April Fool!!

The best April Fool's Day we ever had in our family occurred when I was about 10. My parents were, and continue to be, benevolent and dignified individuals, and so any hijinks or tomfoolery that went on at our house was traditionally (and regularly) perpetrated by the three offspring. We quickly learned to victimize one another, rather than our parents, who did not tend to take our nonsense lightly.

The day began ordinarily enough. My father got up early, peacefully ate his breakfast while listening to CBC radio, then took my mother her cup of tea and disappeared into the bathroom to get ready for work . We three kids tumbled downstairs in a manner of disarray and noise shortly thereafter. My mother followed on our heels, and swept into the kitchen to feed and organize us all. Once we were out of her hair, she finally had a few moments of peace to collect the newspaper, sit down with her coffee, and peruse the headlines.

It took my mother a good five or ten minutes before she began to suspect something... Something was not sitting right. She returned to the front page of the newspaper and scanned the headlines again... It was then that she noticed the date, printed at the top. The newspaper that she had just collected from the front doorstep and had been calmly reading for nearly a quarter of an hour was exactly ONE YEAR OLD.

I'll never forget the explosive result of this prank-- I don't think I have heard my father laugh as loudly since... It was HE who had carefully plotted for an entire year, saved the newspaper so that it would be in pristine condition the following April 1, and then sneaked silently out onto the front step to exchange it for the newspaper that had actually arrived that morning. I remember that it was raining, and he had even thought to slip it into the little plastic bag that the Globe had been packaged in...

We, his children, were in AWE. Our idea of High Humor up to that point had been whoopie cushions, dribble cups and fake vomit, so to see our father pull a fast one like this on our mother with such suave panache was a truly eye-opening experience. He rose even higher in our esteem that day.

As a result, I do believe that all five of us ALWAYS check the date on our April 1 newspaper before we sit down to read...

Good one, Dad.