Licentious

It occurred to us that it might be useful to get an international drivers licence for use in France. They say you don't need one, but we thought of some rural cop peering at a licence from Pennsylvania with a certain amount of quoi? So we went ahead. I didn't really know what to expect. Something that looked like a driver's licence, is what I thought. Picture, address, maybe a big US Seal, encased in plastic. Who knows, retina scan imprint?

I should have been clued by the idea that the local branch of the AAA, an organization that acts like a low grade government bureaucracy, can issue them. I don't know what other offices of AAA are like, but this one always smells like the back of an old closet, and the staff-- even the young ones - move very slowly. The young woman to whom I gave the form said You printed from the web site? Um, no, lady, I made it in Senior Art. Pretty good, huh? Ah, but the licence. What majestic piece of This IS America do they issue?

Do you know the word 'dismal'? Okay, now think a little less.

They look like the licences that I imagine East Germany gave in the 1950s -- grey paper, multiple fields, many of which are blank, information hand-printed by the clerk, and a smeary AAA logo to indicate the type of licence. Oh, and on the cover, it says that it was issued in, um, Florida.

And, hey - the kind I thought they might issue? Apparently, you can buy them. Non, honnêtement, monsieur le policier ....

I shall treasure it forever.