My mother loved April Fool’s Day and to say it was celebrated in our family was an understatement. Early on she recruited an excellent assistant in Abdul. Abdul came to work with our family when Ma was pregnant with me. He was the best of men with a wonderful and wicked sense of humour and April Fool’s Day was his favourite day of the year.
It started off at breakfast with dry leaves in the cornflakes and diluted milk of magnesia in the milk jug. Over time everything was tampered with. We had two dogs so of course the fake dog poop made a regular appearance. Apple pie beds were de rigueur and one of Abdul’s favourites was to sew up my father’s shirt sleeves and then stay well out of the way for the furore that followed! In the end Mum had to tell Abdul that April Fool’s Day only lasted until midday or it was bad luck.
But the April Fool I remember most vividly was one of Mum’s. She told us (my brothers, sister and me) that school had been cancelled for the following day and so we were going to spend the day at the beach. We were living in Madras at the time which had the most beautiful, long, sandy beach and we were very excited at the prospect of the day there. She packed a picnic, we were all in our swimmers and piled into the car and set off in high spirits. Five minutes later she said April Fools, turned the car around, took us home to change into our uniforms and took us into school.
I have always wondered if she secretly felt rather guilty for doing it and now I come to think of it, it may have sounded something of a death knell for April Fools in the family as I don’t remember many after that. Once properly fooled, maybe twice shy.
