My Visit To the Oneonta DMV Was Surprising

Is it me or does everyone dread going to the Department of Motor Vehicles?  In general, the DMV has a long held reputation for long lines and a cranky staff who could care less if you don't have all the paperwork you need.  The tv show Taxi dedicated a show where Reverend Jim is trying to get his driver license and has to visit the DMV (see below).

With all that said, I now have to reconfigure everyone's perception of the DMV after my visit to the Oneonta office yesterday.  I was renewing my license.  I was completely prepared with my pile of necessary paperwork: birth certificate, social security card, and proof of residence.  I had read over the directions several times on what paperwork needed to be filled out only to show up and have a nice woman (not cranky!) inform me (with sympathy) that I did NOT have everything I needed to get the REAL ID which is an enhanced drivers license that allows the bearer to fly on U.S. domestic flights as of 2020.

When I received her bad news, I was very frustrated as you can imagine since I just wanted to get this process over with.  The DMV employee then asked me for my drivers license and declared with a smile that I already had an enhanced license and renewal could proceed very easily!  It turns out that I had gotten mixed up by the DMV license terminology.  I thought that REAL ID was a step above the enhanced license I currently possessed.  The DMV terminology of various forms of identifications got the best of me.

In the end, there was no line and I was out of there within 10 minutes AND the staff was friendly AND helpful!  This was easily the best experience I'd ever had in the Department of Motor Vehicles!  Many thanks to the staff at the Oneonta DMV for making my visit painless!