Foghorn March 28 - Preparing for April Fools Day

Another prank by Paul, this time the setting is a prestigious summer camp in Maine where Paul worked as a counselor. He announced that they were going on a little trip to Canada as they were in a lake rich region of Maine near the Canadian border. He took them to a lake and they canoed across it to where a bridged canal led them to another lake. Near the bridge was a cabin with two German Sheppard which he pointed out as the border guard station and he knew that down that next lake there was a cabin owned by Canadians who always flew the Maple Leaf Flag which was quite convincing to the campers on their way to Oak Island in that lake. Paul had checked out the island alone and seeded it with Canadian pennies and Expo brochures. That evening he played Canadian stations on his transistor radio which included a lot of French and Canadian music. It was all very convincing and he never did cop to it, they just accepted it and went back to the regular campus of the summer camp after visiting Canada. 20 years later one of the campers who was an assistant professor at Yale Law visited Paul and in the course of reminiscing about their shared time at summer camps tole him that the trip to Canada was his favourite memory. paul did not tip his hand but agreed!

 

Paul was invited to the birthday party for the Head Counselor...what to give him for a present? It had become a tradition to steal the big wooden sign from the nearby girls camp a time or two each summer to the consternation of head counselor and both camps' management. So nothing would do but to drive up to Maine in the snow and steal the sign and bring it to the table in NY...then afterwards drive all the winter way back up and replace it.

 

Paul had an aunt who was celebrating her 80th Birthday at Nichol's Steak House. Paul flew back to NY unbeknownst to her, arrived early at the restaurant and convinced them to outfit him like one of their waiters and allow him to serve her table. He proceeded to take drink orders from all of them before anyone recognized him, they all applauded him and were joined by the whole wait staff!

 

Paul had the opportunity to swipe a stack of appointment cards at the dentist's office one day. He discovered they had value to a fellow student who wanted to skip a class or miss a test so he sold them for a dollar a piece. Years later at his fiftieth class reunion he told the story to his classmate the dentist's daughter. She said "That's a good one, I cant wait to tell Dad!" he was 103 years old...

 

Another time he was staying with his grandmother and put a tape recorder in the bathroom and went out and locked the door.  His grandma went looking for him and found the bathroom door locked so knocked on it and the recorded voice desperately announced "Grandma, I'm stuck in the toilet!"

 

Another time he had recorded a high quality soundtrack of a breaking window. He had a friend stand outside his apartment building picking us stones and pantomiming throwing them at the building and Irwin would play the loud breaking glass recording. Sure enough, an angry old busy body stuck her head out and tracked the boy down screaming that she was going to call the cops. The boy lazily kept on "breaking windows" and the cops came but there were no broken windows.

 

Stacy was staying with her cousin who went to work leaving Stacy home alone. She dismantled her cousin's bed and moved it out on to the patio, put it back together and made it up. She had a big surprise upon returning home!

 

Stacey was known to make homemade ice cream and on April First made some for her cousin Steve. It was tuna fish ice cream she pawned off on him and he responded when asked that it was "OK"

 

Charise was cooking late after returning from skiing. She just wanted to make something simple so settled on scrambled eggs. She had no milk so used Bailey's Irish Cream instead which curdled! She also said she would leave messages for friends to call Harry Fellows or Ellie Fant...and leave the number of the Zoo.

 

 

Bill Johnson told of the early days in his practice which did a lot of personal injury work. One April 1st, he called on one of his two partners disguising his voice saying he was John Smith who'd been in the hospital off and on for over a year and needed help with finances. This really got the attention of the lawyer of his struggling law firm who asked "John Smith" all the right questions. To have a successful case you need 1) Serious documentable injuries, 2) clear liability and 3) deep pockets. When "John Smith" said he'd been hit in the crosswalk when the PG&E truck ran the red light he thought his ship had finally come in!...and after it dawned on him didn't speak to Bill for a week or two!

 

In summary, Paul provided this pearl of wisdom:

We do not stop playing due to our age,

We age because we stop playing!