It’s Not Summer Until The Government Shuts Down Its First Lemonade Stand

[brightcove_vid playerid=”9″ flashvars=”omnitureAccountID=gntbcstwusa,gntbcstglobal&pageContentCategory=video&pageContentSubcategory=&marketName=Washington, DC:wusa&division=Broadcast&SSTSCode=&videoId=997423496001&playerID=30317508001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAABvaL9Hk~,mLC66bU8hPPEixOfY5Pc8DGh7QP3dFX0&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true”] A few weeks ago, we arrived home from errands to discover our next door neighbors setting up a lemonade stand. My children were so excited as they’d never encountered one before. We headed over and inquired about the price. The girls were charging 50 cents a cup and were raising money for an animal shelter. Too cute, right?

Well thank goodness they weren’t a few counties to the north where a kid’s lemonade stand was fined $500 and shut down by the Montgomery County officials. America! Am I right? The whole thing went down at the U.S. Open.

What’s ridiculous is that private citizens can make a fortune selling parking spots but kids can’t set up a lemonade stand. A county inspector attempted to shut down the stand and when the kids refused, they were fined $500.

These kids were also selling lemonade for charity and they were completely confused at the call to shut down the stand. Unbelievably, the county official claimed the kids needed a vendor’s license. For a lemonade stand. Come on!

The county says it was the fact that it was a good lemonade stand that got it in trouble:

But that did little to console Carrie Marriott. “Does every kid who sells lemonade now have to register with the county?” she asked the inspector.

“Cute little kids making five or ten dollars is a little bit different than making hundreds. You’ve got coolers and coolers here,” the inspector responded. “To raise money for pediatric cancer,” Marriott replied.

Meanwhile, other neighbors are getting so much for parking spots that they can take a chunk out of their children’s tuition.

When I think of freedom, I think of having the government come in and shut down a lemonade stand raising money for pediatric cancer, am I right?

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