Foolin' Around

Today is April 1st, also known as April Fools Day. April Fools Day was designed to play jokes on people who might be unsuspecting. References to foolishness in April can be found as far back as the 1300s in the Canterbury Tales!

Sometimes people get a little too festive and use destructive jokes to celebrate the holiday. I personally would prefer to use my cleverness and my humor to make people happy or give them a cheerful laugh.

When I was a tween (a girl of about 10 years old) I subscribed to a children's publication called Golden Magazine. In the magazine there was a story of a boy about my age who saved the previous year's April 1st newspaper to play a joke on his father when the next April 1st rolled around.

When the boy in the story put the newspaper next to his father's place at the breakfast table he was giggling as he watched his father puzzle over last year's new items. I really enjoyed that story as a 10 year old and I promised myself that the following year that I would do the same trick as the boy had done. Just like the boy in the story, I saved my newspaper for one year, hiding it under my bed waiting to play that trick on my father.

And just like the story, my father was turning the pages over and over trying to figure out what he was looking at in this old paper. He and I both had a laugh together as the big trick was revealed.

Nobody got hurt and we had fun together with a harmless prank.