APRIL FOOL & EASTER

I made it through St. Patrick’s Day without wearing green, without being pinched. Now I’ve made it through April Fools Day without being made look foolish. I don’t know whether to feel smug or neglected. I tried to find some history, back-story for April Fool’s and there isn’t much. Chaucer (1392) made a connection between foolishness and the April 1 date in The Canterbury Tales. There was a Roman holiday associated with the vernal equinox that was mentioned but nowadays it’s all about pranks and practical jokes. 

I have been on both sides of the prank. In the Army, on April 1 one year, I got gigged because someone painted the bottoms of my boot heels green. It went unnoticed until an NCO walking behind me called me out. He was acting in self defense. By calling me out he became part of the establishment rather than part of the problem. Everybody had a good laugh and I cleaned up my boots with a wire brush and some black paint. That night I returned the prank on the guy I thought had so pranked me. Instead of making our beds in the morning, we folded sheets and blanket on top our ’S’ folded mattress, at the head of the bed. We were parachute riggers and we had access to all sorts of sewing supplies. I took a really big needle, some heavily waxed, cotton cord and sewed his 'S' folded mattress together. When he came to bed in the dark squad bay that night, his mattress would not unfold. He had to take his pocket knife to the dozen or so tightly tied stitches, in the dark. He got it and we were even. 

Pranks were not limited to special days. Every day was ripe for pranks. We had a motor pool guy who had lost his sergeant stripes for some alcohol related indiscretion and he was trying very hard to get those stripes back. In the process he was an absolute asshole, ratting on anyone who violated the least letter of any rule, alienating everyone in the unit. We had a wind dummy at the parachute loft that was made of canvas and stuffed with heavy felt padding. On parachute drops we might strap a parachute on the dummy and push it out before sending personnel. It was a check to see where the wind would take us. Someone, just saying; someone stenciled his name on the chest of the wind dummy. It went unnoticed until they pulled the dummy out on a training jump. The guy went ballistic, demanding an investigation. He was still a corporal when my enlistment ran out the next year and his name was still on the dummy. 

I like the story from Medieval Europe where the peasants were allowed one day a year to misbehave without fear of punishment. They could act out and mock the powers that be and get away with it. The rest of the year they were beaten and mistreated whenever the Lord of the Manor or his overseer felt like it. Easter is coming on fast and its history is just as convoluted as April Fool’s. The sunrise service, rabbits and colored eggs are remnants of pagan festivals associated with equinox and the resurrection of the Sumerian Goddess, Ishtar. I like the Mardi Gras connection. I go to the party but I don't to give up anything for Lent. I’ll give up plastic bottles for Earth Day.