Reason to SMILE #91: APRIL FOOLS
Top 3 bamboozles of my past:
1. Convincing my little sister that the taxidermy on the wall at a Po Boy’s restaurant was actually live animals trained to appear stuffed and mounted on the wall –
- It helped that the kitchen was behind the wall: “You see their heads but their bodies are on the other side of the wall.” Bump! “Did you hear that noise? The animal just moved.”
- Dad playing along with the ruse boosted the credibility of my story: “Dad, is that true?” she asked. “Well, I hear something moving behind that wall,” he replied.
2. Convincing a naive teenage girl that the top of a building in downtown Atlanta was constructed entirely of popsicle sticks –
- I was the trusted chaperone on a youth trip. Why would anything I say be a farce?
- Using believable details was the key: “The architect’s name was so and so (insert made-up name here) and he used this many (insert astronomical number here) sticks to build it.”
3. Convincing my college roommate that astronomers discovered a new constellation in the shape of a cowboy hat –
- It helped that I’d never tried to fool her before.
- I knew I had her at cowboy hat – she was a cowgirl at heart.
- I was thankful she’d never seen the Arby’s commercial on TV at that time: Cowboy looks to the sky and sees the stars form an Arby’s sign. “I’m thinking Arby’s!”
When you’re known as the straight-laced, goody-goody minister’s daughter, it’s easy to pull off a good hoax or two. The hardest part, though, is holding in the SMILES til you’re ready to let your victims off the hook. Now that takes skill!
I hope your April Fools’ Day has been filled with SMILES!
Image by symbols-n-emoticons.com
