Thinking about April Fools’ Day since it’s today. Wasn’t it just the best when we were kids? Some of the jokes went unnoticed. Replacing hamburgers in the school lunch line with rubber burgers was one that passed the “who knew?” test. Several sets of twins I know traded places at school and the teachers didn’t suspect a thing.
I always liked the fake news articles, such as a sighting of Tahoe Tessie (our version of the loch ness monster). Today I got a funny email from Redbox, promoting their new Pet Box, with movies for your dog to enjoy such as 50 Shades of Greyhound. Very clever. Parent magazines have ideas for food jokes like meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting or candies that look like fried eggs. My daughter was never fooled, they didn’t smell right, but she thought they were fun.
April Fools’ Day was a favorite when we were young as we laughed and joked our way through, trying to convince our parents of something or tricking our friends. We filled a teacher’s office with balloons one year and, as we got older, we put phone messages from the president of the United States on our boss’ desk.
Being pregnant, joining a convent, or getting married just to say “got-cha” were usually not believed, although depending on the person who said it, I could easily be sucked in.
My favorite joke was from my teen years. My dad had a friend who was worried that a certain tree would fall on his house. On April Fools’ Day my dad called his friend at work to tell him the tree had fallen, just as he suspected. It hadn’t, of course. The friend drove home in a panic and guess what? The tree fell between the time my dad made the phone call and the time his friend got home! His friend called, thanking my dad for telling him about the tree, and we all had a great laugh since the joke was on both of them!
April Fools’ Day should be every day, we can change the name of it once we get to May, of course. Laughing and joking and being silly make for a better life.