August 2008

I just heard of this little “food fight” going on in Clayton, CA (Near Oakland). Apparently, two little girls decided to make a little extra money on Saturday mornings. Instead of a lemonade stand, they set up a produce stand and sold extra zucchini, tomatoes, melons, cut flowers, etc. from their backyard garden.

Great idea, right?

Well, in the time it takes to say “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious“,  the poor kids were raided by police and shut down.

The ages of the two little girls in question…Eleven and three. Keep that in mind when you hear the next part.

The mayor of Clayton, Greg Manning, is the real scrooge in all of this. He is the one shutting down the girls and he was interviewed by the local news. When I watched the news video (seen here), I actually laughed out loud at his reasoning.

He says, “You know, they may start out with a little card table, selling a few things. But then, whose to say what else they have? Is all the produce theirs? Did they grow it themselves? Are we gonna have eggs and chickens for sale next?”

Oh my gosh — The horror!!!! Why of course. These kids could get out of control at any minute!! What could be worse than children selling eggs?!  It is enough to make someone quiver in their boots! Gosh, why don’t these young kids just sell marijuana like all the other respectable kids trying to make a little money. That would be SO much better!

Unbelievable.

Here are two little kids, growing up in a gardening household who decided to sell veggies instead of lemonade. They are not setting up a “commercial enterprise.” They just want to buy some candy and perhaps a new toy at ToysRUs.

The mayor goes on to say that technically a lemonade stand is also illegal in their town, but they don’t enforce the law on them because they don’t stay up long enough to do anything. I suspect it is that and the fact that the police are busy rounding up all those little hooligans that dare to sell tomatoes on their street corner.

Those little “enterprising kids” better watch out, because this major obviously has too much time on his hands.

{ 3 comments }