Editor’s note: Recently in The Voice, the announcement was made of the death of the conductor of the column, Ask Grandpa, which provided readers with 503 weeks of sage advice, humor, and continuity. Below is the repeat of the April 1, 2021 column. The Voice will continue to offer previous columns. We invite special requests of previous columns.
Grandpa says: Happy April Fool’s Day. May you have a lovely Spring! Spring brings out the child in all of us and has for as long as man has been on this planet. As far back as ancient Egyptian legends of Isis, Osiris, and Seth, people have used the advent of Spring as an excuse to let giddiness reign, if even for a day. In ancient Rome, the celebration of Hilaria, kept by cult members of Cybele, was the end of the month of March. It is quite obvious that the origins of modern-day April Fool’s celebrations are forever linked to the vernal equinox, or the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. And why not? Is not Mother Nature a practical joker when it comes to the weather? I recall one year when I was in junior high school, she played a good one on me. We got a blizzard April 1. The school bus apparently could not make it through the snow. I was not about to let a little storm keep me from protecting my record of perfect attendance, so I walked to school. It was not until I got to school and found it closed that I realized that school would be closed due to the storm. I heard Mother Nature laughing at me the entire walk home. Her laugh sounds just like wind.
In 18th Century Scotland the tradition was a two-day event. The first day was the “hunting of the gowk”, or cuckoo bird. People were sent on ridiculous or phony errands. The next day, called Tailie Day, some individuals would pin donkey tails or kick me signs on the back side of those who had fallen for the pranks. It is not just individuals who get involved in the shenanigans. I recall back in the late 1950s,or early 1960s, the BBC published a story about a bumper crop of spaghetti that Swiss farmers were harvesting. Yes, the story was replete with photos of people picking noodles off of trees. When I was an undergrad in college, the campus newspaper published a picture of an airliner that made an emergency landing in the square surrounded by the dorms and educational buildings. Yep, I almost fell for that one, too. This is the first time I have publicly admitted that I did double check out my window to see if there was an airplane in the compound.
My personal absolute favorite news media stunt was in 1992. National Public Radio ran a news article announcing that Richard Nixon was running for president again. As a die hard Republican, my late father-in-law sent a campaign contribution to the RNC. I remember it well because he talked about it up until the day he went to his reward. In 1996, Taco Bell announced that it bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it “Taco Liberty Bell”. Not to be outdone, in 1998 Burger King advertised a ‘Left-Handed Whopper”. I might have fallen for that one had I not been on a very strict diet.
Enjoy the Spring and all her blessings.