Silliness in Lawmaking: Pantaloon Prohibitions and an Abundance of Anthems

"Insufficiently anthemed!" Possibly my new favorite phrase

Those “yo-yo’s” you mentioned as I’m sure you know are not the ones used as toys. They are automatic reels that allow you to run multiple lines at the same time. Similar to market fishing or hunting.

I love the Baskin Robins analogy. I worked at one while in high school. And that scenario played out more times than you’d think.

Loved this! It brought back memories of a newspaper article in the Rochester, NY Democrat & Chronicle about silly laws still on the books in Rochester. One that caught the eye of one of my brothers and a friend of ours was that it was legal to drive a herd of cows on city streets as long as one also provided a means to clean up after them. Precocious teenage boys that we were, we immediately set out to find a way to test that law and maybe see if we could get it repealed by actually following it. We gave up after finding no expedient, inexpensive way to get even a handful of cows to the city limits. We weren't spoiled rich kids (or even unspoiled ones), and we couldn't afford to rent trucks to transport a borrowed bunch of cows to the city; walking them 10+ miles from the nearest dairy farm would take too long. Even if we'd managed to figure that one out, none of us had ever been within 10 feet of even one cow, much less tried to get her to go anywhere, so it was unlikely that we'd have been able to convince any farmer to let us borrow his cows. And, finally, the whole point of the adventure was to see if we would, in fact, be allowed to drive cows on city streets as long as we followed the law about cleaning up after them, and it occurred to us that the three of us wielding shovels would leave no one to drive the cows. So, in the end, it came down to a lot of laughing and not much action. But hey, a boy can dream, right?

IIRC there was an incident in 1991 with Esther Williams when she was turned away from a country club to which she belonged for wearing pants. She was supposed to be the guest of honor for a charity fund-raising event. It got a lot of publicity at the time, but has since been forgotten.

In Hartford, the capitol of my home state Connecticut, it is illegal to cross the street while walking on your hands. I would LOVE to hear the back-story behind this law!!

The yo-yo fishing law refers to a spring loaded automatic reel usually hung from a tree when a fish tugs at the baited hook it releases a pawl and sets the hook

It is still illegal to leave your horse without tying it to a hitching post in Steubenville, Ohio. And there isn't any hitching post left.

My grandmother used to run my home town's annual parade. She banned the throwing of candy from floats after she saw a child nearly run over by the very same float's wheels.

Ultimately all laws must be enforced at the point of a sword, make sure you make them wisely and sparingly.

Thank you. My little town's first ordnance was "You can't walk down the streets and have an ice cream cone in your back pocket." Evidently, there was a guy luring horses down the street and then taking off with them. God Bless and stay safe.

When we moved to Texas in 1971, I remember my older sister being sent home from high school for the heinous offense of... wait for it... wearing JEANS and not a dress or skirt! The next year, that ban went into the bin, and many girls started wearing jeans by the 1972 Fall semester. So, my sister was a latter-day Suffragette of sorts!

The New Hampshire part reminded me of Lake Wobegon - "the little town where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average”.

As a NH resident, our elementary school music teacher tried to teach us at least three of the songs, but it was a losing battle with sixth graders who were far more interested in Bon Jovi.

I was born and lived in NH. I never knew a state song for NH. Again it is history that needs to be remembered.

At the end of 1970, during a rather brutal (for Austin, Texas) winter, girls were being sent home because by the time school started, it was above 32º. The rule was that girls couldn't wear pants in school if it were above freezing. But when these girls left home to go to school it was below, sometimes even still in the 20s. Now, remember, we are talking about Central Texas and, more than a few times, even just a few days before, it had been in the 60s during the day. The rule was finally changed to allow girls to wear 'pant suits' in school. I'm happy to say that I got to wear pants, and be more covered than in a dress, the last semester of high school. My sister, on the other hand, 5 grades behind me, wore shorts and jeans all through high school.

I noticed the Penguin in a few episodes. I always look for the US Merchant Marine cover badge, since I am a retired officer. Now I am a proud Clark College Penguin attending here in Vancouver, Washington (State), the older of the two Vancouver's on the west coast. If your penguin has no name, may I suggest Oswald. The name of our school mascot.

It was not the yo-yo you pictured but rather a winding device that you hung on a limb. When the fish bit the line was pulled out but the device pulled back and the line yo-yo 'ed in and out keeping the line to the fish tight.

The yo-yo for fishing is actually a device used for fishing. Not the toy. It resembles a yo-yo. You hang it in a tree and set the line. When a fish is hooked and pulls on it. It automatically retracts and pulls the fish in.

In Brewton, Alabama there is a law making it illegal to operate a motor boat on main street. While this seems a silly law, when one understands the frequency of flooding in that south Alabama town, the law makes perfect sense.