{"id":73209,"date":"2020-05-25T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=73209"},"modified":"2020-07-31T19:25:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T19:25:16","slug":"jack-blanchards-column-changing-my-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/25\/jack-blanchards-column-changing-my-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Blanchard’s Column: Changing My Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong>Jack Blanchard’s Column<\/strong>: Changing My Name<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

CHANGING MY NAME. (This happened in 2010.)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Life is getting weirder.
\nLast week I went to renew my driver’s license.
\nFor some reason they now require the following:
\nYour birth certificate;
\nYour old driver’s license;
\nTwo proofs of residence;
\nYour Social Security card;
\nA marriage license, whether or not you’ve ever been married;
\nMedical records with your name and birth date;
\nA pint of blood;
\nAnd other proofs that you exist.<\/p>\n

Misty went with me to renew hers. Our birthdays are close together.
\nShe had to prove that her last name was now Blanchard.<\/p>\n

This is true:
\nAn 84-year-old friend of mine was recently required to provide an affidavit
\nswearing that he and his elderly wife were actually married, and not living in sin.
\nIt was to prove that her last name was legally the same as his.
\nWe’re all under suspicion.<\/p>\n

Anyway…
\nThey noticed that my driver’s license and Social Security card said “Jack Blanchard”,
\nbut my birth certificate said “John Blanchard”.
\nThis made me a suspect and they wouldn’t renew my license.
\nThey told me to go to the Social Security office 25 miles across the city,
\nand get them to change my S.S. card to “John”.
\nMisty was sent on a similar mission.<\/p>\n

The next day was 85 degrees in the shade here in Florida,
\nand about double that in our car because the A\/C Freon was low.
\nWe drove an hour and waited on a steel bench for two hours.
\nWe couldn’t share our anger with any of the crowd,
\nbecause they were as mad as we were..<\/p>\n

Misty got a friendly clerk and zipped right through.
\nThe woman asked her “Are you really Misty Morgan?”.
\nShe was a fan.<\/p>\n

I got a sleepy-eyed clerk who had her young son with her,
\nand they were ready to go home.
\nWe were not happy to see each other.
\nShe looked at her computer, which was out of my line of sight,
\nand said this: “We have you as ‘Jack’ for your whole life.”
\nI said, \u201cMe too.\u201d<\/p>\n

She asked if I could name any companies I’d worked for.
\nI named about six Buffalo factories where I’d labored away my youth.
\nShe studied the computer screen and said nothing.
\nBy now she knew who I was, but wouldn’t admit it.<\/p>\n

I had two large manila envelopes packed with what I thought were important papers.
\nShe shoved them back at me and said, “You need two pieces of ID that say “John”.
\nI said “I know. That’s why they sent me here…
\nto have you change my S.S. card to “John”,
\nand then I’ll have to live as John for life.”
\nShe said “You will have to change all your legal things to John…
\ntitles to your home and vehicles, your credit, your will, your bills,
\nand your underwear.”<\/p>\n

She was getting tired of me.
\nShe told me it would be easier to legally change my first name to “Jack”.
\nI’ve been Jack all my life and didn’t know it was a crime.
\nI stomped out the door as everybody else was doing.<\/p>\n

So I called our lawyer and said this:
\n“Hi. This is Jack. I need to change my name to Jack.”<\/p>\n

We went to court a couple of weeks later.
\nAfter being strip searched on the way in, the case went well.
\nEven the judge laughed.
\nI said \u201cHaha.\u201d<\/p>\n

After endless driving in traffic and arguing with morons,
\nit cost us over $1,100.<\/p>\n

But, now I\u2019m\u00a0 legally \u201cJack\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jack Blanchard<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n
\n

\u00a0\u00a0\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan..
\nVideos:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/jackandmisty<\/a>.
\nFacebook:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jackandmisty<\/a><\/span>
\nBillboard Duet of the Year, Grammy and CMA Finalists.
\n<\/span>Home Page:\u00a0http:\/\/www.jackandmisty.net<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a9 Jack Blanchard, 2020.<\/span><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jack Blanchard’s Column: Changing My Name CHANGING MY NAME. (This happened in 2010.) Life is getting weirder. Last week I went to renew my driver’s license. For some reason they now require the following: Your birth certificate; Your old driver’s license; Two proofs of residence; Your Social Security card; A marriage license, whether or not you’ve ever been married; Medical records with your name and birth date; A pint of blood; And other proofs that you exist. Misty went with me to renew hers. Our birthdays are close together. She<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73209"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73717,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73209\/revisions\/73717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}