Thursday, March 31, 2011

April Fools

When I grew up our closest neighbors were the Matthews family.  They had three kids around the age of my brother Tom and I and we practically lived at the Matthews’ house, at least when their kids weren’t at our house.  We had many outdoor adventures together, riding bikes, building forts, crawling through culverts, catching trout with our bare hands and protecting Comstock Road from perceived bad guys.  We had many fun times together.

CREAM PUFF HEAVEN
Mrs. Matthews always made the best cream puffs.  They were absolutely legendary, at least in our neighborhood which was pretty much our whole world.  She was a sweet and gentle lady, a beloved first grade teacher and a second mother to my brother and I so we had absolutely no reason to question her motives when she drove up our driveway one evening on April 1st as we were eating dinner to deliver some cream puffs to Tom & me.  Imagine our anticipation at this unexpected surprise! She waited patiently while we diligently finished up whatever selection of vegetables remained on our plates so we could get to the delectable cream puffs of our culinary memories. 

This time however, something was horribly wrong.  They had bitter chocolate on top where once had been a rich, sweet frosting.  Unsweetened oatmeal in the center where yellow creaminess once existed.  The disappointment was palatable and we weren’t sure what to do until we saw our parents and Mrs. Matthews laughing uncontrollably at our crestfallen faces.  Cream puffs were sacred ground, the holy grail of desserts.  This was so NOT funny!   It is, to date, the April Fool’s joke of our lives. 

The joke was also extended to some other neighbors, the Berry boys.  As they were driving to the Matthews’ house to collect their treats, their mother reminded them that the polite thing to do, when eating someones baking , is to appreciate it whether or not you liked it.  They did their best and halfway through forcing the offensive cream puffs down Mrs. Matthews ended their misery by announcing “APRIL FOOLS!”

Mrs. Matthews is now in her 80s and as sweet as ever.  Most people have a hard time believing she was ever even capable of being such a prankster.  Every time we go back home we assure her we are just biding our time to get our “sweet” revenge!

1 comment:

  1. It's always the "sweet" ones who can be the best foolers! Great story!

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