Scour the internet for the weirdest, craziest, or most bizarre laws in the United States and chances are you will find Connecticut on that list. What’s our claim to fame? According to the internet, you can’t sell pickles in Connecticut unless they bounce. What those listicle sites never tell you is the exact source of that law. The myth of this pickle law is so enduring and, quite frankly, entertaining that our minor league baseball team in Hartford got in on the act, changing their name to the “Bouncing Pickles” for a game earlier this season.
We here at the Pocket Part, and hopefully you too, our faithful readers, are all about getting to the bottom of legal questions. And we’ve got a delicious one on our hands here, where would this bouncing pickle law live? A quick scan of the index for the annotated version of the Connecticut General States turns up a surprise hit, Pickle Law. Jackpot. Could it be that simple? Unfortunately, no. C.G.S. § 21a-24a doesn’t say anything about bouncing. Perhaps the bouncing was part of the old timey version of the law. You can search across older versions of the statutes on HeinOnline. A search for the word pickle returns 15 results. Jackpot. Could it be that simple? Unfortunately, no. The majority deal with Horse Railroads and what you can put on the tracks. Yeah, old timey laws are strange. Luckily, this question is a great example of not reinventing the wheel. Research at its most efficient is building off the efforts of others. And fortunately for us, the State Library (unfortunately for them) gets this question so often that they researched it thoroughly and have put together a research guide with their answer… Take full advantage of their efforts and click on the hyperlink to learn the truth of Connecticut’s Pickle law! And either way, go Hartford Bouncing Pickles!!