TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO on March 30, 1990, my cousin Jeff married Janet at the St. Louis County Courthouse in Duluth, MN. It was a small affair with only Janet’s daughters, Heidi and Amber, attending.
Jeff, who hadn’t even told his parents he was dating Janet, shared the news via a printed announcement that proclaimed “And four shall become a family.”
To say Jeff’s parents were surprised would be an understatement. Shocked would be more accurate.
As the story goes, my uncle apparently paled upon reading the news of the marriage and my aunt reacted by picking up the phone. First she called her daughter to see if she knew anything of the unexpected marriage. Dawn didn’t.
Then Marilyn phoned the Floodwood school where Jeff was teaching. I’ll let Jeff tell the story from here. And remember, this was 1990, in the days before telephones in classrooms, so Jeff was pulled out of class to take the call from his mother.
There I sat, the secretary at her desk to my right, the principal at his desk in his office to my left, both just feet away, overhearing one side of this awkward conversation about my recent wedding.
Mom, of course, had many questions—about Janet, about Heidi and Amber, about planning a wedding reception. Well, I was able to calm Mom down enough to tell her to look at the back of the card and remember what day it was, or what day had just passed.
That would be April Fool’s Day. On the back, the new groom had written: “rehcstelk ffej morf gniteerg sloof lirpa na.”
From right to left, Jeff’s message read: “an april fools greeting from jeff kletscher.”
Yes, my creative cousin had just pulled off one of the best family April Fool’s Day jokes ever, the stuff of legends. His marriage to a northwoods bride was pure fiction.
My cousin Dawn, with the help of daughter Megan, made two beautiful anniversary cakes for her brother. My Uncle Wally and Aunt Janice made and decorated the other cake with the beanie baby bears.
Twenty years after that fake marriage, we celebrated Jeff and Janet’s 20th wedding anniversary at the annual Kletscher family reunion in 2010. We decorated the shelterhouse at the park with anniversary banners, crepe paper and tissue paper bells. Relatives came bearing gifts. And there were even three anniversary cakes to celebrate the occasion.
CAN ANYONE out there top Jeff’s April Fool’s Day prank? I’d like to hear. (BTW, my cousin is still single.)
April Fool’s jokes during my childhood consisted of these:
Your toast is burning!
The bus is here!
The cows are out!
I know. Not at all creative.
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Brave boy!!! What a joke! c
Yes, it was quite the joke on his unsuspecting parents.
Our pastor announced this morning that, since his brother in law, stationed in Virginia, had been one of the recent Mega Millions winners (2 hundred million dollars) he and his wife would be leaving their jobs here after only a few months. A lot of gasps and chuckles. It took a while for some to realize that it was a joke. Best one I’ve heard for a while.
Now that’s a good one. Always nice to have a pastor who possesses a sense of humor.
Wow! What a stunt. Sadly, in our family we’ve had one of those situs only it wasn’t a joke, it was real and to say that got our relationship off to a rocky start with the master-mind (the bride who married my husband’s brother) is an understatement. It’s taken years to recover from. It’s just not the right thing to do. Anyway, that’s a whole other story in itself. I can tell you that my parents married on April Fools Day and they were no fools having loved and enjoyed marital bliss for over 50 years! xx
Fifty years of marriage. Wonderful!
I did my annual “The cows are out” to our brother. Needless to say he said he was waiting for my call and that he has no cows. I tried. We still had a good laugh over the wonderful memories. With family that is what counts old memories and the new ones to come.
I knew you planned on calling our middle brother with that “The cows are out!” joke. Glad you followed through on it. I agree, holding and making memories are so integral within a family. Love you, sister!
My brother Roger has an April Fool’s birthday. Unfortunately for him this led to many April Fool’s birthday gifts when he was younger especially from one of his uncles. Probably why he has such a great sense of humor.
Well, it’s great that Roger developed a sense of humor, likely from all those pranks.
Oh, my word, that is amazing and wonderful! That is a daring man! And how fantastic that your family celebrated the 20th anniversary! I LOVE that! I read your post to my husband and it was the hardest he’d laughed in days, I think! 🙂
Well, I’m always happy to make readers laugh. Yes, that was quite the trick my cousin pulled on his family. It was fun, too, celebrating his “anniversary.” The little girls even wore aprons and served anniversary cake to reunion attendees. They also helped to decorate the shelterhouse.
How fun! And how nice that he, obviously, is a great sport about STILL not being married…
He seems happy and is quite busy as the mayor of Floodwood and with representing Minnesota’s small cities in government matters.
Cool – it seems as if the Apostle Paul had something when he said that staying single meant more time for other things!
Excellent point.