Sunday, November 18, 2012

Finding a kind soul at . . . the Bureau of Motor Vehicles?


When I got my driver’s license renewed back in 2006, it was a bit of a stretch to claim that my rapidly graying hair was still brown. But vanity or indifference - I don’t remember which - prompted me to stick with the old description.

That license expires this month, so I headed back to the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles a few days ago to renew it. This time around, when the clerk asked me if I needed to change my height, weight or hair color, I fessed up, volunteering that “brown” had lost whatever accuracy it may have had six years ago.

The clerk looked me in the eye, and I quickly realized he was weighing our options in search of a diplomatic alternative. Although my wife Liz insists on claiming that my hair has turned white, the guy behind the counter was more charitable.

"Should we change it to . . . gray?" he asked tentatively.


"Sounds good to me," I replied.

Maybe the fact that the clerk was bald made him more willing to cut a guy a little slack on the follicle front.

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