In the March 22, 1967, edition of the Saline Reporter, fourth graders at Jensen Elementary School were asked what they were planning to do for April Fool’s Day. Their responses show just how creative kids can be, having fun playing practical pranks on their families and teachers.
Many kids reached for salt and pepper shakers for easy wins, thinking it would be fun to put salt in the pepper shaker and pepper in the salt shaker. Others suggested putting salt in their dad’s tea or pepper in their dad’s coffee, so dad would get more than a caffeine jolt. These April Fool’s jokes, if pulled off as planned, would certainly have produced at the very least quizzical expressions, but most certainly ruined anyone’s dinner or cup of java.
Making for an even more eventful dinner, one suggestion was to put a firecracker in someone’s milk. No mention if the fuse was going to be lit, but hopefully the milk would have extinguished it.
One student said she would gladly annoy everyone except her teacher, Mrs. Fick. Lucky Mrs. Fick! Still other fourth graders preferred to remain anonymous in their pranks, like wetting the chalk so their teacher couldn’t write on the chalkboard or sneaking under tables and tying shoestrings together.
And finally, one suggestion of making coffee out of chocolate milk could now be seen as less of a prank and more of a prophecy, as that drink concoction sounds delicious and could be easily found on most coffee shop menus today.
Image: Junior Judgments Column from March 22, 1967 Saline Reporter
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