Post #26 of 40

Giving Up April Fool’s Day

This may come as a shock to some of you: I haven’t always been a church lady, a teacher, mom, yogi, trustee, or head of school. I was once a freshman in college who loved to joke around.

During my first year at Rhodes, I had a suite-mate who was known for her infectious laugh in between sips of Kahlua or puffs on a cigarette. Patty outranked me in the humor department, but I held my own when it came to sassy or bawdy comments.

After all, I had seen a picture of Michelangelo’s David!

I gave David a tutu this week after hearing that a principal in Florida was fired when a group of students saw David *without* his tutu.

Toward the end of March during our freshman year, Patty and I brainstormed about what kind of funny and shocking joke we could play on April 1st. Eventually, we settled on taping sheets of newspaper on the outside of each dorm room door so that our other suite-mates could easily get out but would be surprised when they opened the door first thing in the morning. We liked the idea but felt that there might be something more we could do. At the last minute, we decided to peel bananas and…well…carve each one into a specific body part. Nothing like a couple of virgins trying to figure out how to carve the bananas.

So a wall of newspaper (one ply - easily torn) and a paper plate with a carved banana greeted each pair of roommates on April 1, 1986.

Ellen, the RA on our floor, figured out who was responsible for the morning surprises and left us a note that said the Dean of Students had heard about our little presents and wanted to meet with us. The note asked us to come to her room after classes so that the three of us could walk over to the dean’s office together. Patty and I were shocked that our mischief had reached the dean’s office, but we sheepishly walked to Ellen’s room, knocked on the door, and apologized profusely. We were ready to go to the dean’s office to hear the consequences when Ellen said, “April Fool’s!”

The dean had not heard about our prank, and we were not in trouble.

But, I never really got into April Fool’s Day after that.

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Once Tom and I became parents, and our children were old enough to understand a bit about April Fool’s Day, we would go to their rooms first thing in the morning - in the South - and say, “Guess what! We had a freak snow storm last night!” They would hop out of their beds to look out the windows the first couple of years, but after that, they groaned and mumbled, “April Fool’s.”

When I lived in Abu Dhabi, where the time is nine hours ahead of central time, I texted the family on the morning of my April Fool’s Day and said, “There’s a freak snowstorm here in Abu Dhabi! It’s the first time it’s ever happened!” Because of the time difference, they almost believed me.

Upon my return to the USA, I moved to Maine, and one year, it really did snow on April 1. We got such a kick out of the snow on April Fool’s Day…finally…after saying the same joke for the last 18 years!

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Today, some friends and I started texting about April Fool’s Day in our group chat. I’m not in the classroom with kids, except on Sundays now, but I sent them my G-rated ideas from my teaching days:

“When I was a teacher of 5 year olds, I made April Fool's Day the day when each child memorized/prepared a joke to tell over and over to each person who came to the room or whatever. The parents wrote out the joke and put it in their pockets in case they forgot. Also, I got blank books/journals - one for each child - and titled it "Everything Ms. Barr Knows About Dinosaurs." I personalized it for each child (e.g. Legos, Unicorns, Mario Brothers) - depending on their interests. The kids thought it was so funny that I didn't know anything about whatever they were most interested in.”

The texts about April Fool’s Day continued, and one friend said her grandfather used to hide a spool of thread inside his jacket and then sew a piece of thread from it to the outside so that it looked like a thread needed to be pulled or cut for him to be neat and tidy. Boy, were they surprised when the thread kept coming and coming.

It sounded innocent to me, but another friend said, “Well, it’s fine unless you’re the person really trying to be helpful, and then you find out you’ve been duped. It can be embarrassing.”

The conversation chain continued throughout the day:

“It’s not funny unless everyone is laughing.”

“You have to know your audience.”

“If you look at pranks, they are often examples of bullying/being unkind.”

“Things that make others feel scared, frustrated, or embarrassed are just no fun.”

A retired teacher said, “I used to love when April Fool’s Day was on a weekend!”

Then Chandra chimed in,

“When I was in 3rd grade many moons ago, our teacher gave us a homework assignment on April Fool’s Day, and it was to write an essay entitled ‘A Boat Ride on the Saudi Arabia Desert.’
At first, I was stumped, but I got an idea, and that night I wrote an elaborate essay about how camels are called “ships of the desert” and tied it in that way.
I was the only one who turned a paper in the next day. My teacher took one look at my paper, ripped it in half, and made a comment about how the whole thing was a joke and I didn’t get the joke.
Everyone laughed. That really embarrassed me and I hated school from then on!”

This. breaks. my. heart.

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So, what’s in store for me this Saturday?

I run the social media for St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, so I’ve lined up some groan-worthy jokes to show up throughout the day. (See below.)

I’ll be at Kripalu the whole weekend assisting Aruni with a program called Grief, Loss, and Renewal. I’m honored to be trusted with the hearts of these folks who are grieving, and I won’t be playing any jokes. Laughter, at just the right time, can be a wonderful tool as we work through loss, so maybe a touch of humor will be revealed!

I’m giving up April Fool’s Day. I will still text our kids that it’s snowing, and who knows, it might be in Lenox, Massachusetts!

What will you be doing Saturday? I’d love to know.

I value humor, but I’ve come a long way from wreaking havoc in a freshman dormitory.