I'm almost sure there was snow on this forsythia yesterday. Maybe it is some elaborate April Fool joke by Mother Nature. It's the sort of thing my own mother would have pulled. Some people claim Christmas, my husband's favorite holiday was Halloween...my mother loved April Fool's Day, and I was her favorite target. My Girl Scout troop came for a sleep-over; my mother hid one of everyone's shoes. In high school, when girls wore six crinoline slips under poodle skirts (a la Happy Days) and we all sat in groups on the quad grass for lunch, I opened my brown paper sack (we were too cool for lunch boxes) and found folded newspapers and scraps of wood, carefully wrapped like sandwiches in waxed paper. Boy, did I get strange looks. The year I was a sophomore, my mother woke me, said we were running late and I had to hurry with breakfast. I dashed around and went across the street to whistle for Linda, a senior, so we could walk to the bus stop. I whistled and waited...no Linda. Finally I went to the door and knocked...and waited. Finally Linda's mother came to the door, hair disheveled and pulling on her robe. "What do you want?" "Isn't Linda going to school today?" "Of course she is, but it's only six o'clock, Diane." My mother was surreptitiously pulling weeds in the front yard, watching me make an April Fool of myself, and laughing like a loon. Mother would have loved snow/no snow.
4 comments:
Ah...it seems like the days of good ol' fashioned April Fool's jokes are long gone...and it sounds like your mom was the blue ribbon champ...no foolin.' Happy New Month!
Maybe it was a double April Fool's joke. Linda's are known sleapyheads!
Like your Mom, some of us never completely “grow up” but instead harbor a childishness that appears, but are not limited too, on days like April 1st. At the hotel were I have been staying for almost a year they serve a nightly “snack” that’s really a meal. Sherrie, the head cook, has a delightful, smiling personality every day greeting the many long term guests by our first names. Last night I didn’t return her warm greeting but instead wiggled my finger for her to come to the steamer that held the chicken tenders. I winked at the hotel Asst Mgr, Jan, to follow my lead. He looked confused as he just said “Uh, OK”. As Sherrie approached I lifted the steamer lid and dug through the tenders with the tongs, quietly mumbling “it was here in the corner and was about this long, wasn’t it Jan?” Trying very hard not to smile he flawlessly executed his impromptu role saying “don’t know much about bugs but it was ugly”. Sherrie takes pride in her job so the look of panic on her face almost caused me to confess my sin immediately….almost. She didn’t hesitate and with a face ready to cry snatched the tray out of the steamer and nearly ran toward the kitchen lest someone discover her faux pas! As she approached the kitchen door with her tainted tray I LOUDLY reminded Jan that today was the “First Day of the new Month of April”. Sherrie stopped dead in her tracks, turned slowly, and shot a dagger-like glare at us. It seemed the longest 3 seconds ever before a smile slowly started to form. Jan told me later that her glare nearly scared a “it was his idea” confession in the first 2 seconds. Placing the tray back into the steamer she punched me in the arm and wagged her finger at Jan while warning “you two better check your dinner platter carefully in the future. I AM the one who prepares your meals!” Whew, I almost felt compelled to apologize….almost. Kinda juvenile and sounds a little like your Mom, huh ….almost?
PS: Sherrie did scare me enough to head off to the front desk and have Emily cancel the request to have Frank, the maintenance man, come up and fix the broken window in my room! They tease that they are going to miss me when I finally leave (as they roll their eyes up into their eyelids).
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