Monday Moanings - April 1, 2013

April Fools Day - God how I loathed this day when I was a child. There was no fun in having my name, April, associated with 'fool'. No matter how hard I tried, how brave a face I began the day with, I always ended up feeling every bit a despicable fool.

The only escape from this annual day of dread came when April 1st fell on the weekend, and those even less frequent years when the date was consumed by Good Friday or Easter Monday. I survived of course. I'm happy to report that except for the briefest of twinges in my depths, gone is the great anxiety that used to accompany the day. There is no need for me to expend great gobs of energy steeling myself against pranksters.

 And besides, Today is Easter Monday! Today is a good April Fools Day.

Checking out the BBC this morning, I was reminded of one of the most famous pranks of all. On April 1, 1957 they aired a piece about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. It was narrated by one of those quintessentially sincere BBC voices. A lot of people embarked on fool's errands in search of spaghetti seeds, cuttings, and plants; some were very irate to discover their folly.

I recall watching the clip with my folks and my Dad becoming almost apoplectic with laughter. For years afterwards, there were frequent references in our house to spaghetti trees always accompanied by great chortling. I have chuckled and grinned my way through much this April Fools Day buoyed by this one fabulous story and memory.

Here's to spaghetti trees everywhere!
God bless the BBC.