April Fool's!

When I was growing up, April Fool's Day took on a life of its own. My father was a master prankster. A humorous man with a powerful business side, one could never quite tell when Dad was pulling your leg, or when he was dead serious. Dad was well known for his logical, common sense approach to the advertising and hotel industries and his forward thinking policies remain current decades later.

Still, Dad was never one to give up the opportunity to make light of a situation...especially himself. One of the ways in which I most admired my father was his ability to laugh at himself and not to take his own 'press' too seriously. As serious person person, learning to gain a sense of humor was on my list of goals to achieve. And, Dad was only partially kidding when he told me to put it on my list.

April Fool's Day rolled around our house every year, and every year I was taken in by Dad's deadpan expression or his unbridled excitement. When we lived in New York, our home had a dock right on Long Island Sound. One of my favorite places to play was at the dock area, gathering shells, and even finding horseshoe crabs at low tide. Year after year, he'd wake me up with "Ellen, there's a whale on the dock!". Year after year, I would run down the lawn to the dock, with Shamu nowhere to be seen.

After our family relocated to the Ranch in California, and I was crazy in love with my overweight, but extremely gentle pony, Frosty, Dad called from our barn with extreme glee. He let me know that Frosty had not just been fat, she had been pregnant, and I was now the proud "Mama" of a little white foal. He let me squeal with delight until he began offering names for our newest barn resident. "April Fool" topped that list. It took me a few minutes to catch on that year.

By the time I left for prep school and college, I was pretty well jaded to any of Dad's April Fool's jokes. For the entire last week of March, I'd write notes to myself not to believe a word he'd say. I steeled myself for any ploy, no matter how clever or enticing. I thought I'd gotten quite astute at detecting Dad's pranks. That is, until my junior year of college.

Dad phoned me, as usual, and asked about my classes, my friends and life in Massachusetts. I asked him about the hotel, my Mom and our many animals. Then, ever so non-chalantly, Dad mentioned that Mick Jagger (whose poster hung in my dorm room) had been to Brunch in our beautiful hotel restaurant. Dad knew what a Rolling Stones fan I was, and I just rolled my eyes at this pathetic attempt at trickery. I said, "Sure, Dad. Whatever you say." I didn't believe a word of it. That is, I didn't believe a word of it until weeks later, when I spoke with my mom, and she asked, "Oh, and did Dad tell you that Mick Jagger was at the Ranch a few weeks ago?". My jaw just about hit the floor. The best prank of all...and Dad had been setting it up for 20 years: it was true, but he knew I wouldn't believe it.

And, so I end this blog post with a thought, "some of the best jokes aren't jokes at all, but it's all how you tell the story....".

Happy April Fool's Day! I miss you, Dad.