Keep an eye out on the pranking-est day

Managing Editor

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Be careful for strange occurrences in the home or office, or if you see a shocking news report. It’s not just any other Friday.

We’re one-quarter done with 2016, and the second quarter starts with April 1, also known as April Fools’ Day.

The pranking day has been popular since 1700, though its exact origins are questioned.

According to the History Channel, “Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes.”

Some of the best pranks over the years have included:

• A Sports Illustrated story in 1985 about a pitcher named Sid Finch and his 168-mph fastball.

• A full-page ad by Taco Bell in 1996 declaring it helped lower the national debt by purchasing naming rights to what would now be the Taco Liberty Bell.

• A 1998 Whopper for left-handers from Burger King.

• Los Angeles Airport put an 85-foot-long banner on a runway in 1992 that told arriving passengers, “Welcome to Chicago.”

• In 1957, the BBC’s Panorama news program reported on a bumper crop of spaghetti due to the elimination of the spaghetti weevil.

Here are a few less widespread, but still funny, pranks we got from locals:

• Don Elder, who teaches history at Eastern New Mexico University, was a victim 34 years ago while he was a high school history teacher in Vinton, Iowa.

“We had a group of guys who played basketball in the morning.,” Elder said. “We changed in the coach’s locker room. I didn’t think anything about it, but a kid came down as we were done playing. He had a question, and so I stayed and talked to him. While I was talking to him, the other guys had taken my clothes. I had to teach class for the first three periods in smelly gym clothes. They made sure the principal came by my room for a visit, and he read me the riot act. It never occurred to me it was April 1, 1982.”

• Tim Ashley’s favorite memory was an unsuccessful prank on him, despite great execution.

“It was during college,” said the Curry County commissioner and concrete company owner. “My roommate pulled an April Fools’ prank on me. We lived in a mobile home, and I had a bedroom on one end and he on the other. He turns up the heater full blast, gets it real hot. My bedroom faced the street. He opens the back door, then comes and opens my bedroom door and yells, ‘Tim, the place is on fire.’

“I got the last laugh because I just popped up, looked at him, and said, ‘Really?’ He was hoping I was going to run out into the street in my underwear. I’ve been accused of reacting slowly through my life, and that was the case then.”

• Christian Wisenbaker of Clovis got her grandmother with a panicked phone call.

“I called my grandma on my way home from work, frantically telling her about my case of road rage,” Wisenbaker said. “(I told her I) rammed a car that belongs to a family rival with my truck. She was freaking out, trying to think about what to do to fix this, then I began laughing and told her the truth. She was pretty mad.”

• Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ernie Kos still remembers one that ended at the Clovis Municipal Airport.

“Someone called here, and you could tell it was long distance,” Kos said. “They said they represented Intel out of Rio Rancho, and they were looking at a satellite office in Clovis. They were attracted to Clovis because they were impressed with the training at Clovis Community College, and told me they’d be coming to Clovis in a small jet. They asked if I could pick them up at the municipal airport, give them a tour of Clovis and the college, then take them back to the airport.

“Gene Hendrick was working with me on economic development. I got Gene in the car, and we went to the airport. But first, I went home, put on professional clothes and got a Clovis packet to sell them the city.

“I sat out there forever with Gene waiting for a Learjet to arrive. One started to land, and Gene said, ‘Thank God we’re here.’ It was an Albertsons jet bringing their corporate people. Albertsons was quite impressed, and we’ve had a great relationship with them ever since, but that was just a coincidence.

“We get back and we wait, and it’s hours at this point. I wonder if it’s a prank, and Gene says, ‘Ernie, if it’s not, you just lost your job because you stood up Intel.’ Finally, the people from the airport came around the counter with a big bouquet of flowers that said ‘April Fools.’ Since then, I am well-guarded.”