You move to the USA, or another state in the USA. At first, it's great. Huge properties. High ceilings, Big bedrooms. Swimming pools. Wonderful. Then you discover a host of local regulations which make no sense. Drinking, marrying, gambling, building a fence or collecting rainwater, buying and carrying guns, death penalty - allowed or banned? It depends where you live. That's why in films (movies) you see the criminal racing across state lines to escape the cops.
1 Some areas won't let you build a fence around the property.
2 In this State you can drink. In the next State, you can't.
2 It's illegal to save water in a water butt, or install water collection devices to make your property green and water the plants. Where?
Why? What the ...!
STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS DIFFER
Coming from England, it took me a while to understand why different states had different laws and what federal means.
A state is like a council in Britain. You have laws which apply to the whole of the USA, and others which apply only to one area.
ALCOHOL - WHAT YOU CAN & CAN'T DO
One state can ban alcohol. We drove through West Virginia looking for a restaurant and kept seeing signs which said Club. Eventually, we stopped and asked a passer-by for direction to a restaurant. He told us,
'There's one on the corner. You just passed it. It's huge. I don't know how you missed it."
I replied,
"Yes, we saw it. But we didn't stop because it says it's a club."
"You can eat there. You just have to join the club. It costs a dollar. In our state, only clubs are allowed to sell alcohol, so a restaurant serving alcohol has to be a club and charge you a membership fee. Every member of your group has to pay the dollar club fee. Of course, we locals, just pay the dollar once to two or three local restaurants, so, for us, it's no big deal."
We drove back to the restaurant, which was about to close for the night, just one customer left, or maybe they only ever had one customer, but we were just in time.
Our conversation with the receptionist went something like this:
"Howdy, folks! How ya'll doin'?"
"Fine thanks. Can we eat? Three of us."
"Yes, sir. But we serve alcohol, so, first, you have to join our club, which costs five dollars, each, for a full lifetime membership. Fill out this form, pay me the money, and I'll give you your cards."
My husband does a quick calculation.
"Fifteen dollars! But we're only here one night."
"In that case, Sir, only one dollar each. And that's for the whole year! Keep your cards. And I'll keep your records, all year. Just in case you come back drivin' this way."
"That's an extra three dollars. For all of us? I'm not drinking alcohol. I'm driving. Can't my wife be a member, and let me in as a guest? Our son's under age. So he's not drinking."
"But, sir, if you was to take only one sip of your good wife's drink, and that state trooper, sittin' over there, watchin' us, saw you, you would be in big trouble, for drinkin' without the paperwork. And I could lose my business for servin' you! Let me explain ..."
"It's late, and I'm tired and hungry," said my husband. "Here's the money. Just give us the membership cards."
Every now and then I read that a debate is on to change drinking or other laws in one state or another. You have to watch it. But at least we now know what it's all about.
FENCES ARE RESTRICTED - WHY?
We used to drive around wondering why the big ranch houses (in the UK we say bungalows) had no fences. They looked unfinished. Like show homes.
And what about security! I suppose that's why they have guns. Anybody can walk in, and right around your house, looking in the windows to see if anybody's at home.
Then one day the mystery was solved. Some estates have bye-laws saying no fences. All the houses must look the same. Not different walls and fences on each one. (A bit like Hampstead Garden suburb in England, where you can't change windows nor doors, nor update antique wood with white ersatz double glazing, nor paint your house pink and purple stripes and dots.)
In America, on some estates, you have to keep the grass mown, because everybody can see. Lawns are around every house. Bushes over a certain height and tall trees are banned. No surrounding your property with fast-growing Cypress Leylandi and blocking the neighbour's light.
No flowers. (I'm not sure if flowers are banned. But, I suppose the postman, delivery boy, or children, imaginary children, could pick them.)
If you don't have fences, you are rather paranoid. Rightly so. You keep a gun.
FENCES AND DOGS
How do you keep your dog inside your property and stop it running out to annoy neighbours or getting killed on the road? A Canadian company and others have made invisible fences, using electrified wires around the property. Oops - won't that injure children and other people and scare animals? It can be made connected to a dog collar which bleeps a warning when the dog gets close, without giving it a nasty shock. (See Wikipedia.)
What about dogs from outside coming onto your property. What if a dog comes onto your property, damaging your plants, leaving dog mess, threatenign you, your gods or your small children? A much-publicised court case in 2018 concerned a dog shot by a neighbour.
GUNS - TELL ME MORE
Gun laws vary from State to State in the USA, just as other laws vary.
So do the laws on when you can use guns.
'Stand your ground', is the catchphrase. Well, folks, you ain't got no place to go. As they say, the police are only half an hour away. Shoot first, asked questions later. Better judged by twelve than carried by six.' That puzzled me for ten seconds the first time I read it. It means judged in a court of law by a jury of twelve, for killing somebody, is better than carried in a coffin by six, because somebody killed you.
And the death penalty, or lack of it, varies, too, from state to state. States are like little countries. America is the size of a continent.
Okay, now I have visited America, taken a Greyhound bus, in a big circle, coast to coast, New York to LA and on to New Orleans. I lived in America, in three different states, and driven around from New York to Florida. I've also been on press trips to Florida, the mid-west, and California. I can go along with all of those laws, that stuff about drinking, and fences.
I also understand guns. Quite apart from those unprotected houses without fences. I have been to the mid-West and seen a preserved room where somebody got shot over a game of cards. I met a man on horseback who had a gun, when we were driving across a mountain range in Utah in the middle of nowhere.
I have sat on a boat in water, not Disneyland, real water, in the deep south, surrounded by crocodiles, giving toothy grins. Not me, them. Alligator or crocodile, same difference. Anybody got a gun? I hope it's not one which takes three minutes to re-load. There's another crocodile - behind you!
WATER COLLECTING RESTRICTIONS
Rainwater
But what about water? Bottled water, if you want it in a restaurant, but there's movement against plastic bottles. Drink tap water.
Some people install filters in their kitchen tap. Others collect rainwater as it falls on the garden. Or draw it out of wells.
Flashing around Facebook is a demand to fight and change laws stopping you from collecting rainwater in the USA. What's that all about?
WHY ARE THEY RESTRICTING WATER COLLECTIONS?
If you are asking why should it change: because we could be saving water in times of drought by collecting rainwater for plants. This would help your area not run out of purified water when the population increases or drought makes the water in dams run low. Poor people, those interested in conservation, people living 'off the grid', anybody moving a caravan or building a house and not yet on the water supply system, even demonstration centres and water butt sellers could be prosecuted if the law is allowed.
Why Collect Rainwater?
If you are asking why should restrictions on saving rainwater change: because we could be saving water in times of drought by collecting rainwater for plants. This would help your area not run out of purified water when the population increases or drought makes the water in dams run low.
Poor people, those interested in conservation, people living 'off the grid', anybody moving a caravan or building a house and not yet on the water supply system, even demonstration centres and water butt sellers could be prosecuted if the law restricting water collection is allowed.
Useful Websites
US LAWS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_West_Virginia
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108843/Woman-left-tears-man-shoots-pit-bull-dead.html
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/08/united-states-cant-fences-certain-height-front-backyard/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-your-ground_law
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/is-rainwater-harvesting-legal-in-your-state-us/61586739
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/foreign-nationals-and-death-penalty-us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_the_United_States
St James Hotel, New Mexico. Photo from Wikipedia by Daniel Schwen.
TOURIST SITES:
GUN HISTORY
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/8798 Chair where Wild Bill Hickock was shot dead during a poker game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James_Hotel_(Cimarron,_New_Mexico)
St James Hotel, New Mexico, USA, fatal card game room. Everyone you can think of from the wild west stayed here. Wild Bill Cody, Wyatt Earp, Jesse James and many more. I loved it. Highlight of my trip.
WATER CONSERVATION
USA
https://www.hooverdamtourcompany.com/center.html
Hoover Dam showing the Hoover Dam bypass bridge, far left. Photo by Kuczora in Wikipedia.
HONG KONG
http://www.hypsos.com/en-us/cases/visitor-attraction/water-conservation-education-centre-in-hong-kong.aspx
TOURIST BOARDS
visitbritain.org
visit-usa.com
LANGUAGE & EMERGENCY
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/chinese-translation-of-emergency.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/american-and-british-english.html
Many more posts by Angela Lansbury about Americanisms, language, Esperanto, Chinese, learning languages, travel to the USA, Canada, UK, China, Singapore and more.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I have many other posts on travel, living overseas, learning languages, and business travel and holidays.
Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment