The Jennifer Blogs

One week from today is April Fool’s Day. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.



When I was a kid, my little brother and I used to love to play tricks on each other. I have to admit -- he got me every time! He was a far better jokester than I was. When we were about 8 or 9 he came to the door screaming as I walked in from playing with the neighbor across the street,
"Jen! Jen! You’ll never guess who won the Lottery!"

"Who? Not Mom?"

"No...guess again." (I assume he felt it would be too much of a stretch to tell me our mother won the Lottery. And he always made me, "guess again.")
I never did guess it, so he just out and told me, "Veda!" (My mom’s best friend)

I was flipping out...imagining that Veda was going to spread the wealth and I could buy that Barbie Dream House (or whatever I was wishing for at that particular moment in time).
Then he brought me back to reality.
"APRIL FOOLS!!!"



Another year he taped the handle on the sink hose so that when I turned the faucet on I got doused!



I only pulled two really good April Fools Pranks my entire life. I was doing mornings for a radio station in Huntsville, AL and two years in a row, I played a joke on my listeners. The whole morning show was in on it, but I was the one who dreamed up the ideas.



The first year we told people that there were several traffic lights in the city that had new signal sensors. You had to blow your horn to get the light to change. We even had a cop call us who told us that he was off duty, but that we got him hook, line and sinker. It was all fun and no one got hurt.



But the next year I really pissed people off. I told them, "remember -- thanks to Bill 105A (or whatever we named it), you have to have your taxes turned in by midnight tonight, or file an extension. In my mind, the worst that would happen is people would get their taxes done two weeks early.



Oh noooo ... some people actually turned around and headed back home, called in sick (or late) to work, and proceeded to do their taxes. My boss got serious complaints and someone even wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper about how careless the radio station was to allow that kind of joke on the air. The general manager was SO mad at us -- me specifically. So anyway ... remember when you turn your radio on one week from today -- April 1st -- not to believe everything you hear. Don’t believe everything your friends tell you. And be careful when walking around the corner at the office. You never know ...