April Fool

If I were asked to list holidays, April Fool's Day would be one of the last to come to mind. So I was surprised when my Aunt Tressa mentioned the holiday when she wrote about her father, Gust Doyle. When I asked about my grandfather's personality, she wrote

Dad wasn't extremely talkative but he was a good conversationalist and had a great knowledge on many subjects. He had a good sense of humor and liked to joke and tease the family. He never failed to catch us in April Fool Jokes.

How many descendants think to include that particular holiday when recounting memories of an ancestor?! Since she did, I wish I'd asked her to share some of the jokes he played, but she's gone and I can't.

My father and Gust's son, Lee, was pretty serious most of the time, but I remember one April Fool joke. When I was 5 or 6 years old it seemed to me that I'd been asking for a horse (or perhaps a pony) for a very long time, what probably seemed like years. The answer was always a firm "no." We didn't live on a farm in the country but to my young mind, that was no obstacle. In fact, nothing was an obstacle except my parents' "no." One morning when I went downstairs at breakfast time, my father told me to look out the window because there was a horse in the back yard. What a short moment of joy followed by a huge feeling of disappointment. Of course I was disappointed that there was no horse but also at being called an April Fool, especially because I had no idea what that was. I can't remember that my father ever played an April Fool joke on me again....

Do you have a story about an ancestor who played an April Fool joke? Do you remember an April Fool joke you played on someone or one that was played on you?

May your April Fool jokes be plenty and painless. Happy April Fool Day.


Copyright © 2010 by Nancy Messier.