Tartan Thread and Cuckoo's Nests

April Fools Day: In A Time of Crisis When Misinformation And Fake News Abound - Maybe Not A Good Year For Pranks?

April Fools Day. I always liked it as a kid. My gang of eight brothers and sisters relished any excuse to trick each other, of course.

But it was my Dad who was the main offender. He used to get us with something each year. He had some good jokes - one year he had us peering into the trees near our house for hours looking for a ‘Cuckoo's nest.’

Another time he asked me and my brother Tommy to go over to our elderly neighbour, Mrs Hay, and ask her for a reel of ‘tartan thread’ to fix the bag on his set of Northumbrian bagpipes (the small kind with the bellows).

It seemed plausible that he would need a specific thread to mend them. I mean, he loved those bagpipes (he still does) and was always going on about them - how he wanted a new chanter for them and so on. He would spend hours in the one bathroom we shared practicing because it had ‘good acoustics.’

Tommy and I were further motivated to go on the trip across the way because our neighbour was known for giving you a sweetie from the sideboard in her living room. Tommy was her favourite, so he usually got two. So for me going with Tommy was an added bonus.

Mrs Hay came to the door. She was no saccharine docile old lady for all her kindness with the sweeties. She was sharp as a tack. An intelligent dame. Her husband died when we were little. She lived on her own with her Pekinese, Nicky, and she was fiercely independent .

Anyway, she asked us what we wanted and the words tumbled out in that breathless way children have when they reveal such important information. Her expression didn’t change she just said simply that there was no such thing as ‘tartan thread.’

Walking back - no sweets, no success in our mission for Dad- we though: he can’t be mistaken! We were confused. How could he be wrong? Our dad, the authority.

When we told him what Mrs Hay had said he laughed and said ‘April Fools!’ The old guy (well only in his forties then) was pretty chuffed with himself, and we were relieved that he hadn’t ‘lost it.’

So there is a lesson in all this: if you have built credibility and trust, it’s easier to get people to do whatever you want. Of course kids of nine and ten years old are easier to dupe.

I’m not saying that you dupe anyone, but it’s something to think about. People need businesses they can trust in these troubled times and showing that you are that business through all your written communications is essential.

And it is also a lesson in don’t believe everything you hear. Go to the wise old woman across the road. Ask her and see what she thinks!