The Audacity to Say It

The church secretary Myra MacDonald lost her driver's license recently. She was in the Department of Motor Vehicles yesterday to get it replaced. She had to bring her birth certificate to prove her identity. While standing in a long line typical of the DMV, she chatted with a woman born in 1962. Myra later told the group of us United Church Women at Cranky's Catfish at our luncheon today that one of her children was born in 1962. Anyway, this lady--aged 46 or 47 depending on her birthday--asked if she might see Myra's birth certificate. Myra did not mind showing it to her. "Thank you!" beamed the woman. "I wanted to see what a birth certificate for someone your age would look like!"

Well. It was handwritten, not typed, but otherwise did not look greatly different from the 1962-issued birth certificate. I told Myra she should have politely refused to show the document to the woman because it was printed in Egyptian hieroglyphics, on parchment so delicate that it might crumble under the force of sheer antiquity. However, Miss 1962 might have missed the sarcasm.