Prank Thy Neighbor!

Childish, creative, humorous, small town pranks between neighbors.  I grew up in a small town where my friends and my idea of a good time was to dress in black and spend a Saturday night forking our friends (literally sticking forks all over their front lawns), "oreo cookie"ing cars (twist em apart and stick the cream side to the windows of cars and sometimes front doors).  We opted to use the less expensive not as delicious hydrox variety (who can waste an oreo!).  My husband grew up in the small town next door.  He and his friends made a habit out of pushing a pink fire hydrant into a neighbors pool.  Childish, harmless fun.  I guess there were worse things we could be doing.

So when we met similarly minded neighbors who grew up pranking and being pranked we knew we could have some fun.  It all started with a birthday forking.  Our neighbor was turning the big 45 so we couldn't resist decorating his yard for the occasion.

The next round of pranks started with a "red neck" themed birthday dinner we had at their house.  Our friends had their house all set up when we arrived with a bumper dumper on their truck,  red checked table cloths, cheese balls, peanuts, harley shirts and daisy dukes (on him!).   A "bumper dumper" if you are not a redneck is a toilet seat attached to the trailer hitch of your car with a bucket underneath for deposits.  Funny stuff!  A few days later we found the bumper dumper attached to the back of our car early one morning.  The girls thought it was funny at their house but were mortified by the bumper dumper in OUR driveway.  They made us take it off right away for fear a bus would drive by and a busload of their classmates would see it.  Of course we had to return the favor.  So a few weeks later we returned it to their car and we added gatorade and Baby Ruths to the bucket.  Just had to make a deposit!

Around Halloween we webbed their house and driveway, complete with a giant spider.

Then they delivered a scarecrow of sorts to our house.  They had put Halloween decorations on our roof so they assumed we would think that was their prank and then get surprised by the other prank inside.  They put a stuffed guy who we later named "Red" in our bathroom hoping to scare us all when we got home from a weekend away.   We tucked the girls in bed and found him later.  So he didn't really scare anyone.  We did however have fun posing him in various positions around our house before returning him.  The funniest part was when we returned him and had him "knock" on their door when we were going to "Boo" (leave Halloween treats for their family) them.  The mom turned to see Red at the door and screamed bloody murder.  We all had a few chuckles over that one! 

The latest in a string of pranks was putting their house on the market while they were away for the weekend.  We put a For Sale sign in their front yard with their cell phone number on the sign so they would get a lot of calls while they were away and wonder what the heck was going on.  Unfortunately they didn't get that many calls because just my sister-in-law and good friend called.  She didn't know we had pranked them and just coincidentally called them when she saw the sign.  But they were on to us and called our sister-in-law back asking when she wanted to take a tour of the house saying they wanted to sell it quickly.  It was the prank that kept on giving because for several weeks after the sign came down neighbors and friends kept asking them if they were moving.

Fear sets in when you are awaiting the return on a good prank.  It was fun trying to figure out what
they were going to do to get us back.  We talked about the endless possibilities and came up with a bunch of our own for next time.  We were even planning to prank them again while they least expected it.  We were all convinced that our friend was going to do something to our roof.  He is a mason and was fixing our chimneys.  We kept waiting for a drop cloth sign of some sort to appear on our roof top or a strange design to appear in the bricks but it never happened. He packed up his ladders and staging and the prank never came.  Then one morning we woke up to this.  Our car completely wrapped in saran wrap.

Funny thing is he apparently tried this prank twice.  Once on Saturday night but only got around the car a few times before running out.  Ran home for more only to find out he had none and so returned and dismantled the prank.  He spent sunday getting prepared and wrapped our car Sunday night.  Our garage door was open and we were going in and out of the house painting furniture for the cottage.  Somehow we didn't catch him in the act.  I wish we had a video of him running around the car like a crazy person worried he was going to get caught in the act.   The next day they asked: "How did we get wrapped up with these neighbors?"

Funny stuff!  Birthdays usually involve prank gifts, photo manipulation and questionable wrapping.   Life is short.  Surround yourself with like-minded friends, laugh a lot, and maybe pull a prank or two.  Don't take yourself too seriously...we don't! 

With our neighbors making "duckbills" with our pringles
during lunch break at the ski mountain.  The kids choose
to sit at a different table.  And we wonder why.
Truth be told they were doing the same thing at their table.
Apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

Shhh!  Don't tell our neighbors but we already have our next prank in the works.  We used to pass around a Mary in the half shell to family and friends.  Not sure exactly where she ended up?!  With another family we pass a creepy clown back and forth between houses during sleepovers and game nights.   This neighbor likes to deem himself a pig.  Finishing off entire pot roasts single handedly and then reaching for a half gallon of ice cream.  His wife is a vegetarian and his son is a somewhat picky eater so he doesn't have a lot of competition in the food department. He has a voracious appetite and the perfect metabolism to go with it.  At our house we have a pig on the table and if someone doesn't use their manners (burps out loud, reaches rather than asking to please pass the salt, or gets up without being excused) they get the "pig" and have to clear the table for the entire family.  Of course every time he is here for dinner he has to TRY to get the pig.  We plan to deliver this new larger version of the pig to them this weekend to their newly furnished screened in porch.  Of course I found him on a Facebook Yard Sale site.  Now to come up with something funny to write on his chalkboard!  We hope this pig will be around for many years to come and we can play a large "Pass the Pig" game.  We'll see how many different ways we can sneak it back and forth to each others houses.  Maybe it will even end up at the cottage!