So all this work looking for the origins of the day reminded me of the only time I have really been involved in an April Fools' Day prank. It is a funny story, so I figured I would write it down for the few people who read my blog to reminisce about the good old days (if you weren't involved in this, feel free to enjoy the story for the first time). Probably the best thing is that while this was supposed to take place on April Fools' Day, nobody who was pulling the prank had the guts to pull it off when the day came, so the prank was actually pulled of a couple of days later. As I remember, the story goes something like this (feel free to add your perspective/rebuttals in the comments. I actually had very little to do with the whole thing so I won't be offended).
It all started as we headed up to Lamar's house for our semiannual conference weekend retreat. Kip was driving, and for some reason we stopped at Wal-mart. As Kip went to find whatever he was after, I split off with Clint to see what we could find in Wal-mart (there may have been a 4th person in the car, I only remember the three). As we got out of earshot, Clint tells me that when he had been in Wal-mart months ago with Med, they had found these dog cookies that looked like real cookies and had decided they would e a great April Fools' Day joke. So, we went to the pet section and he bought the cookies. I guess if I hadn't been with him I wouldn't have been in on the joke, so apparently I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
So, as I said before, we were too chicken to pull the prank off on the day at Lamar's house, so we waited until we got back to our apartments. It seems to me like it must have been a Sunday afternoon when it finally went down, because everyone was around, but I could be wrong. Since the whole thing was Clint's idea, and since he was the one who had money invested, it fell to him to take the cookies to the apartment across the hall (where everyone was for some reason) and offer the cookies to the roommates. I was laughing too hard to try it anyway. So, he went across the hall and gave the cookies to everyone, and surprisingly everyone took one with only a little suspicion. They all ate them, and apparently they tasted fine because nobody said anything. Clint went back and offered everyone another, which had to raise some suspicions, but pretty much everyone accepted again. So, Clint decided to leave the box on the table and tell everyone they could have more, so they would read the box and see they were dog cookies. As the legend goes, Murt happily obliged to take another cookie, and while looking at the box remarked "Lick 'n Crunch, that's a funny name" and proceeded to eat another before anyone realized the implications of the statement (don't know if this was the second or third cookie, could have been either). We all enjoyed a good laugh afterward, and got some good mileage out of what was left in the box. The best was the person that came over and just took a cookie without asking if he could have one. So, that is the only real April Prank I have ever been involved in. Not great, but it sure made me laugh at the time.
