Happy Flashback Friday! Today we take a look back at a few out-of-date, no-longer-enforced local and state laws concerning dating, marriage, and divorce from The Best Of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. There are some that we would not consider to be totally without merit.
Flashback Friday: Do You Obey These Laws?
• An old Riverside, California, health ordinance prohibits two people from kissing each other on the lips until they first clean their lips with carbolated rose water.
• An Indiana law does not allow a man to wear a mustache if he “habitually kisses human beings.”
• An all-but-forgotten law in Owensboro, Kentucky, states that if a woman wants to buy a new hat, her husband must try it on first.
• A section of the municipal code in Ottumwa, Iowa, states, “It is unlawful for any male person, within the corporate limits of the city, to wink at any female with whom he is unacquainted.”
• Orange County, New York, has a law that forbids a man to look at a girl “that way.”
• It’s against the law to whistle at a girl in Abilene, Texas, and tickling a girl with a feather duster is illegal in Portland, Maine.
• No liquor may be sold to a married man in Cold Springs, Pennsylvania, unless he first obtains the written consent of his wife.
• Macon, Georgia, doesn’t allow a man to put his arms around a woman without a legal reason to do so.
• In Lebanon, Tennessee, a husband may not shove his wife out of bed, even if her feet are cold. The same law allows a wife to shove her husband out of bed at any time without a reason.
• In Minnesota, it is considered a legal proposal of marriage to do any of the following in the presence of a girl’s mother and father: hug the girl, kiss the girl, or present her with a box of candy.
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