Grampa's Revenge

[Writer Cath]

Well it's not really a story of vengeance, but it makes a great title

My grandparents opened up a restaurant in the 40s that became quite popular. On top of the cabinet where they kept the glasses, there was a bowl of water with a duck floating inside. From their vantage point, no customers could see the water, but they could see the duck. And absolutely nobody could see the string that was attached to the duck.

Now my grandfather had an especially wry sense of humour. I'm told that he used to pick out a customer, wait until he or she was looking at the duck, then tug on the string to move it. Naturally the person would alert their friends to the movement, at which point my grandfather would stop the duck. Well now the poor sap keeps watching the duck and it only moves when they're the only one looking. Apparently he got quite a few people with that trick

[protege]

That sounds like something my grandfather would have done. He was always joking around with friends. He always knew how to have a good time. He would mess with just about everyone, my father (a city boy) in particular.

I remember one time, they were upstairs at the farm, trying to fix the bathroom faucet. Someone forgot to turn the water off, and Grandpa wasn't too happy with him when water was spraying all over. Turns out my father turned the wrong valve. Shortly after that, Grandpa was helping him install 'blown in' insulation. (For those who don't know, this stuff is like shredded cardboard, which is then forced behind walls, or into closed ceilings with a Shop-vac, or similar air source.) Anyway, as they're doing that one night, Grandpa accidently bumped the Shop-vac's hose. That insulation went everywhere! It looked like we had a grey snowstorm in the house Without missing a beat, he turned to my dad, and said "Now we're even"

From what I heard, he was always playing jokes on people, and was usually the life of any party. Nearly 20 years on, I still miss him

[MystyGlyttyr]

My grandparents were all too mean and ornery to play any sort of friendly tricks.

...the more I think about it, the more I realize everyone in my family is a fricking psychopath...

However, my grandfather did get a lady at the DMV once in a fairly amusing way. He was in there to get his license renewed and was sitting in front of the blue screen, doing his typical scowl. The lady was apparently one of those chirpy sunshine-and-rainbows types who didn't know what she was up against.

"Smile!" she giggled, while my grandfather was waiting for his picture to be taken. He, of course, just sat there. "Come on, Mr. M, don't you want a nice picture with a big smile for your license so everyone will know when they see you?"

"Lady," he said, "-the only reason anyone is gonna see this license is if I get pulled over. And if anyone pulls me over, I won't be smiling!"

[skeptic53]

In August there is a two-day organized bike ride called RSVP (Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party). The second day the route approaches a rural border crossing near the town of Lynden. At one spot on a two-lane farm road, kids hide in the bushes and drag a very realistic rubber crocodile across the road in front of approaching cyclists. People have started looking forward to it every year, it's a hoot to see first-time riders go

[justZu]

That reminds me of a prank I saw when my son was little. I was chaperoning a school field trip to our downtown area, which included a fishmarket. One stand had several octopuses on ice. The boys were, of course, fascinated and clustered around to get a better look. Suddenly one of the octopuses lurches forward, sending all the kids screaming. The proprietor was laughing his head off. He had a small rod running under the ice and into the dead octopus, to move it around. It was a great prank.