At some time in our lives, we have pulled a prank or had someone trick us. When we were kids, the prank phone call was common. We would call a local tobacco store and ask the proprietor, “Do you have Sir Raleigh in a can?” When he responded yes, we told him to “let him out.”

Another crazy call would go to anyone. “Is your refrigerator running?” When the unsuspecting target said yes, we told them “to go catch it.”

After maturing very slightly, a potato in someone’s tailpipe would cause a loud noise, and the spud would shoot out like a cannon ball. At school, we played a game called spot. We would bring small mirrors and catch the sun’s reflection. This beam of light was carefully aimed at the teacher’s behind as he wrote on the chalkboard. When we became bolder, we put it on the back of his head. When several mirrors were aimed at his crotch and the class erupted in laughter, we were busted.

A snake in a first year teacher’s top desk drawer caused a room of mass hysteria. Any teacher we didn’t like would receive a tack on their chair several times throughout the year. When we were old enough to drive, we upped the level of mischief. With a portable police light on top of our car, we were able to fake the cute girls out and pull them over. The response from the girls cannot be written here. Let it be said, this was not the way to impress them.

A friend of mine would get into the car trunk and hang his hand out the back. The girls would scream, thinking we had some type of zombie or body back there, especially when he opened the trunk at intersection red lights and got out and walked toward their car.

In college, we took the bulbs out of the bathroom and put black shoe polish on the toilet seat. I paid for all my past sins when I was a teacher. On one occasion, students came to my house and tied my garden hose under my car. When I drove away, it broke and shot across the yard like a rubber band. I once opened my mailbox to find it full of shaving cream. One afternoon at dismissal time, I looked all over for my car. I thought for sure it had been stolen. I was about to report it to the authorities when I noticed my car had been moved to home plate of the baseball field.

On a field trip to Greenfield Village, y creative writing class was to select one of the historic buildings as a setting for a short story. They were paired in twos for this assignment. When I couldn’t find some of my gang, the search was on. I went in one of the structures and found my kids playing like they were guides. The tourists believed they were legitimate and began asking them questions. They made up the responses and were very convincing. I couldn’t be too upset. After all, I created those hooligans.

“Youth comes but once in a lifetime.”  – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow