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Small Girls Become Zucchini-Selling Outlaws (with Bonus Lemonade Stand Download)
A burgeoning fruit and veggie empire threatens law and order in Clayton, California:
Eleven-year-old Katie and three-year-old Sabrina Lewis have been selling spare melons, radishes, and of course, zucchini from their family garden at a roadside stand on Saturday mornings. Recently, the cops showed up to bust them.
"They said traffic was being stopped and then they came up with we can't have a roadside stand and then they said it was a commercial enterprise," said Katie Lewis.
Hilariously, the mayor defends the decision to shut down this tiny lesson in capitalism, preferring to make it a tiny lesson in bureaucracy instead. His defense:
"They may start out with a little card-table and selling a couple of things, but then who is to say what else they have. Is all the produce made there, do they grow it themselves? Are they going to have eggs and chickens for sale next," said Clayton Mayor Gregg Manning.
The mayor later called the girls and their father "self-centered."
For those who were in elementary school in the 1980s, you can now relive the pixelated glory that was the Lemonade Stand computer game, which encouraged this kind of abominable, self-centered capitalist behavior in school kids. And in the name of learning math, no less. Go ahead, download Lemonade Stand and play a round as a gesture of solidarity with the Lewis girls. You know you want to.
Thanks John Schwenkler!
|8.21.08 @ 2:28PM|#
I don't know, there is something creepy about little girls selling phallic vegetables.
Elemenope|8.21.08 @ 2:30PM|#
It sounds like some mayor's house needs to be "zucchinied". Or, failed that, a dozen eggs should suffice.
Dagny T.|8.21.08 @ 2:31PM|#
"They said traffic was being stopped and then they came up
with we can't have a roadside stand and then they said it was a
commercial enterprise," said Katie Lewis.
Yes, little Katie, always remember that commercial enterprise =
bad.
|8.21.08 @ 2:32PM|#
First lemonade, then zucchini ... and then inevitably, these
little girls will start selling pussy. We can't have tiny little
whores selling pussy on our streets!
Shut it down! Shut it down!
SIV|8.21.08 @ 2:32PM|#
Unlicensed business harmless?
Yeah, they start with a little homegrown produce or lemonade but it
all leads to the same place...
BACON DOGS
|8.21.08 @ 2:33PM|#
Here's the hinted quote from the mayor:
"I wish everyone would follow the rules and not be just
self-centered," said Manning.
I'm sure you and your police officers never speed either.
|8.21.08 @ 2:35PM|#
Jamie Kelly,
They were selling melons, too! I mean, obviously the girls had no
idea what they were doing, but that the parents would let them
juxtapose zucchini and melons? I can't believe it, call DCFS.
Elemenope|8.21.08 @ 2:36PM|#
p.s. for an eleven-year-old, she's got quite the vocabulary, and self-possession to boot.
|8.21.08 @ 2:40PM|#
When they lead a revolution to free the people of California in 2023, he'll be sorry. They succeed and declare a state of libertopian bliss, renaming the state, Pornifornia.
|8.21.08 @ 2:40PM|#
Are they going to have eggs and chickens for sale
next
Dear god, not eggs and chicken! Oh the humanity!
I'm sure you and your police officers never speed
either.
Or beat the shit out of people.
|8.21.08 @ 2:42PM|#
Nice little veggie stand ya got there, little lady; wouldn't
want anything *unfortunate* to happen to it, would we?
You should have some insurance.
Elemenope|8.21.08 @ 2:44PM|#
Dear god, not eggs and chicken! Oh the humanity!
Yeah, that was my reaction. I wonder if when those words were
coming out of the mayor's mouth he realized just how idiotic they
sounded.
Naga Sadow as Officer Naga Sad|8.21.08 @ 2:45PM|#
Well, well, well . . . what do we have here? Little girl you got
a permit for sell these vegetables? What? They're fruit? (Kicks
over stand, smashes produce) Why aren't you in school anyway? Oh?
That's your excuse? It's Saturday? (Proceeds to taser young girl)
That'll teach ya'. (Proceeds to call for back up, plants knife next
to little girls hand)
This one of the reason's I should never be given power.
The Extispicator|8.21.08 @ 2:45PM|#
I'm quite disappointed in the city's handling of this. They should have known to use the SWAT team to taze and cuff these girls before questioning. I mean, if they had the gall to run an unlicensed business, who knows what else they may have had there? Weed? Guns? I'm sure a California judge would have signed a no-knock warrant on these facts.
|8.21.08 @ 2:47PM|#
Go with the eggs. The guy across the street in high school got
his car egged. Didn't notice it for two days. Took to a spray wash
place and the paint peeled right off.
