Foolin'
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 12:17PM I love April Fool's jokes. Except when they are pulled on me.
This morning, I was surprised with a chicken in my bed - not a chick, mind you. A chicken.
My wife can be very funny. But this wasn't one of those times. Of course, had I done it ...
My most memorable April Fools' joke was back in 1986. I was working my first journalism job at the defunct Sports Express in Hardwick, Vt. (We were the first all-sports publication in Vermont. We covered 14 schools in four counties. We lasted about two years before running out of steam. Still, start-ups like Northeast Sports Network, MaxPreps, etc ... have followed in our footsteps. And to my knowledge, none of us have ever turned a profit.)
But I digress.
Yaz in 1975
Back in 1986, owner Pat Hussey and I cooked up a plan to publish that Carl Yazstremski, who had recently retired, was moving to Greensboro, Vermont. Why Yaz? Simple. He was the only plausible person we had a photo of kicking around (Pat, a former Rutland Herald sports writer had absconded with some AP photos upon his departure - hopefully, the statute of limitations on that theft has expired!).
At any rate, we wrote the story, went to press and mailed the paper around to the local media.
No one was fooled except Don Fillion, then sports editor at the Free Press.
Much to our delight, Fillion wrote about Yaz coming to Vermont in his weekly who's who column.
We set him straight and apologized. He was not amused.
Later, I saw him at the Spring Green at defunct Catamount Speedway and he proceeded to profanely (and appropriately) ream me out in front of the press corps. I deserved it.
I was 18 at the time. Nearly two decades later, Fillion retired, moved to Montgomery and began to work for me at the S-A Messenger as a stringer. One night I asked if he remembered the joke and bawling me out when I was a pup.
He said he didn't. Not surprising, I guess. It was a small story and I was a small-time hack. But still, ever April Fools Day I remember the story and smile.
As I was figuring out my response to my wife's chicken gag I went searching for ideas on the internet and found this diversion for the top 100 April Fools hoaxes of all time.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/
Enjoy!
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SHAWN CORROW, when he's not trying really hard to figure out a way to prank his wife and daughter, is a freelance photojournalist based in Franklin, Vermont and the owner of Cold Hollow Photography.
