Question of the week: What's your best April Fool's Joke?

By Tom Peterson

Welcome to Question of the Week, a weekly news column that poses timely questions about life, politics, culture, economics, health, and more to people out and about in our communities. Our hope at CCC News is that having this space dedicated to being curious about other people’s experiences can help us to deepen our understanding of people from all walks of life. 

This week's question is: What’s your best April Fool’s Joke?

Jose Ruiz, 41, The Dalles - Ginormous Dallas Cowboy’s Fan 

“A couple of friends - Matt Kyriax of Divots in Hood River namely- always send me photos of the Dallas Cowboys holding a Superbowl trophy,” he said while cooking chicken for a softball team at Lilo’s downtown. “This year they sent a photo of Dak Prescott and Ezekial Elliott holding the trophy.  That's a pretty good joke because they have not won a Superbowl in 25 years.”

Yeah, that was when Troy Aikman was throwing for them in 1996.  

Catelyn Barton, 31, The Dalles

“We used to put a squeezable ketchup bottle under the toilet seat when we were kids. Someone would go to sit down, and it would squirt all over the back of their legs. That was always good for a laugh.” 

Veronica Gonzalez, 35, The Dalles

We caught up with Veronica at Grinders Coffee at Ace Hardware where she and her family were getting beverages. She and her husband rushed from their car after watching a man fall in the center of Laughlin Street and was just laying there. 

The couple talked to the man and made sure he was alright and saw to it that he could get up, retrieve his glasses and walk over to the sidewalk. The man, who was verbally non-communicative, appeared fine after that and walked away. 

So what about that April Fools Joke, Veronica?

“My sister-in-law told me she was pregnant. We wanted to surprise my brother. We were so excited. It was going to be my first nephew and my mom's first grandchild. But it wasn’t true. It was not that funny.”

Luis Delgado, 15, The Dalles High School

“On Friday, I have this friend at school and I would go up to her and say, you wanna be my girlfriend,” he said, noting they were in front of other students. “She would say yes, and everybody would look, and say really. We’d say ‘April Fools, bozo!’ We were just fooling around. It was a pretty good joke.”

Eric Evergreen, 41, Portland with Jaycey Evergreen

“Once I put Icy Hot on the toilet seat for someone else,” he said. “Well, several hours later, I had to go to the bathroom and totally forgot. And nobody else had been. I ended up getting myself. When the heat set in, I was just sitting there, thinking ‘oh, no!’”

The couple said they were visiting The Dalles for the first time in five years, and they were drawn by the National Neon Sign Museum at 200 E. 3rd St.

Juan Rios, 32, Junction City, Kansas

“One time my stepdad was buying a big rig an actual big rig 18 wheeler, so we drove to LA to pick it up, and on the way out we go to top off the tank. My mom had all the money- we did everything in cash back then - and my dad told me to get the $200 from my mom who was following us in her car. She just honestly just starts freaking out like just makes a huge commotion in broad daylight, and then she just starts yelling, ‘I’m being robbed.’”

Rios said he got quite a few stares before she told everyone it was a joke. 

Tim Schechtel, 69, The Dalles 

“I had a friend who was already fixing up a building say that he bought another one,” Schechtel said. 

Hey, CCCNews knows that guy. Check out his big building purchase here. Wow!!! 

Oscar Ascensio, 39, Hood River- getting ready to move to The Dalles

“They told me I was pregnant. True story not even made up. I was just confused. I did not react to it,” he said.

We’re you at the hospital?

“No, at the car wash,” he said laughing.

“Once I was waiting for my annual physical and I started thinking, and the doctor came out. I said, hey doc, don’t people die here. So, why am I here.”

He said, “Are you serious?”

Julio Cavrera, The Dalles

He could not hear our question as he was too busy pressure washing the side of the building at Jefferson and Second Streets. Victor Marquez of La Fogata Taqueria said they were prepping the building for a new mural that will be painted this summer.

Kiel Oldfield, 22, Wishram
“No- no jokes. None at all. Last year was horrible,” he said. 

What happened last year? 

“Can’t remember, no, not really.”

“I don’t like jokes being played on me. If you pull one, you get one. April Fools jokes aren’t really my thing.”