(No. It wasn't me who egged him. But I did throw a stop sign, from
a moving car, like a giant frisbee right through a guy's front
windshield. But he had it coming.)
|8.21.08 @ 2:47PM|#
I'm surprised they didn't just demand 30% of the cut instead of shutting them down. Hell, maybe they did and she blew them off.
|8.21.08 @ 2:49PM|#
I just wrote an e-mail to the mayor:
Congratulations, you disgusting, petty little tyrant.
You've given those little girls a wonderful lesson in bureaucracy
and arbitrary use of power.
Here's hoping your ass is out on the street come November.
Maybe then you'll be reduced to selling dogshit from a dogshit
stand. Or do you need a permit for that?
Jerk.
Naga Sadow|8.21.08 @ 2:51PM|#
Jaime Kelly,
You're my hero. If I'm ever upset and frustrated about something on
a thread you always seem to have the words to cheer me up.
BDB|8.21.08 @ 2:53PM|#
"For those who were in elementary school in the 1980s, you can
now relive the pixelated glory that was the Lemonade Stand computer
game,"
Fuck yes!
Elemenope|8.21.08 @ 2:54PM|#
Go with the eggs. The guy across the street in high school
got his car egged. Didn't notice it for two days. Took to a spray
wash place and the paint peeled right off.
Yeah, but with boiled zucchini made into a paste and spread over
the guy's front steps...hijinks ensue!
|8.21.08 @ 2:56PM|#
"Lemonade Stand" is only for the Mac.
Fuckers! Fuck you, Steve Jobs, you fucking fucker dick fucker!
Lemonade Stand|8.21.08 @ 3:00PM|#
You fool, Jaime Kelly! I control Steve Jobs! The iPod? My idea! Ha!
|8.21.08 @ 3:00PM|#
I continue to be embarassed by my state. I am even further embarassed to learn that Clayton is less than one hundred miles from me.
Mike M.|8.21.08 @ 3:01PM|#
It's a good thing that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs aren't young men growing up today. The cops would probably come busting into their garage and arrest them for computing without a license or something.
|8.21.08 @ 3:02PM|#
Today, we are all little girls selling vegetables on the side of the road in California.
|8.21.08 @ 3:02PM|#
I am even further embarassed to learn that Clayton is less
than one hundred miles from me.
But you don't have to drive that far to set the place on fire.
Neil|8.21.08 @ 3:08PM|#
It is important to teach these youngsters a lesson. I mean, what if their dog had shit in the garden and all the vegies are contaminated with E. Coli? You stupid libertarians probably think everyone will be fine after the next of kin sue the girl's parents for letting them sell poisoned vegies.
|8.21.08 @ 3:24PM|#
Neil-
I don't know about everyone, but the deceased will certainly be
fine. Sure, they may have died of e coli complications, but they
will not have to read or hear from the likes of you.
Elemenope|8.21.08 @ 3:25PM|#
Neil --
You sell your product, you takes your chances. Same thing with the
buyer, BTW. I'm pretty sure nobody who was buying from these girls
thought their products were FDA-approved.
If you accidentally kill someone with your product through your
negligence, you get sued. What's your point?
|8.21.08 @ 3:28PM|#
I played a version of Lemonade Stand on the Commodore 64--Look for a C64 simulator and a disk of apps that came as sample programs.
Neil|8.21.08 @ 3:30PM|#
If you accidentally kill someone with your product through
your negligence, you get sued. What's your point?
Regulations exist to prevent "preventable" deaths.
Ignoring or breaking these regulations is a de facto act of
violence.
|8.21.08 @ 3:35PM|#
Even money that the mayor thought these little girls hired illegals to pick the crops for them. I'd sarcastically suggest building a wall around the neighborhood, but I'm sure the mayor would form an action team to actually make it happen.
Chapmaniac (Last time, I swear|8.21.08 @ 3:35PM|#
It's not hard to make a logical case for allowing 11 and 3 year olds to sell vegetables, but only if you disregard the practical effects of letting them do something that many of them are not mature enough to handle.
Neil|8.21.08 @ 3:36PM|#
Kind of like alcohol and cigarette regulations?
Exactly like. We can't have smokers killing other people with
second hand smoke in bars and cafes.
