Have you ever walked around in Alabama with an ice cream cone in your back pocket? I hope you’ve not put salt on a railroad track while there either. When you were flying over Alaska, were you caught staring at a moose out of your plane window? Would you be brave enough—or stupid enough—to wake a sleeping bear just to take its picture? If you did any of these things, did you realize that you were breaking the law?
Alabama
You may not have an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time. To me, it is common sense to not carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket; that would be rather messy. I’m curious though. Did this use to be a problem? It would create a mess on the person doing this, but did it also create puddles of ice cream on sidewalks or inside stores? Did people go inside clothing stores with ice cream cones in their back pockets and get ice cream stains on the clothing for sale?
San Diego Bay salt pile, wikimedia commons
Putting salt on a railroad track may be punishable by death. This one is puzzling. Does salt damage the tracks or the trains that run on them?
Many cultures use salt as a talisman to ward off evil. Maybe a lot of people who believed this lived in Alabama at one time. They were convinced evil spirits lived on a certain set of railroad tracks and they put so much salt on the tracks that it was impossible for the train to run.
moose and calf, pixabay
Alaska
I’m going to share four dumb laws from Alaska, and they all have to do with animals. Alaskans do love their animals.
Moose may not be viewed from an airplane.
It is considered an offense to push a live moose out of a moving airplane.
Both of the above laws concern moose. Concerning the first moose law, how would anyone know if you viewed a moose from an airplane? Is the moose going to turn you in?
Pushing a live moose out of a moving airplane would be a cruel and horrible thing to do, but that is common sense. Pushing any live animal or human out of a moving airplane would not be good.
sleeping bear, public domain
While it is legal to shoot bears, waking a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited. Was there someone stupid enough to wake a sleeping bear? Bears are huge, they have claws and teeth, and they are best left alone. If someone was stupid enough to wake one, did this person survive? Is he maybe the one who suggested this law?
This law comes to us from Anchorage, Alaska: No one may tie their pet dog to the roof of a car. This law specifies that you cannot tie your own pet dog to the roof of a car. Does this mean that you can tie someone else’s dog up there? And why would you want to tie a dog to the roof of your car?
camel, wikimedia commons
Arizona
Hunting camels is prohibited. Did you know there were camels in Arizona? I didn’t either. But you’re not allowed to hunt them.
How did these camels get there? I don’t think they lost their way.
Donkeys cannot sleep in bathtubs. If donkeys were legally allowed to sleep in bathtubs, would they want to? I don’t think that the hard, cold surface of a bathtub would make a comfortable bed.
donkey colt, pixabay
Did some farmer have the brilliant idea to install bathtubs in his donkey stall for his animals to sleep in? Did a neighbor hear the unsatisfied brays from said donkeys? Why was this made into a law?
Choose one or more of the abovementioned dumb laws. Write a story about why this particular law was made and whether or not it has even been enforced.
You can find the abovementioned laws and more on this site: http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/united-states. There are one of two links beneath some of the dumb laws. One says “About this law.” The other says “Full text of the law.” When using these dumb laws for writing prompts though, I think that the reasoning behind each law is best left up to the imagination of the writer.
