I wish sometimes the old timer's story would be "We were wrong all the time and had to make uncomfortable conversations with people we had nothing in common with. If you were at all unusual or nerdy you'd be shunned and very lonely because your only choices for human interaction shunned you."
Unfortunately, at least one state mistakenly started issuing licenses with the real ID star before they completely enacted the standard, leading to some people who have pre-real-ID licenses that look like they are compliant, which is sure to cause chaos.