Mark A Tarnowski|8.21.08 @ 3:41PM|#
I recall that when I was living in Atlanta, the cops arrested a troop of girl scouts selling cookies in an abandoned gas station parking lot, reinforcing my belief that cops are complete morons when it comes to PR.
Neilisadouche|8.21.08 @ 3:42PM|#
Ignoring or breaking these regulations is a de facto act of
violence.
This is one of the most ignorant statements I have ever read on
here. Remove your head from your ass and try again, douche bag.
Orange Line Special|8.21.08 @ 3:43PM|#
Libruhtarian thinking exercise #94293A:
Were the sellers having an impact on others? Were they compensating
those affected, as libruhtarian "thinking" would seem to
require?
Libruhtarian thinking exercise #94293B:
Is Reason a libruhtarian site, or something else?
|8.21.08 @ 3:43PM|#
Come on you don't know what else they were growing in the back yard. What a great front for "medicinal herbs". I see where this was going. Be glad that the cops shut down this vegtable stand before it got out of hand. Just remember kids next time something like this happens it's SWAT teams and a dead Fluffy. It's for the children.
|8.21.08 @ 3:44PM|#
"They may start out with a little card-table and selling a
couple of things, but then who is to say what else they have. Is
all the produce made there, do they grow it themselves? Are they
going to have eggs and chickens for sale next,"
All perfectly good questions. All best answered by the market you
tinpot tyrant.
Neil|8.21.08 @ 3:45PM|#
Ignoring or breaking these regulations is a de facto
act of violence.
This is one of the most ignorant statements I have ever read on
here.
Breaking safety regulations is morally equivalent to sticking a
loaded gun out of a window and pulling the trigger.
Kolohe|8.21.08 @ 3:47PM|#
Interesting enough Clayton, CA has a farmer's market
every sat morning.
And they are looking to hire
police officers
And techinically, Clayton has a city
manager who is appointed by the (elected) city council, not a
mayor.
|8.21.08 @ 3:50PM|#
Neil,
Did you cream your trousers when you heard Rudy would be the
keynote speaker?
Elemenope|8.21.08 @ 3:50PM|#
Breaking safety regulations is morally equivalent to
sticking a loaded gun out of a window and pulling the
trigger.
That one actually got a meat-space laugh out of me. This trolling
thing, you are getting better at it!
Kolohe|8.21.08 @ 3:50PM|#
Whoops, it looks like there's a mayor and vice mayor as well ; the city council selects two of their members to fill these positions.
The Extispicator|8.21.08 @ 3:51PM|#
Neil, you ignorant slut. Getting a vendor's license in most
cities means filling out a form and paying a fee. The bureaucrats
don't actually go the farms of those who sell produce at farmers'
markets and inspect the fields for e. coli then wash the vegetables
to make sure their safe.
Regulations are all about fees and taxes, not making sure vendors
sell safe products.
|8.21.08 @ 3:51PM|#
I smell a bravery award in those cops' future.
To qualify for one of those they would probably need to taser one
the girls or at least shoot her dog.
BDB|8.21.08 @ 3:53PM|#
Hey OLS, the Zucchini may have been picked by IllegalMexicans. Should we ask the girl MagicalQuestions and the upload them to YouTube?
Neil|8.21.08 @ 3:55PM|#
Getting a vendor's license in most cities means filling out
a form and paying a fee. The bureaucrats don't actually go the
farms of those who sell produce at farmers' markets and inspect the
fields for e. coli then wash the vegetables to make sure their
safe.
The fact that the system doesn't work perfectly yet, doesn't mean
we should abandon our ideals.
|8.21.08 @ 3:55PM|#
Just remember kids next time something like this happens
it's SWAT teams and a dead Fluffy
How did Fluffy get involved with this? Was he the mastermind behind
the operation?
That one actually got a meat-space laugh out of me. This
trolling thing, you are getting better at it!
Except he took the name of a former sockpuppet, which is kind of
stupid.
I found myself stifling a LOL when I saw the banner underneath the
girl said "former produce seller".
|8.21.08 @ 3:55PM|#
Local politician is a prick, film at 11.
Let's hope this irritates his neighbors enough that someone runs
against him.
-jcr
Neu Mejican|8.21.08 @ 3:56PM|#
Why don't the parents help the 11 year-old fill-out the business
license application and pony up the 53 dollar business tax to make
this a more practical lesson in capitalism...she can pay off the
loan from their receipts.
I mean she's a 11 years old, not 5.
http://www.cityofclayton.org/Business%20Licence%20Forms.pdf
Neil|8.21.08 @ 3:57PM|#
Except he took the name of a former sockpuppet, which is
kind of stupid.
