Yachats Oregon Writer Rick Schultze

My birthday is the last day of August and the last summer holiday is Labor Day which always falls on the first Monday in September. Thus when I was a kid my birthday always signaled the end of summer was near which took some of the luster out of my birthday but the summer I turned sixteen my birthday signaled the beginning of a new world for me. I was old enough to get my first drivers license!!

Of course I already knew how to drive since I’d had a learners permit for six months and had driven my Dad crazy asking him to let me drive. I’d drive anywhere he’d let me and at 8 AM sharp on my birthday I was at the DMV ready to take the test which I passed with flying colors. It would be sometime before I owned a car of my own to drive but I did manage to borrow the family car occasionally and the next summer landed a job driving an ice cream truck and bought my first car. That was my ticket to ride.

Well I rode around a lot all over the west and my work took me to several states, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and California where I experienced getting new drivers licenses. Several times I had to take the driving test and always the written, which I got quite proficient at. It was usually a simple process, bring in your current license, new address and the money to pay for it and it was good to go. Then I was thrilled to find out that Oregon’s driver’s license was good for four years. Well my four years were up and I got my notice to renew early this month so I set aside the amount to pay for it, looked the notification over and took the thirty mile trip north from Yachats to Newport to renew. Well I had done much better at following instructions when I got my first license way back when I was a kid because while I took my license, birth certificate, my military discharge papers and social security card I failed to notice that the birth certificate has to be original, not a copy. Of course my original was in my safe deposit box back in Yachats. So a return trip was necessary and the next time I almost had the license when they asked for proof of my physical address because when they’d issued me a license four years ago they put my Post Office box as my address and that’s doesn’t work today, they’ve changed the rules. The clerk pleasantly told me to go home and get a copy of my utility bill and bring it back. Then he pointed out on the renewal form that it actually said that, but I hadn’t noticed, dumb me!

A bit discouraged I went out to my car and rummaged through my glove box and found my auto insurance policy and the card used to send to the insurance company in case of an accident. Well, low and behold on that official little card was my physical address!! That was all it took and today I’m the proud new holder of an Oregon Drivers License good for four more years! I just hope they don’t make some more changes next time I renew; I don’t know if I can afford the gas to go get one!

A word to the wise; look closely at your renewal notice, they have clamped down and stick to the written rules!

Happy Renewals!

To reach Rick Schultze email: yarick@pioneer.net