Our Practical Jokes

Imagine hearing your doorbell ring at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning to find a stranger asking, in broken English, "Will you take 10 bucks for the washer?" You stare blankly at the stranger wondering what on earth he's talking about! But, as you gaze beyond this little man and his family, you see that your lawn is covered in old appliances, lamps, clothes, shoes, and lawn tools. There's a "For Sale, CHEAP" sign on your family van and there are several other people milling about your front yard looking at "stuff" placed all over the lawn and driveway. "What the heck?" You're a victim of a Guerrilla Garage Sale

The Eighties were great years for practical jokes. John and I were in our 20s, had four very good and pretty easy going little kids, had great fun friends and a great neighbor and babysitter in Gina (Michelle) Mosteller, just across the street. Our friends, the Abrahamsons and Stefans, both now living in Utah, helped us enjoy our evenings and weekends. Both of these couples have been great influences for fun and an easier going lifestyle on us.

One Friday night, we decided to make the best of some items getting ready for a Desert Industries (DI) charity pick-up and decided to set up a yard sale on the front yard of some unsuspecting friends of ours, the Stosich Family. The Abrahamson's had a lot of items left over from a garage sale at their house the prior weekend and, you know us, we always have a lot of "junk" that I never mind getting rid of. Our first step was to make flashy posters announcing the Great Garage Sale starting at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. We posted them all over South Ontario. South Ontario on a Saturday morning, is teeming with lots of early risers who make it a habit to visit the sale house before the sale begins to find the best stuff before the rank and file shoppers show up at the sated time. Anyway, the Stositch Family got a good laugh at the joke as well as a nice early start to their weekend. They actually earned a little bit of money, and the D.I. came to pick up all the leftover items later on in the week.

The Abrahamsons were also the source of the Creekside Ward's Service Coupon Book. We tried to offer services from the wide variety of professionals in the ward. Our Bishop, Doyle McMullin was a Chino Police Officer at the time, so we made one of the pages in the book, a "Get Out of Jail Free" coupon, courtesy of Bishop McMullin. Even though the page was a joke, I happen to know that a few teens in the ward, actually took advantage of that connection when they suffered from a lack of judgement. John was a teacher so his page in the book said, Tutoring by Brother Todd, "I Can Teach Your Kids Real Good". I honestly can't remember the other pages, other than we mocked everything we knew about people and what they do (but, of course, in a fun, loving way. The fun part was delivering the books on a dark Friday night. We all dressed in black from top to bottom, dropped the books on the front doors of anybody mentioned in the book and then ding, dong ditched. John was the "Ninja Deliverer", with his black pants, turtleneck and ski mask, he jumped over shrubs and hid behind trees as he made his way back to the Abrahamson's sliding door van for a quick getaway.

Another year, back in the late 80's or possibly early 90's, one of our friends and neighbors, Larry Lees was running for the Mtn. View School Board. Gary and Sheereen Stefan and John and I thought we'd give him a hand in his campaign. We festooned the Stefan's old decrepit boat with a huge "Vote for Larry Lees!" sign as well as a few other decorations, sure to catch any passer by's eye and towed it to the front of, yup, Larry's house. That practical joke didn't go over quite so well. Gary got an early call from the Lees and quickly went over to the Lees' house to tow the piece of campaign art away . Good old Gary just towed the boat to West Riverside County, on the way to where Big League Dreams is now and just ditched the boat. We kept driving by the ditched boat for a few weeks,laughing hysterically every time we saw it, until one sad day, it just wasn't there any more. A lucky scavenger may have picked up a long term do it yourself project or some law enforcement body had it towed to the dump. Either way, all of these fun practical jokes have given us years of good laughs.