Article by Anna McFie
April starts out ahem… shall we say rather foolishly?
Fortunately, after everyone exhibits a little (or sometimes a lot🤭) of their inner fool, bouncing back to normal seems to come naturally to the sane. Unfortunately some people never seem to acquire this knack. Shhh…don’t name names!🤫
On this day pranks come popping out of the woodwork like crazy. Some silly, some big, some really big, like the one in 1957.
In 1957, a certain fellow in Britain decided to prank his fellow man big time. On April 1st he broadcasted over the news network that a Swiss region near the Italian border had harvested “an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop” that year. This announcement was backed up with compelling footage of farmers picking the fresh spaghetti off of trees, ripened to the perfect length. Followed by a celebration dinner for their bumper crop consisting of, you guessed it, a dish of the freshly picked, sun dried spaghetti.
The prank was successful and a large number of people called into the news network asking how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. Oops, they weren’t serious, were they?!
Has it not ever occurred to you who came up with this whole foolish idea? Nobody really knows the correct origin of April Fool’s Day. Some speculate it started in 1582 when France changed their calendar 🗓 system. This moved the first day of the year to January instead of right before April. People who didn’t learn of this change celebrated the new year late and became the brunt of many a joke. Hmmm… perhaps. But nobody really knows.
In our house we’ve always played jokes that are fun for both sides and certainly nothing that is harmful or hurtful. Like clear coating a bar of soap🧼. It’s still super slippery but no amount of enthusiastic rubbing will coax out any suds. Delightful! 😄
Perhaps my favorite joke is the one mom dished out on us several years ago. Unfortunately everybody’s wise to it now but if you haven’t played this joke on your family yet… you have fresh bait! 😉
You will need:
- A flower pot (relatively small)
- A fake but real-looking plant
- Chocolate cake (cut into cubes)
- Chocolate pudding
- Crushed Oreos
- Candy rocks and oh yes,
- Gummy worms!
Here’s what you do: layer pieces of cake, pudding, Oreos and gummy worms into the flower pot all the way to the top. Top with a layer of potting soil (in the form of crushed Oreos) and sprinkle with a few candy rocks for an extra dose of authenticity.
Next, push your plant into the soil and voila! You have a nearly foolproof April Fool’s Day joke!
Either set it on the table or in another convenient, natural plant-like place. Come dessert time won’t you have a shocker!
I still remember mom suggesting we have dirt for dessert. Ok, she’d never served us dirt before or anything even remotely approaching dirt. She was joking.
But then she reached for the potted plant and uprooted the thing! (shock #1)😯. Dad licked off the root (shock #2!)😲. Mom began scooping “dirt” into dessert bowls and oh horror, there was a worm (SHOCK # 3)😵. But the worm was blue and yellow. And the dirt wasn’t regular potting soil. The joke was out. And it was really good!
WARNING: If your family is not in the habit of eating dirt, make sure you explain (especially to young kids) what the “dirt” is. Be prepared to show them its good by first tasting it yourself. One of my brother’s still refused to eat the worms even after he knew they were gummy worms.
Watch the video here:
