God and Government

It is said the God works in mysterious ways, but I can attest to the fact that the government does as well.

I moved to Pennsylvania several years ago, and bought a house and settled in as a resident. I moved there from Connecticut, where I had lived for the previous 35 years. T the time when I moved, there were a couple of years left on my driving license, so I was in no real hurry to get a new license, but after a couple of months I decided I should do the right thing and get a Pennsylvania driving license.

This was about December 2001, and in all fairness to PENDOT I think that my accent (faint British, but foreign, certainly not Reading Pennsylvania) plus the 9/11 event a couple of months previously may have been a contributing factor in this saga.

I looked up all the requirements for establishing my citizenship and residency in Pennsylvania, and on one bright Friday morning took myself, and all the documentation to the closest PENDOT office near Reading. Actually it was sort of on my way to my Daughter's house and I expected to be there late morning to do some work for her, after all it, shouldn't take long to get the license, I'd lived in Connecticut for 35 years, and had had about 8 driving licenses over that time, and had been an American citizen for almost 30 years.

On arrival at the office, I waited in line to meet up with the greeter who asked what I wanted and gave me the appropriate form to fill out, and a number and directed me to the pertinent waiting area. After a while, my number was called and I went to the desk and gave the woman all my paperwork so that she could inspect it, and get the ball rolling.

Unfortunately, she stopped at my carefully laminated Social Security card, and said that PENDOT could not accept a defaced Social Security card. I noted that if it hadn't been laminated 35 years earlier, probably by now it would be unreadable, but this logic was lost on her, so I asked what could be done. This was obviously a common problem, and there was a routine already in place. I was directed to go to the Social Security office in Reading and to meet with a person there who could verify I was who I was and then this person would send a fax back to PENDOT, which would be acceptable.

So I drove the 5 miles or so over to the Social Security office, and joined a new line. After a while I was able to talk to a person there who knew what needed to be done and after a few minutes, assured me that a

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