I’ve totally been HAD on this silly day twice in my life. It’s really hard to get me now . . . I’m pretty keyed into the idea that today is the day to pull a prank on dear old HD.
The first time someone really got me was in 1998 – I was a junior at UGA, and my dad called me on the afternoon of April 1st to let me know that he’d received a big promotion from his company. Naturally, I was very excited for dear-old-dad . . . until he laid the news on me that the new job was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at his company’s home office.
My only-child mindset crept in . . . they are leaving me? Here, in Athens, by myself? I wasn’t too happy to hear that.
My dad was so excited though . . . talking about a VP position, how great it would be, and that I could transfer to the University of Arkansas and finish my degree there, if I wanted to.
No way that was going to happen – I was already bleeding red and black after nurturing nearly 3 years of Dawg pride. But – no family close by? Really? Me, all alone in the whole state of Georgia?
I started to cry. Yes, at the age of 20, I think that I said something like, “You can’t just leave me!”
That’s when my dad let me in on the joke . . . he started laughing and said, “No, no, no. It’s just a prank . . . April Fools! Don’t you know what today is?” He said later that he had to stop the joke at that point because I was crying . . . he’d intended to let me go on thinking that they were moving for a least a few hours before he’d call back and ‘April Fools’ me.
Ha ha. Very funny. Scare your only kid into thinking she’ll be a loner . . . what a way to celebrate the first day of April.
The second prank played on yours truly, however, was truly funny . . . and even though I was totally ‘had’ – I was a good sport about it. To this day, I really do compliment the team that pulled off the joke because they got me GOOD.
In April of 2003, there really was nothing else on my mind besides my upcoming wedding. Everything took a backseat . . . work, as you can image, probably took the hardest hit. My boss was good about it . . . he didn’t give me too hard of a time, and everyone at my office seemed able to handle my constant wedding banter.
That is, until April 1st.
One of my coworkers and my boss(so I found out later) to together early in the morning and concocted this plan to totally fake me out. It even involved a friend of my coworker – someone that I didn’t even know.
Sometime before lunch, my phone rang.
“Hello, this is Heather.”
“Yes, um, is this Heather Abernathy?”
“Yes sir, how can I help you?” (I was in sales – I'm sure I thought this was a potential lead or something).
“Yes, my name is so-and-so from the First United Methodist Church of Newnan. I’m calling on behalf of Mrs. Smith, our wedding coordinator, to discuss some wedding details with you.”
I was probably a bit giddy and excited at this point. You say you want to talk about my wedding? No problem!
“Yes . . .” I responded.
The man on the phone continued. “Well, yes ma’am. I’m afraid I have some bad news to share . . . it seems as though we’ve double booked your wedding date. You see, you have reserved a 5pm time slot on Saturday, August 16th, and we actually have a member of our church that had previously reserved that date. It’s a terrible mix up . . ."
“TODAY IS APRIL FOOLS DAY . . . I know you’re kidding. Who is this?” I said, so dang proud of myself that these silly people had not pulled one over on me.
Or, at least, so I thought.
The man went on to explain that in fact, it was NOT an April Fools joke, but instead a terrible mistake that the church had made and discovered at a meeting the night before. The date had, unfortunatley, been double booked . . . and because the people in the other family holding my date were actual members of the church (and we were not), they would receive first priority. It took a lot of back-and-forth between the man and myself . . . I didn’t want to believe him. I remember telling him I’d already met with the Music Minister to select music, that I’d met the wedding coordinator twice . . . and the voice on the phone agreed that this was true and that these people were also terribly sorry.
He told me that the following weekend was open, August 23rd, and they’d be happy to have my wedding at their church on that date.
My head starting spinning as I let this news really sink in. By April (we’re talking 3 months before the actual wedding), EVERYTHING was booked. Reception, food, entertainment, honeymoon . . . everything centered on 5pm, August 16th.
I even remember specifically thinking – “I can’t get married on August 23rd . . . I won’t get back from our honeymoon in time to watch the Dawgs play on opening day!”
You guessed it. After about 6 or 7 minutes on the phone with this guy, he totally had me. I started to cry.
In a choked up voice, I said something like, “What am I going to do . . .”
And then, the voice on the phone told me to stand up and look over the wall of my cube.
There they were – pretty much my entire office, all huddled over the wall, listening to the whole exchange.
Everyone busted out laughing, including the guy on the phone, which I still held to my ear. It took me a second – I was shocked! – but then I, too, started laughing. I compliment the dude on the phone because – seriously – he did a GREAT job. He totally convinced me that it was NOT a prank – on the day of days to actually play a prank! I hung up with him and gave my coworkers a really hard time for getting me so good.
But – like I said, I think I was a really good sport about. I can totally appreciate a great joke, even if it’s played on ME. (Truthfully, I was a little flattered that I was chosen to be the ‘butt’ of the joke . . . it made me feel like my coworkers really did enjoy working with me and knew I could take a joke, despite all my daily wedding nonsense!)
So, on this day, I remember those who have fooled me. And I honor the fact that they were able to pull off such great pranks, even if I was the one being fooled. I certainly could never do it. I’m not a great jokester, and I know I’d cave and do a terrible job of playing through the prank!
