the april fools day of my childhood

Happy April Fools Day.

Can’t tell you where this holiday came from, but I CAN tell you a little story about how it got the better of me.

Our family had just gotten home from church. It was an April Fools Day that happened to fall on a Sunday. Mom went to check the answering machine messages, only to hear a message from my Oma (Grandma in Dutch) for Peter and I.

In this message, she excitedly told us to hurry over to the neighborhood park behind her house, because there was a BLIMP in the square lawn area that had LANDED! Oma said, “…And I spoke with the man directing the Blimp, and he told me that he would take the two of YOU UP into the Blimp for a RIDE.  But you have to hurry!”

To say the least, Peter and I were thrilled. We threw on some old shorts and sweatshirts, sprinted over to Oma’s house in Olympic speed, and in a moment that almost seemed to go in slow-mo, ran down the hill into the park, anticipating a beautiful, colorful Blimp waiting there just for us. Alas, nothing was there.  It was gone!  Just some tulips and green grass before us.

And Oma? She was non-chalantly sitting on her back patio, drinking cranberry juice mixed with ginger ale, and munching on Wheat Thins (her usual afternoon snack).

“Oma!” I cried. “Where did the Blimp go? We came as fast as we could!”

“Ohh, I am so sorry. You were just too late, Emily. They had to leave…but maybe next year,” Oma said with dramatic tones of melancholy.

Peter was too smart, though: “Oma, there isn’t any Blimp…this park isn’t big enough for a Blimp to land here.  You were just joking, weren’t you?!”

No longer able to hold her humor in, Oma started chuckling, then laughing out loud, throwing her head back, and announcing to her little, fickle grandchildren, “Happy April Fools Day!”

Can you imagine, a 60-something Grandmother getting the better of her two elementary-aged grandchildren?

Yep.  She did.