Snippets from my five-year diary.

April 1.

*1970 (age 12): APRIL FOOLS! Fooled Bob. Told him it was snowing and he believed me! Played tetherball at school.

One of my favorite things to do on April Fool’s Day was to tell my brother it was snowing on. He fell for it just about every year. He was seven years younger than me. What can I say? It was funny and the joke never got old.

*1971 (age 13): Thurs – APRIL THE FIRST – APRIL FOOLS DAY. On report card I got 2 a’s (yesterday). Dad fooled me.

I was always proud of my A’s. And, this year, Dad fooled me. Too bad I didn’t expand on this more and tell how I was fooled.

*1972 (age 14): Sat – Didn’t do too many chores – worked on homework. HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY AND APRIL 1^st TOO!

Any Saturday spent on homework, was always better than any Saturday doing chores!

*1973 (age 15): Sun – HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY. Today was the Cerebral Palsy Telethon. The stars were Paul Lynde, Radar from M*A*S*H*, lady from Maude. Bobby, me & Cathy & Vicki went. Got all their autographs.

I had to chuckle when I read this. I was very specific about Paul Lynde (Uncle Arthur on the original Bewitched and Hollywood Squares game show regular), Gary Burghoff – aka Radar, and “the lady” from Maude. For some reason, I remember Adrienne Barbeau and not Bea Arthur. She must not have made much of an impression to not even remember her name.

*1974 (age 16): Mon – HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY & APRIL 1^st TOO.  Got fooled a couple of times. Boy it’s really raining today – all day long – very wet.

Fooled yet another year, but no details. Too bad. I’d have loved to go back and remember what happened. Lots about the rain though. “All day – very wet,” says a lot.

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Note to self: April Fool’s Day gave you the chance to tease and you’ll be teased back quite a bit over the years. Remember, if you can dish it out, you can also take it. Laugh and high-five those who fool you. You’ll always be a bit gullible because you trust people. And that’s a good thing.