This just slays me. Please, God, before I die, give me the opportunity to use this.
And you’re smart enough to tell all this without having seen any pictures whatsoever. Okay.
It’s a Massachusetts thing (at least in Dudley’s case that you are responding to). According to the law here, the only universally acceptable forms of ID are a MA driver’s license, a MA liquor ID, a US Military ID, or a passport. Many places will take other state licenses (although some require backup), or a MA (non-liquor) ID, or what have you, but some simply won’t. At least the state isn’t so dumb as to not recognize a passport. Especially as that’s all I carry for ID (I don’t drive, so I haven’t really bothered to pay the $40 to renew my license, being lazy and all).
I am slowly working on being recognized by every liquor purveyor that I might need to visit, so I won’t have any need to carry ID with me of any sort.
Worked for me. 
To all of you bartenders: Doesn’t your state have any kind of affirmative defense law if someone produces a fake ID? I use to bartend in WV, and it is an absolute defense if someone presented a picture ID that a “reasonable” person would believe to be accurate.
Let’s say that some 19 year old kid has rich parents and he spends 5 grand on absolutely bullet proof fake DL’s, passports, etc. So you sell him booze because his license checks out. That is YOUR fault??? I would love to see a court case on this…
I carry my passport wherever I go. There’s been more than one occasion when I’ve had to leave the country on business without the opportunity of returning home.
And in all fairness to the person who denied service to the OP, US passports are good for 10 years, although I had to replace my last one early because I’d run out of pages. In the nine years I had it, I lost 100 pounds, a large bushy beard, and most of my hair. The second phrase I would learn in any foreign language was usually a variant of “not a good photo”. I had to use a driver’s license as a backup ID more than once.
I would guess that Ohio doesn’t accept passports as sufficient ID for purchasing liquor. I had to get a new license this year, and when I handed them the old one, they said they also needed my SS card. I said I wasn’t sure where it was or if I even still had it, but I started digging through my wallet, just in case it was there. I told the clerk I did have my passport in my car and I could go get it.
She told me they would not accept that as proof of identity, I needed to get my SS card, and if I had lost it, I would need to contact the SS admin to get a new one before they could give me a new DL. I found my SS card at that point, so managed to get my license renewed. But they would not take my valid US passport as proof of identity, while they would take a worn, faded piece of paper from 1976 with no photo on it.
Ohio can be strange sometimes.
I found it handy to present to HR at a new job, when they were filling out their I-9 form. Unlike a driver’s license, it proves both identity and eligibility for employment, so no need for a second form of ID like a social security card. Of course, I wasn’t changing jobs that often.
Also, it seems to me that losing either my driver’s license or my social security card would present bigger identity theft worries. Can you apply for a loan using somebody else’s passport number?
Well, you’re not supposed to carry the Social Security card. It should be kept in a safe place at home or in a safe-deposit box. And I also always use my passport for the I-9 as, to be honest, I don’t even know where most of my other documentation is (probably in a file cabinet in my parents’ house.) The way I see it, if they won’t take a passport, then fuck 'em. Especially other governmental agencies, no matter at what level.
I thought SS cards were specifically NOT supposed to be used for ID purposes? I seem to remember the government stating something like this. Where I grew up in Texas, convenience stores would never accept SS cards for this reason.
Go ahead and say it: Texas sucks! (And it does, too.) But still, they don’t need a passport to go down to the ol’ fishin’ crick.
And most Texans I knew back then never ever ventured across the border. That was several hundred miles away; why go all that far? I knew Texans who were darned proud of having never been to another state, let alone another country.
Psssst…see post #31.
Especially since on the other side was Mexico. Not the best area of Mexico to visit, by all accounts.
The only Texans I’ve known to brag about going down across the border were doing so in the context of some, ahem, not quite family-friendly stories. Neither here nor there, though I did learn about some of the incredible services that can still be purchased for a single American dollar.
I’d just like to relate the story of when I first got to college in Middletown, CT, and my friend an I were at a local Dunkin Donuts. Many of the businesses in town were running promotions for the first month or so for incoming frosh, like 10% off or whatever. So we pick out some donuts (mmm… donuts…) and while the cashier is ringing us up, we ask if DD is running any kind of discount for students. The woman tells us no, and then asks, “Oh, you’re new students? Where y’all from?” When we tell her New Hampshire, she says, “Oh, New Hampshire… where’s that?”
Now keep in mind that this was not someone from one of those enormous states in the west who can’t quite keep track of all those funny little New England ones way out there. Nope, if this woman had gotten into a car and driven north for 2 hours, she would have crossed exactly 2 state lines and been sitting in NH.
Oh, but that’s not the worst of it. What really makes the story stick in my memory to this day is that as we were leaving, we noticed that one of the sticky plastic promos on the window was a cartoony map of New England. Above the map was the text “Dunkin Donuts promotes geography!”
Oh, and from my experience, bars in Boston have no problem accepting passports as IDs.
That’s very true. I’ve traveled some through Mexico, including by train between Juarez and Mexico City, and the border areas are seedy indeed. I live in Bangkok and frequent the bars here, so I know seedy.
I think Lok meant that when you renew your DL you need a SS card, and that they don’t accept passports on their own. That’s true everywhere, though, I think*. When I applied for my state ID here in IL I needed to provide a SS card along with my passport, which was a pain in the ass because I couldn’t get a new SS card until I got a new I-94 document, which I had to leave the country in order to replace (my old one was in my passport when it got stolen). Ugh. What a nightmare.
*Actually, never mind. I just checked the website, and in IL when you’re renewing a license all you need is your old one. It’s when you apply for a new one that you need your SS card.
Maybe I’m misreading it, but it still looks to me like it was the liquor-store clerk who asked to see his SS card.
EDIT: No, okay, I WAS misreading it. It was the license people after all. :smack:
Years ago I gave my Utah drivers license to a bartender in Hawaii and he handed it back saying it was obvious fake. When you would renew by mail, Utah sends you a sticker on the back of the license and the stickers would wear off.
I laughed and told the guy that I could make a better fake than that piece of shit. I was 27 or so at the time, and he eventually let me drink there.
For passports, I had to get an emergency one last year. It’s only valid for one year, with no extension, and while it looks just like a regular one, it was considerably thinner. That got me a number of looks as I went through various countries’ borders.
I have moved 10 times in the last 11 years, and I do not remember anything about any of my previous addresses. No numbers, no street names.
Sure addresses are simple to remember. But since once you move you pretty much never have to know your previous address again (except for some very occasional paperwork,) they are also just as easy to forget.
-FrL-
In PA they send you a yellow paper card to use along with your plastic, picture bearing driver’s license if you are pulled over or in an accident and you need to show it to a cop. I’ve had the yellow piece of paper twice, and never thought of showing that to a bartender.
I was once accused of stealing my own driver’s license. I had to tell the kid working at the beer store that I was going to call the cops before he would actually give me my license back, because he had some kind of plans to nail it on the wall. His thought was that I had stolen 3 different photo IDs from someone who looked like me.
‘You look a little bit different than this driver’s license.’
‘I’m wearing a hat today, and not in the picture.’
What a dumbass.