Family Pranks

People sometimes wonder where I got my sense of humour from. Actually, people sometimes just wonder about me in general. Oh well.

I’m going to come right and say it’s all my parents’ fault. Mostly my dad’s to be honest.  He’s 77 years old this year, going on twelve. He’ll still deny stealing a fresh baked cookie, even when he has chocolate on his face and crumbs on his shirt. That’s consistency!

From my Mom, I received the gift of appreciating the humour in family situations. Many a day went by when I’d find Mom sitting in the kitchen or living room, giggling quietly to herself because the dog wore his food bowl as a hat or the cat tried to catch a butterfly through a screen window. Maybe it was just from watching us kids get ready for school. I think it was also because Mom was a nurse for 35 years – a very good nurse – and we all know that anyone in the medical field has a pretty good sense of humour in any case. They have to have a sense of the absurd, just to get through their day sometimes.

Even with all that, it was always easy to laugh at our house. My Dad was exceptional at finding ways to have fun and tease the rest of the family at any moment. One of the best pranks he pulled was on a sunny winter day. We had received about three feet of snow over the previous two weeks and Dad decided it was a smart thing to shovel off the roof of the house. Not the sidewalk, the roof. I don’t know why either.

Beautiful blue sky and Dad had already finished the lower roof at the back of the house. Mom had sent me out to watch and yell when – not if -  Dad fell off the roof. Anyway, each push of the shovel sent a veritable avalanche of snow onto the sidewalk that went along the front of the family room window. After the second push, Dad called down to me and says, “Get your Mom and sister out here”.

“Why?” I asked. “Don’t ask why,” he said “just get them out here under this line I’m pushing.”

 “How am I going to do that?” I said. “Think of something!” he said. That was a lot of help.

So I went into the kitchen where Mom and Sis were baking up a storm. Racking my brains (and having a hard time of it, due to the heavenly smells of fresh cookies and cakes), I acted all excited and said there was a really cool plane flying around the neighbourhood and they really, REALLY have to see it! It will only take a second, honest!

So the ladies came out the front door, wiping their hands on their aprons. I told them to walk in front of the family room window and I ran out to the street to let them know when ‘the plane’ would arrive over the house.  I knew I had to be out of the avalanche zone as well as the Zone of Death my sister would encompass after this little bit of fun. I told them to move a little to the right, just a bit more, perfect!

“Where is it? It’s cold out here” my sister yelled to me. “Look up now – here it comes!” I answered, just as Dad pushed half the snow that was on the roof on top of them.

It was perfect.

Just as they looked straight up, the snow hit them. The screams could be heard blocks away. Thank goodness the neighbours knew us well enough to ignore the shrieks. With a wringing of hands and flapping of shirt collars, Mom and Sis ran back into the house.

Between the two of us, Dad and I must have laughed for fifteen minutes straight. It didn’t matter that we might be having dog food for dinner while the rest of the family had steak. It was a masterful prank that will go down in the Couch Family history.