Life and Whatnot

APRIL FOOLS DAY


april_foolsHas anyone every played a prank on you for April Fools Day?

My grandpa, who was usually pretty quiet and reserved played a fun one on us one year…so very long ago. I can’t even remember when, anymore. But I was a young kid, maybe that’s why I was so gullable, huh?

~~~

I was messing around in the kitchen, playing cards with Grandma and mom. Grandpa was out in the living room reading the paper or something.

“Oh, wow,” Grandpa said.

I leaned back in my chair and peered into the living room. He’d stood up from his chair and shoved his hands in his front pockets.

He took a few steps into the middle of the room, staring out the massive picture window. He often did that, so it wasn’t a bit deal.

“What?” I asked.

“There’s a moose out there.” He pointed his crooked forefinger toward the window.

I ’bout fell out of my chair wanting to see this. I mean, a moose? Sure, they were often seen in northern Minnesota, and my grandparents lived only a few hours from the Canadian border, but one in town? That’s unusual for sure!

I stumbled out of the kitchen, closely followed by my mom and grandma, but I skidded to a stop when I saw an empty street.

I looked up at my grandpa and saw a massive smile splitting his face. He leaned back and beloowed his contagious laugh.

“April Fools!”

~~~

Anyone ever get you on a good April Fools Day prank?

~~~

9 Comments

  • Lynn Rush

    Wow, Krista. That’s a great story! Oh, yeah. Up in Mahnomen, MN. North of Detroit Lakes. My other grandma lived in Thief River Falls….Way up there. Crazy cold in the winter, that’s for sure!!!

  • Krista Phillips

    So I’m a day late posting my April Fool’s story, but I’ll do it anyway.

    When I was 7, my parents told my sisters and I that we were going to pull an April Fools joke on my grandparents/aunts/uncles. We went over to my grandparents, and they announced that they were pregnant again. This was quite a shock, because I, at 7 was the youngest of three girls.

    Everyone was so excited, but at the end of the night, they announced it was April Fools.

    Okay, so ha ha funny right?

    A few days or a week or so later (I was little, I can’t remember how long they waited) my parents sat us down and said the joke was on US. Mom really WAS pregant.

    7 months later came my little brother:-)

    —question for you, where at in Northern MN?— I used to live on the Canadian border, so just curious!

  • Kat

    I went into labor with my oldest daughter on April Fools Day. Whenever she’s late for anything now, I always remind her how that’s not such a bad thing because if it hadn’t been for her showing up late the first time, she’d had been labeled a fool forever.

    This noon my mom and I had lunch together. On the restaurant where we ate, they had placed signs on EVERY SINGLE DOOR saying “Please use other door.”

    Nice.

  • Lynn Rush

    You know what, Janelle? I’m so NOT creative that way…you know, with the jokes and pranks. Avily, that story about the freeways to tolls…that’s good!

    I wonder if this big virus out there isn’t a big joke….has anyone heard anything?

  • Janelle

    I’m not good at these – and don’t really remember anything out of the ordinary happening to me. Boring, I know. I’ll live vicariously through the stories posted here.

  • Avily

    Good times!

    April Fools jokes are becoming less and less prevalent. It’s a sad thing. One that I do remember, though, was last year the local talk radio station (and possibly other radio stations around the valley) announced during their news breaks that the Phoenix highways were going to be made into toll roads to increase revenue, so starting that day, you needed to start carrying correct change if you were going to drive anywhere on any of the valley freeways.

    And the one I did one time was in college. I wrote about it in one of my episodes of How I Met Your Father. Here’s the link if anyone wants to read it:

    http://avilyjerome.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-i-met-your-father_27.html

  • Billy Coffey

    My daughter called me two hours ago and said that the car her and my wife were in broke down on the way to school. They were stranded, she said, and they didn’t know what to do. I jumped up, dug my keys out of my pocket, and was ready to leave work.

    Then she said, “April fools!”

    Until then, I hadn’t realized I was raising a very good liar.