You should have thought of that before you took your driving test there. 
Onceuponatime, longlongago, I presented a genuine, state-created picture ID card, one that was designed and issued by the state beverage board to be unalterable. But it was in another state, and the bartender rejected it, saying, “It’s too easy to fake those.”
But he accepted my driver’s license, which was a computer printout card with no picture, and one which I had once altered myself (the statute of limitations has passed, right?) to add 2 years. Because it said “driver’s license”, he was happy with the fake, but rejected the genuine.
Go figure.
Soon, you will indeed need a passport to go do whatever you want to down that ol’ fishin’ crick. Not all of Texas is that bad- my brother now lives in Austin, so that’s exempt. 
Sadly, I know this is the case-- We were pulled over by a Utah state patrolman 8 years ago–not because we were speeding, but because he didn’t recognize our plate (IL environmental). He ran a check on my husband’s license while we sat there, somewhat dumbfounded. He came back and said to us that our plate checked out. Well, no kidding. :rolleyes:
I know I’m late, but can I get a hearty Fucko Off to anyone who asks for a patron’s sign? someone no doubt reminds me what my sign is every so often, and I do my best to forget such ridiculous bullshit.
Yeah, I don’t get carded much anymore. OTOH, I never did get carded except for places that checked everyone’s IDs just to enter. I just looked at the accepted documents at the BMV website and they do accept US passports as primary ID. But you need to have something from the secondary list also. The sad part is, my old license had my SS on it (new ones don’t) so all I really needed to show her from the second list was a credit card. But she didn’t say anything about that. 
I used my military ID to drink for a couple of years before I turned 21. Bouncer would take the card, not find the birthdate, and just let me in.
If they found the birthdate, they would just tell me no.
to the OP:
Another round of, Your Need to Drink is Not Worth My Job.
A group of friends and I were going to a club. The only problem was that one friend was not yet of age. Said friend was from Russia.
She met the bouncer at the door after the rest of us had passed the id check.
Bouncer: Can I see your id?
Friend: I don’t have a driver’s licence.
Bouncer: You don’t?
Friend: No, I don’t drive here. I’m from Russia.
Bouncer: Do you have any other id?
Friend: All I have is this student id.
Bouncer: But this doesn’ t have a birthdate on it.
Friend: Well, it lists me as a college senior. Do you honestly think I’d be a senior in college if I was under 21?
Bouncer: Good point. Go ahead in.
What the bouncer didn’t count on was that our friend had graduated “high school” in Russia at the tender (but standard) age of 16 and was two years younger than the rest of us.
The idea that a passport is easy to fake but a credit card is reputable made me laugh. Are you not aware that anyone with a credit card, a telephone, and 15 minutes to spare can get a card with any name they want printed on it?
Sure, but notice in the list of secondary IDs the Ohio BMV accepts, credit cards is on there. They can only take it if the SS number is on the Primary ID offered, but they can take it. :dubious:
I’ll grant that if you MUST be in Texas, Austin is the place to be. But you’re still surrounded by Texas. Best to get the heck out of there.
I live in Arizona. In AZ, under-21s who don’t have a driver’s license get a state ID that says in big red letters UNDER 21 UNTIL and then the date of their 21st birthday, which in my case was 9/9/2002. This state ID, like all other non-license IDs does not expire, and they cost money to replace with the new over-21 IDs, so I never bothered.
I’ve had to remind supermarket cashiers that it is, in fact, 2007, and that they can sell me my vodka please.
I was in Vegas a few months ago and got stopped at the threshold of a house of drinking, gambling, and other assorted sins. The bouncer asks me for ID, twists it around underneath his UV flashlight, and then says “How old are you?” So, not really thinking about what I was saying, I respond with “Oh, I’m 21,” because that is obviously the important thing and I am 21 in the sense that I have been on this green Earth for greater than or equal to twenty one years. I quickly realize my mistake and follow up with “Oh. I mean, I’m… 27? I thought you meant” and at that point he looks me up and down, hands me back my license and tells me to come on in, having deduced, presumably, that I am in fact an academic and so therefore also a hopeless case in this type of situation.
Yeah, but you know what it is, don’t you. (No question mark as this is a rhetorical question.)
This would be sublime if it were— as I hear it in my head— narrated by Ricardo Montalbán.
Ah, Ricardo. I still can’t believe he choked to death on Hervé Villechaize’s vomit.
:rolleyes: Seriously?
Re: the OP, as a bartender, once I’ve questioned the validity of an ID, even for a second, it’s very rare that I accept it. The risk just isn’t worth it.
And the cruel reality is that I don’t have to serve anybody, for any reason I see fit–however rational or irrational–because of all the liability I have.
I have, however, accepted passports. I used to work downtown here, which is the top tourist destination in the state; after awhile I became familiar with all different kinds of ID’s.
But according to TABC, the only “real” ID is a Texas-issued ID card or DL. If I accept anything else, I’m rolling the dice.
Seriously. (Not a fan of San Antonio, even if IS better than West Texas.)
Well hell with that. I dismiss all general badmouthing of Texas simply as envy, but if you’re dissin’ SA specifically you got somethin’ wrong with yo’ head, boi-ah.
(Even if SA does seem to be gradually drifting southward.)
Envy?? I was stuck in Texas for about 25 years. I can’t say I’m exactly knockin’ at the door tryin’ to get back in.
Are you a native Texan?
Born elsewhere, but my father unwisely moved us there just before I turned 6.