Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Improper Poll: No Foolin’

Don’t get me wrong—I can be plenty foolish. But I am sadly bereft of April Fooling talents. The best I ever did was pretend to be The State Messy-Desk Inspector for my sister’s fourth grade class. I was in costume, though one astute kid did notice there was no glass in my horn-rimmed glasses.

And it was probably very bad karma for me since I always had one of the messiest desks in grade school myself. Still do.

Friday at school, an eighth-grader asked me when April first was. Was it Monday? You could hear the hope in his voice. Those cogs were turning. The pranking ones. This is one holiday kids hope falls on a school day because of course it’s way more fun to fool teachers and other students than your little brother, for whom fooling is a daily occurrence. Plus chances are, little brothers know all of your tricks.

Do you have an April Fools prank?

8 comments:

  1. Poor Bill. His new red truck was hours old and we had stopped at an estate sale. I ran to him and said, "Someone just hit your truck."
    He ran out of that house and I trailed behind laughing. He ran around it, looking for damage. "April Fool!" Glad he has a sense of humor.

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  2. Sadly, no. I met a friend for a dog walk, and she mentioned she had been more than a week "late." (She is in her early 40's and has a three-year old.) She told me this when she mentioned she didn't have a prank to pull on her mother and I had responded, "Could you tell her you're pregnant?" (Her mother was on the walk with us.)
    Sadly, she had not told anyone (except her husband) that she was late; luckily, she was no longer "late" as of two days ago.

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  3. My younger sister was a bit on the high strung side and was always running to my mother complaining about something I'd done, not uncommonly when I hadn't even done anything.

    So when April Fool's came along I knew it was time for payback. Back in those days there was this stuff you could buy that you'd fill a squirt gun with that would turn bright red when you'd fire it at someone, but would quickly dry out without leaving any residue. So I poked two small holes in an egg on either ends, cleaned the egg out and refilled it with this solution - then resealed it.

    Took it outside and ran down my sister. Showed her the egg from a distance of about 10 feet and she started screaming her lungs out. Tossed it at her and it hit her in the back as she was running into the house.

    She knew she had me as she squealed "Mom. Mom." But, of course, by the time she finally got my mother's attention the solution had completely evaporated. My mother wasn't happy with this latest freak-out of my sister and made her stay in the rest of the afternoon because of it.

    Revenge is a dish best served cold.

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  4. My husband and son had a back and forth pranking thing going after April 1st one year. My husband painted my son's fingernails and toenails hot pink while he was asleep. Big surprise when he woke up! (He was 10 at the time). He got his dad back by using a rubber band around the sprayer in the kitchen sink. When Joe turned on the water he got an unexpected face washing. Hehehe...

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  5. No pranks to report. However, I did at least consider the possibility!

    Pat
    Critter Alley

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  6. Oh lord, yeas! But it is too long to write. It had something to do with airline tickets though. :)
    Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

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  7. One April Fool's Day I convinced my kids it had snowed overnight and school was called off. After they jumped out of bed and looked outside they tried to get even with me with all kinds of tricks.

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  8. My kids and I have an ongoing April Fool's prank - or so we try. But they told me the best one I did to them was when I set all the clocks in the house and they screamed, "Your late, get up, you're going to miss the bus!" They jumped up and were running around like crazy and I laughed hysterically. We all ate breakfast together. My youngest daughter got me after school one day, ringing the doorbell, pretending to cry. "What's wrong" and she showed me her hand. She somehow made the pencil to look like it went through her hand with fake blood. I totally fell for it. I'm getting wiser and don't fall for as many.

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