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Our legislature is considering the repeal of Colorado's
two remaining Blue Laws.
One forbids the sale of
automobiles on Sundays. The other makes it illegal to sell
most take-out alcoholic beverages on Sunday -- as it is,
3.2 beer and certain wimpy wine-coolers can be sold on
Sunday, but nothing stronger. This applies only to package
stores -- in a tavern, you can order whatever you want on
Sunday.
America's Blue Laws date back to Puritan times, when the colonial governments enforced the Sabbath. Back then, women were punished for giving birth on Sunday, because the Puritan elders believed that a child was born on the same day of the week that it was conceived. Thus a Sunday birth was certain evidence of a failure to devote all of the Holy Day to psalm-reading.
They're called Blue Laws,
not because they were
printed on blue paper, but because puritanical types were
once called Blue Noses,
perhaps in contrast to
Red Noses
seen on sots and tipplers.
This sense of blue
seems to have faded. A blue
movie
does not have a G rating, and now we read that
people in blue states
are sybaritic libertines
deficient in patriotism, traditional family values and
church attendance.
As Blue Laws go, Colorado's aren't that onerous. The one
time I needed to buy a car on a Sunday, the dealer and I
dated all the paperwork for the following Monday. And if
you run out of beer during a Sunday-afternoon picnic, 3.2
beer from the supermarket works fine. The real beer
at the liquor store is seldom the 6 percent of legend, but
more like 3.6 percent; the difference is not
significant.
Texas once had a bizarre set of blue laws. You could buy
necessities
like gasoline, but not
non-necessities,
like clothing or cookware.
The topic came up when I worked at the Breckenridge newspaper years ago. Our receptionist was from Texas, and she said she thought the Blue Laws were counterproductive.
I was on my way to church one Sunday morning when I
saw I had a run in my nylons,
she explained. So I
stopped at a convenience store to get a new pair. But they
couldn't sell them to me because of the law. So I didn't go
to church that morning, and I haven't been back much since
then.
Thus did a law presumably designed to encourage church attendance actually function to further a young woman's descent from a wholesome Lone Star upbringing to a decadent ski resort.
From what I've read, it's the liquor stores in the resort towns that want Sunday sales. The resorts cater to out-of-state visitors who often aren't aware of our peculiarities. They wonder why they can order wine with a Sunday restaurant meal, but they can't buy a bottle of wine to accompany Sunday dinner in the condo.
Elsewhere, the retailers are generally opposed to repealing the Blue Law. That's because many liquor stores are small mom-and-pop enterprises, and our Blue Law guarantee a day off without having to hire employees. Changing the law wouldn't force them to be open seven days a week, but it would allow competitive pressures that would push them that way.
So I can see why they don't want the law to change. But requiring a store to be closed on Sunday does appear to violate the separation of church and state, especially since Sunday is not every religion's day of rest. Even so, I like the concept of the Sabbath -- a day when you don't work and spend time with friends and family and pretend for a few hours that you're something other than a cog in the machinery of global capitalism.
But one person's relaxation often involves another person's work. This comes up from time to time at meetings of the Salida Merchant Association. The tourist-oriented retailers would like every downtown store and restaurant to be open on Sundays, since the more there is to do downtown, the more visitors.
Those who cater more to locals than tourists like to take the day off. But their closed doors on Sunday may discourage tourists from wandering around town and spending money.
Both sides have valid arguments. Perhaps the legislature should follow Colorado's tradition of local control, and make Sunday liquor sales a local option. Let the town boards, county commissions and city councils hash it out, and let the General Assembly get on with fixing the state's finances.
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