Two Practical Jokes

April 1, 2024, at home

Two Practical Jokes

With today being All Fools' Day, I am reminded of a wonderful practical joke my father (1934-1997) organized many years ago and the subsequent retaliatory joke. Neither joke had anything to do with April 1; it was just what my dad and his group of friends did to torment each other on Long Island, New York, in the 1980s and the 1990s.

My dad, my stepmother, and my dad's secretary, along with their friend who was a landscaper, conspired to play a joke on the secretary's husband. They put sod on every inch of his driveway; placed a round picnic table with a big umbrella and several chairs surrounding the table on his front lawn; and inserted pink plastic flamingos all around his lawn. They grabbed a few beverages and sat down around the table, waiting for the secretary's husband to come home from work. When the secretary's husband drove his car down the street where he lives and around the curve in the road by his house, he just kept driving because his driveway was gone. I was fortunate to have been there to witness the fun.

The secretary's husband decided to get even with my dad, so he contacted another mutual friend who was a funeral director. I was living at home at the time, so I was the one who discovered this prank. I remember arriving home from work one early evening before my dad got home and discovering exactly FORTY (40) large funeral flower arrangements on wire tripods placed in every room of our house, upstairs and downstairs. I counted all of them, twice. Two of them with banners reading "Rest In Peace" were placed upstairs on top of the bed in the master bedroom. The huge stuffed (plush) pig seated on the bench at our white baby-grand piano in our living room was turned upside down with his legs in the air as if he were dead. I think my stepmother was involved in this joke because how else would the funeral director (and probably his helpers) be able to get into our house?

That was the last of the practical jokes for this particular group of friends. They all got together one evening to take an oath to stop the pranks because everyone was getting too paranoid, waiting for the next prank to be played on them. We all were a bit sad that the pranks ended. It was truly an end to an era. However, I am glad I was there to witness both of these pranks, which are surely large-scale classics.