It's not my fault Cesay sullied my good name before I got here.
|8.21.08 @ 4:01PM|#
How did Fluffy get involved with this?
Every time a little girl sells a zucchini, he is there. Every time
a bloated, corrupt mayor is retarded on TV, he is there. Every time
you respond to a troll, he is there. (Shaking his head in
disbelief.)
Neu Mejican|8.21.08 @ 4:09PM|#
Under California law, farmers may only sell directly to
consumers - rather than middlemen, retailers or resellers - only at
the point of production or in an area certified by a county
Agricultural Commissioner for sale of farm products: a Certified
Farmers' Market.
Only California-grown agriculture may be sold in a Certified
Farmers' Market. These agriculture products include fruits,
vegetables, greens, nuts, herbs, berries, eggs, flowers, nursery
stock and honey.
The fee to sell at the farmer's market is 75 dollars, so I think
the girls are better off staying with a stand at the point of
production.
J|8.21.08 @ 4:10PM|#
Is this OLS a different person than lonewacko? Not enough ConjoinedWords, and what appears to be a different link (I've never been to either siet to know).
|8.21.08 @ 4:20PM|#
Is this thread zoned for trolling?
And Neil wasn't a sockpuppet. Neil and Cesar had very different
takes on things -- and who's to say that Neil wasn't the real
person and Cesar was the act. There's no shame in taking on an
assumed name as long as you're not simply agreeing with
yourself.
|8.21.08 @ 4:23PM|#
There's no shame in taking on an assumed name as long as
you're not simply agreeing with yourself
OK, Chris.
|8.21.08 @ 4:51PM|#
"""""Is Reason a libruhtarian site, or something else?""""
""""DRINK!"""
Ah the good ole troll drinking game.
Drank.
"""Local politician is a prick, film at 11"""
It's more like, our series of local policitians being prick part
30,000 of 8,993,463.
|8.21.08 @ 4:55PM|#
For the record, I also played the Lemonade Stand game on a
Commodore 64. It ran off a tape.
I also ran a lemonade stand on multiple occasions, but found that
popcorn was more profitable.
|8.21.08 @ 4:56PM|#
I also ran a jolly rancher cartel out of my desk in 4th grade before some dipshit started underselling me at a loss.
Cactus|8.21.08 @ 4:58PM|#
This mayor hasn't been tarred and feathered, horsewhipped and
ridden out of town on a rail.
Because of that fact I am immensely saddened.
|8.21.08 @ 5:14PM|#
# Kolohe | August 21, 2008, 3:47pm | #
# And techinically, Clayton has a city
# manager who is appointed by the (elected)
# city council, not a mayor.
Actually, city councilman Greg Manning (whose term expires this
November -- don't know if he is running again) IS the mayor. Like
my own city of Santa Cruz, Clayton (near Concord) has an elected
city council, and the mayorship rotates between the council
members. A city manager, taking direction from the council, handles
the nuts and bolts of running each city. Interestingly enough, the
current city manager in Clayton is Gary A. Napper, who was
previously city manager for Morro Bay CA -- a town that has
recently been in H&R discussions and on Reason TV with Drew
Carey, because of the federal persecution of a medical marijuana
dispensary there.
|8.21.08 @ 5:24PM|#
Hey Kolohe -- I see now that you corrected yourself on the mayoral situation before I made my comment. Not trying to beat you over the head with it; I was more interested in the link to another city that has figured in H&R discussions recently. I wonder if the city manager had anything to do with getting the med mj dispensary in Morro Bay, and if so, whether he gave any cautionary advice to the Clayton mayor before the latter made an ass of himself in the media. I mean, if Number 1 can't keep the Captain out of trouble with the hostile Mediazoids, what good is he? ;-)
|8.21.08 @ 5:32PM|#
While the children were selling the vegetables, were they able to demonstrate that the vegetables were not, in fact, picked by illegal immigrants?
Vitto Cugine|8.21.08 @ 5:40PM|#
I also ran a jolly rancher cartel out of my desk in 4th
grade before some dipshit started underselling me at a
loss.
You should have made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Niemöller|8.21.08 @ 5:49PM|#
In California, they came first for the little girls selling zucchini, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a little girl selling zucchini.
|8.21.08 @ 5:53PM|#
Wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop keepin' little girls from sellin' their melons and their radishes and their zucchinis, I'll be there. And when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.
