In 1961, legislators in Gainesville, Georgia came up with a ridiculous decree, they claimed that eating fried chicken with a fork was illegal. In the beginning, no one paid attention to this until some people got arrested for this, how interesting!
Breaking these state laws can really put you in a pickle
Several states have enacted odd food-related laws, ranging from prohibiting the sale of used fryer grease in North Carolina to outlawing margarine in Wisconsin. While some may be traced back to a practical joke, like eating peanuts while walking backward in New York, others have more serious backgrounds and repercussions.
Connecticut is one of the more austere states regarding farm-to-table products. Homemade pickles must pass a rigorous test to guarantee the highest level of quality before they can be sold and distributed legally: they must bounce. According to Connecticut Insider, the impetus for this law was a set of unregulated pickles that spilled on the ground in 1948. The two suppliers were detained with a $2,000 bond each, or $25,000 today, according to a newspaper clipping from the Hartford Courant. There are more accurate ways to determine if your pickle is still good, even though these pickle laws might not be entirely without merit.
However, these ridiculous laws don’t just apply to food. An illustration would be pinball. From the 1940s to the 1970s, many states claimed these machines negatively influenced the youth and increased crime rates, per History. Arkansas still forbids pinball machines under current law. A pinball machine cannot legally permit winners to play more than 25 free games, per AR Code § 5-66-111 (2012) (via Justia US Law). A $1,000 fine or up to one year in jail would be assessed for doing so.
Even Colonel Sanders and the Poultry Princess had run-ins with law enforcement
According to Georgia Magazine, since 1961, law enforcement officers have visited numerous restaurants for breaking the town’s anti-cutlery law, including government officials and one particularly well-known name. In 1977, the one-and-only Colonel Sanders was “arrested” for not sticking to his finger-lickin’ motto. Don’t you love it? Mr. Kentucky Fried Chicken himself was arrested for eating fried chicken with utensils — you’d think he’d know better. He was additionally “sentenced” to finishing his meal fork-free and required to come back to Gainesville for more fried chicken ventures.
In 2009, Ginny Dietrick celebrated her 91st birthday at a neighborhood diner with friends and family who had gathered. The Gainesville Times reports that she was dining on her plate of crispy fried chicken, fork in hand, when she was approached by the city’s Police Chief, stating she was under arrest for breaking the sacred Georgia law. Little did Dietrick know she was being pranked by a friend, who happened to get Dietrick’s comical crime almost immediately “dismissed” by the town’s As the year’s Honorary Georgia Poultry Princess, Mayor Dietrick was soon urged to visit the city again so she could eat more fried chicken, much like Colonel Sanders.
Thankfully, there are no significant consequences to this law. Gainesville is frequently referred to as the “Poultry Capital of the World” because of the vast number of poultry farms there. Because of this, locals created the 1961 law to spread the name of the town, according to 10News. The city is currently represented by its towering chicken monument and holds annual poultry-related celebrations.
Conclusion
I don’t think this is a totally useless law. If we use a fork to eat fried chicken, we will waste plenty of meat because it’s very difficult to separate some meat from bones. Maybe we have been deemed to eat fried chicken with our hands since it was born.
