Letters to the Editor
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More Stories from the Dept. of Motor Vehicles
Dear Bay Weekly:
I read with sympathy and hindsight amusement the July 10 editorial [Vol. xvi, No. 28] regarding the process of renewing a driving license. I moved to Maryland from the U.K. with my husband and baby son last September due to my husband’s job. I knew that I would have to get my driving license and naively imagined this would be easy, as I’d held a clean U.K. license for nearly 17 years. Imagine my shock and horror when I realized I’d have to take a driving test and that this included the dreaded parallel parking. Little did I know that this part would be a piece of cake compared to what would happen next.
On the first visit I was told I would have to have correspondence with my name on it to verify my address. We had nothing, as we had just arrived and only my husband’s name was on the lease. We were told my husband could vouch for me but we would have to prove he was my husband. It hadn’t occurred to us to bring our marriage certificate to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
We returned another day with the marriage certificate — only to learn I would need a certificate to say that I had completed a three-hour drug and alcohol class. A sensible thing, but it would have been great if we’d known this before we visited this second time. We asked if there was anything else we would need and were told that was all.
We returned a third time (after having completed the class and receiving the certificate) and were told that a certain number hadn’t been written on my visa upon arrival at the airport, and this number was integral to the whole process. My legal visa was sufficient to enter the country — but not for DMV.
This time I was frustrated and cross. I was directed to an official who put in front of me a complaint form, one of the questions asking have we dealt efficiently with you and your complaint? I explained this question was irrelevant because no one had listened to what I needed to say. I was told to just fill in the form. Once again we left, frustrated, with more miles on the car and less money in our pockets, having spent it on gas getting to DMV.
The fourth time, I passed with a 100 percent score on the written test, but I failed at the parallel parking, as I didn’t park close enough to the curb. Afterward I was told I could have bumped the curb to use it as a guide — an automatic fail in the U.K.
Finally I took my driving test again at a different DMV. At last I passed my test and have been mightily relieved ever since. But what a process!
–Georgina Berberich, North Beach
Boating with Bunnies
Dear Bay Weekly:
We have a boat in the Chesapeake, although I am new to boating. I have two bunnies. Alice Snively wrote an article for Bay Weekly that mentioned that she lives on board with her rabbit. I have been looking for over a year for someone, anyone, with experience with bunnies on a boat, to determine if it is feasible to bring my bunns on board.
Please help me contact her.
–Lois M. Veeder, Malvern, PA
Editor’s note: Alice Snively wrote the book on living aboard with a rabbit. In our March 20 issue [Vol. xvi, No. 12], she excerpted The Book of Ferd. Reach her at [email protected].
Department of Corrections
Vicki Callahan’s name was misspelled in The Greening of Good Works [Vol. Xvi, No. 28: July 10], a story describing how Opportunity Builders, Callahan’s organization, is greening its new home in Millersville.
