"
I go into my spiel, and his demeanor instantly changed. After a few minutes, his colleague comes in and I'm doing tricks for both of them. And they're loving it. But eventually, I see half an hour as gone by, and I really need to either fish or cut bait. So I end whatever trick I was doing, and say abruptly, "Okay... now I need two dollars from each of you."
And no questions asked, they both reach for their wallets, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I don't even think I told them what I needed the money for. Again: twilight zone DMV. These guys were actually really cool.
Okay, now with $10 cash in hand, I figured the hard part was over. Now all I have to do is get someone to write a check in exchange for the cash. And it's not even writing a check to me, it's writing a check to the Pennsylvania DMV. So I go to the front of the line:
"Excuse me ma'am, but would you mind helping me out..."
The lady awkwardly avoids eye contact. Oh... she must think I'm begging or something. (My grad school attire wasn't far off from homeless-chic, so perhaps her reticence was fair.)
I start again, taking a step back, raising my voice a little, and addressing the first four or five people on line:
"Sorry folks, I have ten dollars cash, but the DMV doesn't take cash. Would one of you write a $10 check to the DMV?"
And still, everyone is looking at the floor, looking at their watches, etc. Backing up a little bit more, raising my voice a little louder. Still nothing.
I see one guy with his checkbook already out and ask him directly.
"No, sorry. I can't do that."
WTF? Another Twilight Zone moment! In a normal DMV, this wouldn't be a problem. The hapless souls in a normal DMV have this sense of community from the shared misery of being there. But not these guys.
Fortunately, one of the people behind the counter coerced someone to write a check. Because in the Twilight Zone, DMV employees are actually pretty awesome.
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Josh Chaikin
Inner circle
Kansas City
1413 Posts
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Posted: Nov 14, 2011 5:34am
Funny...here the DMV only takes cash. No checks and still no debit/credit cards. And it's $25 now. If I tried that here, I don't think my story would have as happy of ending...it would definitely be something out of "The Twilight Zone," though.
"You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it." - Bill Cosby
Photos from the Pit
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