After a fruitless search for the origin of April Fool’s Day, I have concluded that it is foolish to continue looking.
It’s not because there is so little information recorded about the day. Just the opposite — there is too much information in ancient history and prose and verse that could be construed as the sprout from which the well-rooted tree of April Fool’s Day sprang.
A quick scan of Google has no telling how many direct and indirect references to mentions of the day or some ceremony surrounding it. Tales of pulling pranks on some gullible victim and sending others on a “fool’s errand” on April 1 to out-and-out lies are recorded. All in fun. Well, fun for everybody except the brunt of the joke. The joke can even become funny to them after a while.
Tales of pulling pranks on some gullible victim and sending others on a “fool’s errand” on April 1 to out-and-out lies are recorded. All in fun. Well, fun for everybody except the brunt of the joke.
Mom’s way to get me out of the bed on April 1 was to tell me, “There’s a purple cow in the front yard!” I’m embarrassed to admit it worked more than once!
I ran across an article written by Jack Elliott from West Point titled “The Grave of the Moon Man of Kilgore Hills.” The story centers around a newspaper article from the1800s about a strange little creature who crashed near Big Springs and ended up being buried there. Jack included photos and told how he searched everything he could — eyewitness accounts, a copy of the old article, copies of photographs of the being, even an account of how a few of these photos are in the Local History Room at the Bryan Library in West Point.
I called Jack about it, hoping to get a picture of the grave. He admitted it was all a joke except for a few names of real people that he used to make it believable.
Speaking of a “Moon Man,” UFOs are in the news again. President Trump has ordered that everything the government has on such cosmic matters be made available to the public. Now, I don’t know if you believe in UFOs or not, but I have friends who have seen them! Here in Mississippi!
Some friends of ours were traveling with us coming back home from somewhere and the subject of UFOs came up. So, I jumped in with some jokes about the objects in general and those who have “seen” them in particular. I noticed my friend got very quiet. He then proceeded to tell us about his experience driving home from Delta State University one night. He noticed a light that followed him for a while. The light got close enough that he stopped and watched it hover silently over a cotton field for several minutes. Then, he said, it zipped off. I believe he saw what he said he saw. Now, was it from outer space? That’s another matter altogether.
Maybe we’ll have some answers when the government files are declassified. I figure we could see them about this time next year. Around April 1.
