I don't 'get' most teasing so I’m not much on April Fool’s Day jokes. Even surprises are hard for me.
We almost killed my mother with a surprise party on her 70th birthday. This was back in the day when I had this crazy legendary energy, so I hatched the plot:
What we did, Old Dave and I, was to have my mother and Aunt Grace over for dinner at 6:00 at our little apartment, kiss them goodbye at 8:00, then sneak out the back door and race to our car on a nearby side street so that while they were still buckling themselves into their seatbelts, we were zipping up I-93.
Thus there we were among the crowd at their house 20 miles to the north when they walked in.
Mom saw David and me first. She knew she had just left us in Somerville and now here we were... in Lowell?
Then her gaze fell on the many nieces and nephews, my big sister Nan and her husband, all 30 of us gathered in the living room.
“Am I dead?” she yelled. She was always a great one for humor. Then, ten years later, she did die at her birthday party, a small plate of desserts on one knee.
But ah Cal, as everyone called you, how much like you I wanted to be, funny all the time and making light.
I got the chance to be funny yesterday at the awesome Book Festival at the Maynard Public Library about which I will say more tomorrow and Tuesday too. For now, four hours late with this post, I’m jumping into my pantyhose to hit church with two of my favorite 15-year-olds.
Happy April Fool’s Day y’all! Happy Palm Sunday! Happy Week With Passover at Its End! Stroll on into Jerusalem as if you will live forever, unafraid of anything the future might hold!
