Let Them Sell Lemonade!
No Permits Needed
I thought we would begin today’s musing by mentioning that in September of 2021, 163 New Hampshire house representatives voted that what my daughter was doing in her driveway at the moment, was illegal.
Fortunately, 211 of them voted that not only was it legal, but that she was exempt from the long-standing law making it illegal for kids to sell lemonade without a license in her state.
You read that right. Only three year ago did NH say it was ok for kids to sell lemonade without a permit.
Little Bean and a couple of her friends are gearing up for a big lemonade sale this weekend and they were getting signs ready as I came home from work.
These days, most states allow kids to sell lemonade, but back then, in the dark days of the late twenty-teens, the long hand of the law was coming down hard on tiny lemonade stand owners. So hard in fact, that Country Time Lemonade created a bail-out fund to help pay kids’ legal fees when their local permit officer came to shut them down.
To be fair, much of the hullabaloo regarding lemonade stand permits comes from a famous case just outside of Chicago in 1941. Due to poor sanitation at a child’s lemonade stand, twelve people were infected with, of all things, the poliovirus. The famous case made headlines around the world and before long, small town governments were scrambling to make sure their smallest entrepreneurs weren’t giving tourists polio.
Anyway, none of that matters to the gaggle of girls in my driveway painting signs and arguing about how much they will charge for a cup. My suggestion is 75 cents, but my wife insisted a buck was more appropriate.
Little Bean also suggests that they sell rocks. After all, if you know Little Bean, you know she has lots of rocks.
And I think to myself, are there any laws in my town about selling rocks? Guess we’ll find out!
After notes: Speaking of rocks, if you like to learn more about our Rocks Field Guide or any of Dan’s books, feel free to click below!
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