And
so.....it is once more the day when we play jokes on our friends. The day when we sort of
trick or treat our children. The day that for reasons unknown to me is called, "April
Fool’s Day". I haven’t bothered to research this one but I’ve got lots
of memories about this day. For example.....
Way back there in the passage of time, back to the time during and just
after World War II, country schools celebrated April lst with something special. This was
organized by the teachers and the school board to prevent the complete shut-down of
operations that would have occurred otherwise. Back then, April Fool’s Day was a day
to skip school. Therefore somebody, I don’t know exactly who to give credit to, said
that we would all go on a giant picnic to Red River in observance of this great holiday.
Let me add that until the declaration of April Fools’ Day as a
legal school holiday, we only had a "Fall Break" for cotton pickin’. Spring
Break, where all the kids rush off to Padre Island to grab an early dose of skin cancer to
say nothing of severe hangovers, had not yet been invented.. Parents in those days were
stupid when it came to caring for their children and insisted that they stay at home and
work during the fall harvest. In fact they had never heard of Padre Island or maybe
Florida either.
Anyway when spring finally sprung and the first warm days soothed our
souls with the remembrance of great days in the shade of a willow tree, our teachers
proudly announced the annual picnic and frolic just a mere thirteen miles away on the
banks of the Red River.
To any Texan growing up a few miles from that stream that separated
Texas from Indian Territory or Oklahoma as they like to be called, there was forbidden
territory on the other side. Take alcohol for instance. West Texas is as dry as a bone
bleached white in the blazing noonday sun but just a few miles away , over the river, is
3-2 beer. I don’t believe it would be possible for anybody, no matter how young to
ever get drunk on 3-2 beer, and I have seen several 17 year olds try, but just the fact
that Oklahoma had beer and Texas did not sent lightning bolts through hormone jumping
teens. But they didn’t have to swim the river to get to that pale beverage in glass
bottles. Trash Hill was just over the line.
Beer, nor anything remotely illegal that I knew about ever invaded our
school picnics on the river. We were just a bunch of kids out to enjoy the day, ride
horses at break neck speed up and down the river banks, collapse on the red sand, maybe
wander off into the willows with a favorite beau, fill a plate with fried chicken and
potato salad, grab a Dr. Pepper and sit down on the river banks to enjoy being young.
April Fools Day remained an important day for me after I began
teaching. One of my tours as high school teacher was at Desdemona and I remember that
special day. The senior boys all slipped off from school during the first afternoon period
and the girls in that class and I went to find them. We drove down to Hog Creek and all we
saw were necked bodies tearing through the mesquite trees and prickly pears. They showed
up later bruised and scratched for their efforts.
Huckabay and Lingleville schools have always maintained a friendly
rivalry and during the sixties and seventies sealed a partnership that every year they
would celebrate April lst by going to first one school and then the other. When the host
school entertained, there was always food and a program.
In the 60’s Elvis was great on the tube and on records but he had
a local competitor by the name of Hulan Duvall. Hulan was a force in the local
rock-a-billy culture and he attended Huckabay School. In fact his father was
superintendent. Hulan and his guitar, was a gathering spot for enchanted teen-aged giirls
in the ‘60’s.
Today’s school schedules allow for lots of holidays including
spring break. All we had was a couple of days for Thanksgiving, a week for Christmas, and
April Fools Day. But we enjoyed each and every holiday to the max. Or at least that's the
way I remember it.