The first time someone really got me was in 1998 – I was a junior at UGA, and my dad called me on the afternoon of April 1st to let me know that he’d received a big promotion from his company. Naturally, I was very excited for dear-old-dad . . . until he laid the news on me that the new job was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at his company’s home office.
My only-child mindset crept in . . . they are leaving me? Here, in Athens, by myself? I wasn’t too happy to hear that.
My dad was so excited though . . . talking about a VP position, how great it would be, and that I could transfer to the University of Arkansas and finish my degree there, if I wanted to.
No way that was going to happen – I was already bleeding red and black after nurturing nearly 3 years of Dawg pride. But – no family close by? Really? Me, all alone in the whole state of Georgia?
I started to cry. Yes, at the age of 20, I think that I said something like, “You can’t just leave me!”
That’s when my dad let me in on the joke . . . he started laughing and said, “No, no, no. It’s just a prank . . . April Fools! Don’t you know what today is?” He said later that he had to stop the joke at that point because I was crying . . . he’d intended to let me go on thinking that they were moving for a least a few hours before he’d call back and ‘April Fools’ me.
Ha ha. Very funny. Scare your only kid into thinking she’ll be a loner . . . what a way to celebrate the first day of April.
The second prank played on yours truly, however, was truly funny . . . and even though I was totally ‘had’ – I was a good sport about it. To this day, I really do compliment the team that pulled off the joke because they got me GOOD.
In April of 2003, there really was nothing else on my mind besides my upcoming wedding. Everything took a backseat . . . work, as you can image, probably took the hardest hit. My boss was good about it . . . he didn’t give me too hard of a time, and everyone at my office seemed able to handle my constant wedding banter.
That is, until April 1st.
One of my coworkers and my boss(so I found out later) to together early in the morning and concocted this plan to totally fake me out. It even involved a friend of my coworker – someone that I didn’t even know.
Sometime before lunch, my phone rang.
“Hello, this is Heather.”
“Yes, um, is this Heather Abernathy?”
“Yes sir, how can I help you?” (I was in sales – I'm sure I thought this was a potential lead or something).
“Yes, my name is so-and-so from the First United Methodist Church of Newnan. I’m calling on behalf of Mrs. Smith, our wedding coordinator, to discuss some wedding details with you.”
I was probably a bit giddy and excited at this point. You say you want to talk about my wedding? No problem!
“Yes . . .” I responded.
The man on the phone continued. “Well, yes ma’am. I’m afraid I have some bad news to share . . . it seems as though we’ve double booked your wedding date. You see, you have reserved a 5pm time slot on Saturday, August 16th, and we actually have a member of our church that had previously reserved that date. It’s a terrible mix up . . ."
“TODAY IS APRIL FOOLS DAY . . . I know you’re kidding. Who is this?” I said, so dang proud of myself that these silly people had not pulled one over on me.
Or, at least, so I thought.
The man went on to explain that in fact, it was NOT an April Fools joke, but instead a terrible mistake that the church had made and discovered at a meeting the night before. The date had, unfortunatley, been double booked . . . and because the people in the other family holding my date were actual members of the church (and we were not), they would receive first priority. It took a lot of back-and-forth between the man and myself . . . I didn’t want to believe him. I remember telling him I’d already met with the Music Minister to select music, that I’d met the wedding coordinator twice . . . and the voice on the phone agreed that this was true and that these people were also terribly sorry.
He told me that the following weekend was open, August 23rd, and they’d be happy to have my wedding at their church on that date.
My head starting spinning as I let this news really sink in. By April (we’re talking 3 months before the actual wedding), EVERYTHING was booked. Reception, food, entertainment, honeymoon . . . everything centered on 5pm, August 16th.
I even remember specifically thinking – “I can’t get married on August 23rd . . . I won’t get back from our honeymoon in time to watch the Dawgs play on opening day!”
You guessed it. After about 6 or 7 minutes on the phone with this guy, he totally had me. I started to cry.
In a choked up voice, I said something like, “What am I going to do . . .”
And then, the voice on the phone told me to stand up and look over the wall of my cube.
There they were – pretty much my entire office, all huddled over the wall, listening to the whole exchange.
Everyone busted out laughing, including the guy on the phone, which I still held to my ear. It took me a second – I was shocked! – but then I, too, started laughing. I compliment the dude on the phone because – seriously – he did a GREAT job. He totally convinced me that it was NOT a prank – on the day of days to actually play a prank! I hung up with him and gave my coworkers a really hard time for getting me so good.
But – like I said, I think I was a really good sport about. I can totally appreciate a great joke, even if it’s played on ME. (Truthfully, I was a little flattered that I was chosen to be the ‘butt’ of the joke . . . it made me feel like my coworkers really did enjoy working with me and knew I could take a joke, despite all my daily wedding nonsense!)
So, on this day, I remember those who have fooled me. And I honor the fact that they were able to pull off such great pranks, even if I was the one being fooled. I certainly could never do it. I’m not a great jokester, and I know I’d cave and do a terrible job of playing through the prank!
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1 comment:
They did get you good! Lucky for you it was a joke, my church really did call and tell me that, NOT on April Fools day, and even though i had been a member for 10 yrs, I wasn't anymore since I'd moved to TX. I still got to keep my day but had to move up the wedding to 11am and rearrange all the rest of the details for the day. I'm still bitter!! But it worked out great :)
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