Crazy Laws in Alabama and Fun Facts

Every state in the United States has at one time or another enacted crazy, dumb, strange, stupid laws. Here are twelve of the craziest laws I could find that are still on the books in Alabama.

• It is illegal to marry any animal that is not already a relation.

I cannot even begin to find a rationale for this crazy law. Perhaps the befuddled legislator who enacted this law was a student of animal husbandry who confused the care and breeding of domestic animals with actually breeding with domestic animals.

• In Alabama, putting salt on a railroad track may be punishable by death.

Would you call this condemnation by condiment?

• You may not have an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time.

No problem. Put it in your front pocket. Or side pocket. Or handbag.

• You cannot chain your alligator to a fire hydrant.

You would not want to scare away a firefighter who needs to utilize the fire hydrant. Find a parking meter instead for your precious gator pet.

• You must have windshield wipers on your car.
Duh!

• It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle.
Double Duh!

• In Alabama, it's illegal to wear a funny fake mustache to church.

If you must wear a fake mustache to church, make sure it is a serious version.

• Bear wrestling matches are prohibited.
Teach your pet bears how to box instead.

• It is legal to drive the wrong way down a one-way street if you have a lantern attached to the front of your automobile.
But the law does not indicate that your lantern must be lit.

• In Linden, Alabama, all women of ‘uncertain chastity’ have to be off the streets by 9pm.
Where do I go to sign up for the ‘Chastity Police’?

• In Lee County, it is illegal to sell peanuts after sundown on Wednesday.
Hmmmmm! Why peanuts? Why after sundown? Why Wednesday?

• In the case of divorce, women are able to retain all property they owned prior to marriage. However, this provision does NOT apply to men.
Do you think there were a majority of women in the state legislature when that law was enacted?

Some famous sports celebrities born in Alabama are: Hank Aaron, Joe Louis, Willie Mays, Charles Barkley, Bobby Bowden, Bo Jackson, Jesse Owens, and Bart Starr.

Some famous actors and musicians: Courtney Cox, Channing Tatum, Tallulah Bankhead, Jim Nabors, Octavia Spencer, W.C. Handy, Lionel Richie, Hank Williams, Nat King Cole, Percy Sledge, Tammy Wynette, and Jimmy Buffett.

• The Boll Weevil monument in Enterprise, Alabama is the only monument dedicated to and glorifying an insect pest.

In 1919, the city of Enterprise erected this statue of the boll weevil in recognition of the destructive insect’s role in saving the county’s economy.

How? By encouraging farmers to grow more lucrative crops such as peanuts instead of traditional cotton.

• The Saturn V rocket that made it possible for humans to land on the moon was designed in Huntsville, Alabama – the Rocket Capital of the World.

• Rosa Park's refusal to change seats on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955 was the hallmark for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the landmarks in the American civil rights movement.

• The Confederacy was founded at Montgomery in February 1861, and, for a time, the city was the Confederate capital.

• The name, Alabama, arises from the Choctaw language and means “thicket-clearers” or “vegetation-gatherers.”

• In 1886, the first electric streetcar (trolley) in the world ran down Dexter Avenue in Montgomery.

Clang, clang goes the trolley!

• Alabama was the first state to declare Christmas a legal holiday in 1836.

• Alabama introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world in Mobile in 1703, fifteen years before New Orleans' carnival began.

• On August 5, 1864, during the Battle of Mobile Bay, Admiral David Farragut issued his unforgettable command, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

• Dothan, Alabama is the Peanut Capital of the world. 50% of all the peanuts produced in the U.S. are grown within 100 miles of Dothan.

But the State Nut is the pecan. Go figure.

• Alabama's State Constitution contains more than 100,000 words and 700-plus amendments, making it one of the longest in the United States.

Funny one-liner: "My uncle is a Southern planter. He's an undertaker in Alabama." - Fred Allen

© Copyright BJ Rakow, Ph.D. 2015. All rights reserved. Author, "Much of What You Know about Job Search Just Ain't So."