DMV or DPS? HUH?

I received my driver license in North Carolina even though I am a Texan – or technically a native-Texan, I wasn’t living in Texas at the time.  But it so happened I was in NC at the right time to take the test and get my license.  Since then I have lived in various states before returning to beloved Texas, I thought every DMV was the same, so-to-speak.  You know, ridiculous long lines with never-ending waiting, rude clerks, and every walk of life imaginable convening in a waiting room the size of a shoebox (and smells like a shoe).

And in all these years I thought I was heading to the DMV – Department of Motor Vehicles, to procure anything license related... but I was wrong.  Not about the long lines, etc., all that is still live and well.  But in Texas, the Lone Star State that strives to be everything different than any other state, has divided DMV and what they call DPS – Department of Public Safety.  Never in a million years would I think to go to the DPS instead of the DMV for license but that is exactly what us Texans have to do!  Their DMV is designated only for tags, taxes, and vehicle related.  Department of Public Safety is everything people license related.  Now I have NO clue if any other state operates the same way, but in my experience, I don’t think so.

So you would think this division would mean smaller lines and quicker waits but it doesn’t.  It also means that their waiting room is smaller and as a bonus they have posted up every cop who has passed away in the line of duty on the walls with descriptions of how they met their demise.  Oddly, it is morbidly fascinating reading that a cop in Dallas was struck by lightening on his motorcycle while stopping someone for a speeding ticket.  Poor unlucky guy – I mean, I think he had a better chance winning the mega-millions lottery than that happening to him.

The saddest part of this whole experience is that I have been in Texas for a decade now and never noticed it until today, while I waited in a never ending line, I read the form I was holding purely because of boredom, that indeed it was DPS not DMV.  Then I got on my iphone and googled it.  I’ll be… who knew?

DMV (because that is what most the world knows it by)

Triple layered line

Guy in front

Hair with one year of grime

Girl outside yelling

People smelling

Garbage left

Children crying

Fresh air bereft

Clerk not trying

All for a license renew

Next time I'll do online

Rather than wait with this crew

And save this nose of mine