GG|8.21.08 @ 7:16PM|#
Good thing the girls didn't break out the Easy Bake Oven to sell tiny, trans fat laden cakes. They'd be off to juvie by now.
JB|8.21.08 @ 9:02PM|#
How about barter? I would trade them a copy of "Our Enemy the
State" for some fresh vegetables.
It's good that they learn early. Who knows, maybe they can even
change the refrain to: save the ammo, use the rifle butt to take
care of wankers who work for the government.
|8.21.08 @ 11:14PM|#
Not only is the fee for the farmer's market $75, but they would
also be required to have $500,000 worth of insurance. A general
contractor only needs $100,000 of insurance.
If anyone really needs to be more angry, read some of the comments
at
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/21/mayor-shuts-down-hom.html#comments.
Some are encouraging, others are not.
|8.21.08 @ 11:33PM|#
Kudos to the mayor and his heroic display of consumer
protection. I recently patronized a lemonaid stand staffed by what
appeared to be an 8 year old entrepreneur.
Her product was luke-warm, watery and lacked the refreshing quality
I look for in my lemonaid. I was outraged, but not so much that I
asked for my quarter back.
I won't be going back though.
Rimfax|8.21.08 @ 11:35PM|#
Of course, someone who got himself elected mayor wouldn't know anything about being self-centered.
Anti-Globalism|8.21.08 @ 11:45PM|#
Software linked in article requires you buy an overpriced
computer from drama queens in Cupertino.
Instead, get an emulator for your platform of choice:
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Emulators/Apple/Apple_II/
Chester Verne|8.22.08 @ 12:54AM|#
I am a California native and I left the state two years ago because of all the Fuck Knuckles that have moved in. Today my decision has been validated.
Jilan Badri|8.22.08 @ 3:44AM|#
Oh that's just so wrong. I actually grew up in Clayton and it
was so fun and idyllic. You could always find young kids selling
lemonade and cookies outside their homes.
What I can believe is that law enforcement in Clayton has nothing
better to do than harass people doing "normal" things. They've
always been jerks there. Maybe it's the boredom?
|8.22.08 @ 11:37AM|#
What is more frightening is someone who sees two little girls selling zuccinis at a roadside stand as a "phallic" symbol. Generally that would be limited to pedophiles.
Billy Vegas|8.22.08 @ 11:45AM|#
SIGN THE PETITION!
http://www.petitiononline.com/veglewis/petition.html
LINK: Katie and Sabrina Lewis' All American Veggie Stand
Invisible Finger|8.22.08 @ 11:48AM|#
One of these little girls should have been on the look-out for
Five-Oh.
Stupid white kids.
|8.22.08 @ 3:13PM|#
What about all the damn Mexicans on the side of the road selling strawberries, tomatoes, and flowers? Do they get the police stopping by to tell them to take up shop and move...hell no!! They are everywhere!!!!!
red green|8.22.08 @ 3:41PM|#
The kids got a quick lesson in the law...too many laws,and too many bureaucrats.
TallDave|8.23.08 @ 12:40AM|#
Ha, Lemonade Stand.
I must have been 12 or 12 when I hacked that to make every day a
Heat Wave and hiked my profit margins to 9000%. Good old Applesoft
Basic.
|8.23.08 @ 3:55AM|#
Right on, Cactus and Looseleaf. I always stop at kids' home
stands; love to encourage young entrepreneurs. I was an adult when
I played Lemonade Stand with my teenaged sister on the family's
first computer, an Apple IIC.
I saw a news report about two boys who had built a boat out of
plywood, which sank, and after the boys were rescued they were
fined for something like sailing in an unlicensed craft. (What
would Huck Finn say?) I think they should have been lauded for
their initiative, and not sitting around playing video games all
day (an hour or so is fun, and they probably do that too, and why
not?) but to have the confidence, imagination, and parental
encouragment to do something more active/productive [presumably so
in the case of the veggie stand, probably not in the boat-building
episode] is something we should all appreciate.
The Clayton police force and mayor need real jobs; they've
obviously run out of anything worthwhile to do.
Robert Goodman|8.23.08 @ 11:31PM|#
So why couldn't they put the stand in front of their house, satisfying the "point of production" requirement?
|8.25.08 @ 1:16PM|#
It's good to see that the government is doing what it is supposed to do. Create fear and control over it's population. The more rights we let slip away the closer to slavery we become.
thecitydesk|8.28.08 @ 11:14AM|#
Something similar from the 80s-
http://thecitydesk.net/2007/07/17/lemonade-stands-as-public-health-menace/
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