I stayed with my parents last night. At 7:00 a.m. today my mom called upstairs to me and said: “Jeff, get your clothes on and come down here real quick. I just saw three of the most beautiful dear out in the yard. Come see them.” I was downstairs quickly. She instructed me to quietly go out the side door to see if they were still near. She thought they had strolled toward the front of the house.
I walked out and started creeping around the corner of the house… nothing in the front yard. I then crept past the front of the house to see if they were on the other side of the yard or in a nearby field. As I walked past the front door Mom opened it and yelled “Hey Jeff, April Fool!”
Well-played, Mom. Well-played.
People with a sense of humor are fun to be around. My parents have played so many pranks on people through the years, it’s a wonder anyone believes a word they say. But they know how to time them and mix in enough truth that you don’t know you’re being taken for a ride until the punch line.
Dad told me later that Mom had several people at the YMCA on a previous April Fools Day going to the front door and looking out because she told them some cattle truck must have broken down because there were all kinds of cows loose out in the road.
I can see so much of my mom’s parents in her when she does things like that. My grandfather used to love sneaking up on people and scaring them, even to the point of throwing a lit firecracker at them just to see them scream and jump. He did that well into his 80’s until we stopped supplying him with the firecrackers in light of his dwindling ability to get them lit and tossed away in time.
In another 23 years when I am the age that my mom is at today (78), I hope I have the same energy, humor and love for life she does. More power to her.
Leap year lesson #92 is Enjoy April Fools Day… and every day.
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