At 09:34 AM 9/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
 
>My wife's book group is reading "Lolita" and they came across a passage
about the pair driving through Arizona and California, where at the border
"a policeman's cousin would peer with such intensity at us....[and ask] Any
honey?"
>    Do any of you know whether there were such inspections 40 years ago
and if so, what would they be looking for?   Or is this just part of
Nabokov's imagination?
 
Yes, California did have agricultural inspections stations 40 years ago on
most of the boarder highways and they would ask if you had any fruits and
vegetables, don't recall if they asked about honey but do believe judging
by some of the smart ass people I have come across working at these
stations myself that is about the level of question they would ask if you
had a young girl with you. They were looking from the same thing they look
for when they inspect a package of queen bees at the post office and that
is the permits issued by some other state certifying that the honey or bees
are disease free. Thats OK but having worked in these other states the
permits or paper work are issued by the book to anyone that asks and more
for friends and they are not worth the paper they are written on. The same
goes for California, I used to get my package bee and queen certificates by
the box of 500 each winter before the shipping season started, but of
course in this case they were as good as my inspection which was OK but I
objected to having some state inspectors name on them when it was I who did
the work and stood behind the product.
 
Several years ago I came through a boarder station with two identical
pick-up's both carrying identical loads, brand new extractors from the
manufacture in Utah. We were about three minutes apart. I was in the lead
pu and was waved passed and my driver in the 2nd pu was held up for two
hours as they tried to find out if his load was legal which required going
through three levels of command all whom had gone home for the night. After
that experience if there is an alternative route I take it and save a lot
of agitation and time on the road. Other beekeepers have had to dump off in
the desert drums of bees wax and the like because they lacked the proper
permits.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
 
 
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