I like silliness. Last year I gave one of t2cgitw a medieval castle, one of whose little wooden characters is a colorfully-dressed court jester and I've been working on convincing her that he is at least as important to the daily enjoyment of life in the castle as the prince and his cohorts. So it's not surprising that I enjoyed April Fool's Day.
April 1st is the moment just at the end of Winter and just before Spring when people are encouraged to be sly and amusing. Not hurtful, just making people smile and laugh, perhaps at themselves, perhaps at those who are fond of them. What a wonderful idea.
One of my favorite April Fool's was when I found a gizmo (for want of a more technical term) at a little Greenwich Village store. With it, you could display a small apparently random piece of thread on the front of a garment while on the inside was a bobbin that held yards of the thread. My father was a bit obsessed with things being neat and tidy so if he saw a thread, he invariably reached and picked it off. It was a bit odd when he'd do it to strangers but he simply couldn't help himself, I guess. The first year I used the thing, he dutifully reached over and plucked, only to look a bit horrified as what seemed to be the fabric of my sweater coming apart in his fingers as a result of his attempt to restore order to my appearance. I think I was about 10 and I remember collapsing in giggles. So did he once he realized it was, yes, an April Fool's joke. Amazingly, I repeatedly used the little gadget on several April 1sts after that. Either he had an oddly faulty memory - odd for a college professor who wrote several dozen books - or very nice to his silly daughter and probably as amused as I was by the whole thing. In any case, it was lots of fun so on April 1st every year I try to do at least one silly thing, and I quite palpably miss him and his very funny, silly sense of humor. Happy April Fool's Day!
Labels: anniversaries, family, humor
