I have mixed feelings about this day. In my family, Grandpa Al was a jokester. He delighted teasing his Grand children. I recall him telling me not to go into the cellar, because it was full of snapping turtles. When I tried to explore, he cooked a green cream soup that he claimed was turtle. He had put food coloring in the mushroom soup. The pieces of mushrooms were the turtle meat.
My brothers played tricks on each other but I was protected, being a girl. This didn’t stop me from preying on them. I would sit quietly in a closet or behind a door waiting for one of my brothers to walk by. Jumping up, I would startle them. Once, I waited in the front closet where coats were kept. As the door opened, I sprang up, startling my Dad. He stopped his fist inches from my face.
My mother was easier to scare. I was known to wait in the front load dryer under the oil tank, and under the basement stairs.Waiting like a spider, I would stalk my victim. I out grew this when I became too big to hide in small places.
This didn’t stop my pranks. Once, I was invited to attend a sleep over at my friend’s church. One of the girls had to leave early to work at her Father’s shoe store. She was not liked. She had developed breasts before many of us. We took her bra when she was sleeping, soaked it in water and placed in the church’s freezer. In the morning, the bra was frozen.
Another friend had her laces removed from her shoes.
Once, when I was visiting my brother Bob in West Virginia, I had the window open as I read in bed. I was told there were no mosquitos that high in the mountains. They didn’t warm me about the bats. I had a bat fly into the open window. I ducked under the covers and yelled for my Dad. He entered with a tennis racket to do battle with the bat. In the morning, I went to take a shower, stepping on the dead bat, in the bottom of the tub.
When my daughter Ruth, was young, she tried to play april fool jokes on her family. Salt in the sugar bowl, lemon juice on the fruit. When the top of the pepper shaker fell. off, I had to put an end to the jokes. Ruth had learned by my example.
I learned my lesson.
A Fool’s Tale
Come all writers of poetry, prose.
A day for fools is proposed.
I start this day,
Before the morn.
jokes remembered,
tasks to perform.
on others to play.
breakfast is served.
a slice of moon cheese,
A cow jumped high,
when I sneezed.
Mother’s milk,
to wash it down.
A worn cap,
I wear like a crown.
Mistakes are made.
Jokes on my friends.
Smile, shrug,
I begin again.
Salt in the sugar bowl,
pepper in the brew.
It’s only one day.
I quietly mused
For we are all fools, so laugh, be gay.
April fool’s are here to stay.
traveling up and down the blind highway 