“April Fool is Friday. Are You Ready?”
By

Gerry Niskern

“April fool!” Can you remember hearing those words as a kid after one of your friends pulled a really good April Fool joke on you?
When most of us were children the best April Fool jokes were ones that we could pull were the simple ones we thought of our self. There were no props involved. Just our creative minds conjuring up an outrageous fact that surprisingly was believable; at least to our most gullible friends.
No one knows exactly where or when April Fools day started and why, but since the 1700’s, it seems every country has an April Fools day. Sometimes it is called All Fools Day. So watch out this Friday! Nothing you hear is credible. Check everything out.
There is always a predictable internet hoax by some corporations to fool their customers. Once, back in l996, Taco Bell duped the public by claiming to purchase the Liberty Bell intending to rename it the Taco Bell.
I remember one April Fool’s Day during unusually hot weather, a radio host in Phoenix, told his audience about a misting system planned by the city. It would be strung high above all the sidewalks. The system would use reconstituted water from the sewers and would cost the city virtually nothing in water bills. Surprisingly, a large segment of his listeners believed it and flooded the city’s phone lines with indignant protests.
Of course, I have to tell you one of my best April Fool’s Day jokes. We were having a terrible storm for April. Cold wind and rain that turned into “unheard of light snow” briefly here in Phoenix. We lived on the top of a little mountain at the end of 14th street, with a long, steep driveway. I called my grandson, aged eleven, and told him the neighborhood kids were having a blast skiing down our driveway. He begged his mom to drive him over and it took her a while to convince him I was “April Fooling” him.
My earliest memory of an April Fool’s joke was when a most favorite uncle of all the cousins called us together. He had a paper bag from the bakery and being the youngest and probably with the sweetest tooth, I begged to be first to reach into the paper sack. I pulled out a DOG BISCUIT! Everyone thought it was hilarious. Not me!