Huckleberries Online

Trish: I Failed My Driver’s Test!

Posted by DFO

May 8, 2009 8:30 a.m. • 39 comments

Molly at Horizon was awesome but the whole terrorism mess means that you have to show proof of ID to open an account. So when I whipped out my driver’s license, Molly looks at me and says, “You know this is expired, right?” WRONG! I did NOT know it was expired and when I looked at her and said something lame like, “are you sure? ‘Cause that would have been back in October,” she looked right back and said, “Yes, October. Of 2007.” Boy, feeling stupid is never fun but it’s even worse when you feel that way in public. By the time I was done at Horizon it was too late to get my driver’s license renewed so I did it on my next trip into Sandpoint, which was to be a pit stop on the way to Spokane to pick up the new issue of the River Journal. That’s when I discovered that, when you’re over a year expired, it’s just like you have no license at all and you must re-do everything - eye test, written test and skills exam/Trish Gannon, River Journal. More here.

Question: Without looking, do you know when your driver’s license expires? And/or: Do you think you could pass a driver’s written test without reading the manual before hand?

39 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

KeithErickson on May 08 at 9:07 a.m.
Just renewed mine last October. Two days after it expired. Opted for the eight year license so it won’t expire again until Oct. 18, 2016. My God, I’ll be 53 years old!
jazzyvandal on May 08 at 9:13 a.m.
I had to redo everything last year, because I let my license expire for so long! I passed everything just fine…

When I was in high school, I failed the written test twice. Ugh.
Cabbage Boy on May 08 at 9:14 a.m.
Seems like it expires about every year.

Actually I just renewed mine and went with the 8 year option.
jazzyvandal on May 08 at 9:17 a.m.
I did go for the eight year option this time too…
Joker on May 08 at 9:21 a.m.
I had to check the wallet… 2011. Trish you should have broken out the condom dress for the test. I bet you would have passed then!
marmitetoasty on May 08 at 9:21 a.m.
Over here they dont expire :)…… but when ya old, and decrepid ya sometimes have to resit if ya figured to be to dodgy to be driving……….

So my license is good til Im about 89……. oh shut it, I aint old or decrepid yet…

x
Sisyphus on May 08 at 9:22 a.m.
I also just renewed after my insurance agent noticed my lapse, which was also October, but of ‘08. I knew there was a lapse period where you had to redo everything and I was sweating it out while waiting in the DMV. The 8 year time span allows you to easily forget the expiration date.

And what an interesting cross section of Americana in the DMV.
JeanieSpokane on May 08 at 9:35 a.m.
There’s an eight-year option??? I recently renewed mine and it’s for five years. Remember my story about my picture? You know - the driver’s license picture from hell, the one where I look like my grandmother, the one where I look like a criminal, a convict, a bag lady, the one where I look really really old and decrepid and couldn’t pass a written test even if it had only one question on it, the ugly, crappy, disgusting, wrinkly, no-neck hag picture! Eight years????? I’d kill myself.
JeanieSpokane on May 08 at 9:40 a.m.
Oh, and Trish - I’m sorry you failed your test. Oh, that would have just salted my wounds if it was me - but I’d get a new picture!!
Dennis on May 08 at 9:57 a.m.
Mine expires in 2011. I have the license number & expiration date memorized. Wierd quirk I guess.

;-0
Arpie on May 08 at 10:13 a.m.
Oh Crap! As soon as I saw this post, I knew when mine expired. April 8th, a month ago today. My favorite drivers’ test story is when I first moved to Idaho. I took the multiple choice test in Pocatello. When I handed in the test the lady giving it said, “I can’t find the key, but it looks like you did pretty good,” and proceeded to issue the license.
JeanieSpokane on May 08 at 10:22 a.m.
Dennis, I have always known my license number. I too think it’s a little quirky. I know it so well that even under the terrorizing pressure of an officer giving me a ticket for speeding when I know damn well I wasn’t, I can rattle that license number off without a hitch. Doesn’t stop the ticket.
Dennis on May 08 at 10:29 a.m.
JeanieS, I’ll take it one step further, I still remember my original license obtained at 16 in another and WAY to many years to mention here.

:-P
Charlie on May 08 at 10:31 a.m.
I had to look, 2012. We do ours together lest we forget. Funny thing about plate numbers, I remember my first license plate and sometimes use it for a password. Twas a long time ago
tarynahecker on May 08 at 12:16 p.m.
I think I passed the written and it took me three times to pass the driving test. I failed once because I couldn’t paralell park and failed another time for blowing a four-way stop. I have no idea when mine expires …
joebu on May 08 at 12:38 p.m.
I’d like to think my driving has improved — if I recall correctly, I failed the written test once and the driving test 3 times as a teen — 2 times for a low score, once for a ‘dangerous action’ (going too far in the reverse part and putting both back wheels on the curb.) I thankfully just barely passed the Idaho written test when I moved here — I remember being surprised how hard the test was compared to WA — it tests more specific details rather than general driving concepts. In WA the question might be ‘what are the circumstances you should turn on your brights’ and in ID the similar question is ‘what is the distance from another car you should turn down your brights? 300 feet, 325 feet, 350 feet, 375 feet.”

A few years ago I realized my license had been expired for 4 months and was surprised, since K-County is so good about notifying you when it’s time to renew your vehicle registration.
Lynne on May 08 at 12:49 p.m.
I renewed in 2007. 8 year here too.
Don’t they send out a notice before your expiration date? Seems like I remember paying by mail and they sent me a sticker to put on the back. Maybe I’m wrong.
florined on May 08 at 12:58 p.m.
Sigh. Be advised that there comes a time when Idaho doesn’t give you the 8-year option.
shellzbellz on May 08 at 5:25 p.m.
Hey I know what your going through! I moved to Georgia in 2001 and when I changed everything over it was easy! Just a bill in my name, my birth certificate, and an old Idaho ID. When I moved back to Idaho in 2007 it was a whole nother story!
They told me I had to take the test and I freaked!! I said what? I haven’t had to do that since I was 16! that was like in 82!
So luckily the DMV was very busy and I had lots of time to study, like 2 hrs. She handed me a book and thats what I did while I waited thank god I passed and I opted for the 8 year thing also. Only to not have to go thru the long wait again for along time!
MarkU on May 08 at 6:56 p.m.
Marmit-I’ve driven in your country. Up around Darwin and Melville Island, and on the Northeast cape. Forcing the issue at 140 klik’s at night, road train using ALL the road, sweet mother of jesus, am I in Oz, US, or DAMM was that close!!!

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.