This Looks Convenient...

Many look back on life in South Florida in Grandpa's time with rose-tinted nostalgia. Everything, it seems, was better in "the good old days."
Of course that's not true. Seventy years ago South Florida had major social problems, many of which were barely beginning to be addressed. And many little everyday things were problematic too.
For instance, take driver's license renewals. PLEASE. Back in 1952, when this news story aired on WTVJ-Miami, the main place to renew your license was the lobby of the County Courthouse on Flagler Street in downtown Miami. For everyone in Miami-Dade County. Every year, as licenses had to be renewed annually until 1967. The courthouse lobby was also where everybody in Miami-Dade County registered to vote. Was the courthouse lobby air conditioned in 1952? We doubt it.
It being 1952 and all, there was an alternative to the courthouse lobby. You could renew at twenty-nine authorized agencies located throughout the county. But that convenience cost you twenty-five cents in addition to the fifty cent basic fee. You could also renew by mail, which cost a dollar and a self-addressed stamped envelope.
"The issuance of the licenses has brought complaints from drivers -- too many errors in the typing of the new licenses, some say," noted the news script for this story. "Ohters point out the traffic jam that's beginning to shape up in the courthouse lobby as hundreds of voters flock in to register for the November election and mix with those waiting for licenses.*"
Oh the good old days!
*WTVJ-4 News script, September 9, 1952.
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This clip is derived from news film in the WTVJ Collection. Accession number TVN0060-306-01; airdate September 9, 1952.