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April 1, 2006
Fun on April Fools Day
By Georgie Bright Kunkel
Webmaster's note: Content on the Opinions and Essays pages represent the views of the writer only, and not necessarily those of the 34th District Democrats. See policy.
Having just experienced a Friday the Thirteenth during the full moon, I was sure that
I could survive anything. I must admit it was convenient to blame forgetting what day it is,
foulups on the job or quarrels with a spouse on these two occurrences happening all at one
time. I didn't realize that still another special day would make our lives just as exciting,
that special day in April when fools walk the earth.
It all started in France after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar.
When New Year's Day was changed to January 1st, some people still celebrated it April 1st.
These people came to be known as April Fools. How could the adoption of the Gregorian
calendar start such a volatile month as April? Well, let's look at who was born in April:
the Emperor Charlemagne, Queen Isabella, Hans Christian Andersen, Booker T. Washington,
Leonardo da Vinci and Adolph Hitler.
Pocahontas was married in April. The Titanic sank. The Civil War began.
Robert Peary reached the North Pole, at least he said so. Paul Revere made his famous
ride. Rome was founded. The mutiny on the ship Bounty occurred. Television was first
broadcast. Could that many important events have occurred in any other month?
In my desk I keep a one-of-a-kind memento of an April Fools Day past. It is a check
from the Treasurer of the United States dated on April 1st 1949 for the amount of no
dollars and .01 cent written to my husband and marked 1948 tax refund. This was before I
was granted the right to be co-manager of our estate when Washington State passed the
Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. But if it had been legally half mine, how could we split it?
This is not the end of the story. My husband wrote to the Guinness Book of Records
to enter this one cent IRS return dated on April Fools Day as a record for the smallest
tax return ever recorded. My husband received a letter from the editor of the US edition
thanking him for his inquiry. However he stated that since this was the only inquiry they
had received it was difficult for him to be able to say whether or not this miniscule tax
return established any kind of record. He added, "I'm afraid that unique occurrences,
interesting peculiarities or 'firsts' are not necessarily records and therefore are rarely
included in the book."
Of course we were disappointed but that did not dampen our April Fools Day fun
each year when we reminisced about our one cent tax return on April Fools Day past.
The government has decided that it no longer will "fool" with such a minute tax return
but the treasury department can never take back our unique one cent tax return check that
gave us such a good laugh on April Fools Day so long ago. Yes, we know, we can't cash it.
But it will forever remain a special memento of demanding our penny back from the government,
and getting it.
Georgie Bright Kunkel, author and speaker, can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net .
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