Halloween Laws Across the U.S. Halloween can be a mischievous holiday. The most innocent of us reserve it for backyard parties and trick-or-treating, but some like to get a little rowdier than others. That’s exactly why various city councils across the U.S. have passed some seemingly unusual laws to regulate spooky festivities. Rehoboth Beach, Delaware: No Sunday Trick-or-Treating If Halloween falls on a Sunday, children in Rehoboth Beach are required to trick-or-treat the night before. The explanation in the city code is simple, but ambiguous: to prevent children and their guardians from going door to door on Sunday evenings. Rehoboth Beach law also forbids children from roaming the streets on Halloween “with the intent to cause trouble,” but what exactly that means is ambiguous as well. Hollywood, California: No Silly String The Los Angeles City Council has banned Silly String and all other brands of aerosol string from use on Halloween in the Hollywood area. From midnight on Oct. 31 until noon on Nov. 1, no one is allowed to spray, sell, or distribute Silly String in public locations. Use of Silly String got so popular in the city on Halloween that the mess left behind became a strain on sanitation workers, and the city sympathized with them. Belleville, Illinois: No 8th Graders Trick-or-treating is most often viewed as an activity reserved for younger generations, but how do you determine what age is “too old” for this type of generally good-natured fun? Well, the city of Belleville settled the ambiguity by Spooky City Regulations
passing a law restricting teenagers who are past the eighth grade — generally older than 13 — from going door to door on Halloween. Walnut, California: No Masks Without Permits In a simpler time, there
was no paperwork required to celebrate Halloween to the fullest. But in the city of Walnut, no
one can wear a mask or other disguise on public streets without a permit from the sheriff. The law doesn’t specify any exceptions, so residents are left to assume that everyone from age 5 to 100 must abide. Whatever your Halloween celebrations might look like this year, it’s important to have fun, but remember to abide by any rules or laws your city might have in place in an effort to keep its citizens safe. Our Community Gardens Helping Mental Health and Our Communities
As I wrote on the cover, mental health is so important these days, and I wanted to extend that theme to this article, as well. For quite some time now, Shelby and I have volunteered at our community garden. It’s not only a lot of fun, but it also helps both our mental health and our community. The two of us have always been pretty excited about going over to the garden once or twice a week, but we got to a point this year where we couldn’t wait to get out there. It has truly helped us through the pandemic. We started growing back in February, so it gave us something to look forward to during some of these harder months. The garden also gave Shelby and me a chance to get out of the house, enjoy the sun for a while, and break away from the monotony of our usual day-to-day routines. We’d drive out the few miles to the garden to water everything, weed, and do whatever else was needed, and when we’d come back home, we’d feel refreshed.
whole. Shelby and I do have a chance to take some of what we grow home, but we don’t get to keep very much. In fact, we only keep about 20% of the produce, and sometimes even less if the harvesters come through and take everything first. Last year, Shelby and I ended up picking green tomatoes just to make sure we had a few for ourselves. But, even if we don’t get much, it’s still one of the best benefits of the community garden. The garden donates everything that is grown to the Metrocrest Food Pantry. Even if you think you’re not the best gardener in the world, there’s nothing to worry about. There are plenty of people out there who are willing to help you learn the ins and outs of gardening. If you’re worried about mental health or are eager to give back, both Shelby and I strongly recommend volunteering at a community garden, or at the very least, taking the idea into deep consideration. While the end of the year may be coming to a close, there’s always next year.
While the garden helped boost our spirits, our work as volunteers also benefited the community as a
2
MyDFWCPA.com
Published by The Newsletter Pro • www.TheNewsletterPro.com
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online