Waiting At The DMV

Anyone who still believes California is the land of “swimming pools and movie stars,” needs to spend a couple of hours at a DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) office pretty much anywhere in the state.

Whether you make an appointment (and none is generally available before the date when a party gets mandated to show up) or not, there are lots of activities available while you sit in those “contour chairs.”

I remember contour chairs, also known then as plastic “bucket” chairs, have shown up as early as the sixties and remained a staple of interior decorating wherever the cheapest was sought.

In the Womack Army Hospital at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, all of the bucket chairs were orange. I decided there if my uniform, “fatigues,” was supposed to be “camouflage” so I would be hard to see, then my uniform should be orange to match the chairs.

Of course, nobody either got the joke or thought it funny.

But the real joy of spending the day at the California Department of Motor Vehicles is the Human Zoo of the waiting room. The thrill of victory, the smug but joyous excitement of rising hope to have your number called.

The poor organization represents the worst organizational abilities of the government of the Golden State.

The touching attempts of people to help each other may represent the best of humanity.