CITY BEAT: ‘APRIL FOOLS DAY’ HAS A VERY LONG HISTORY

     This edition of the Decatur Tribune is being published on April 1st — or “April Fools Day”. (That should stimulate some discussion.)
     So, unless you buy this week’s Trib on one of our newsstands on Wednesday, or subscribe to the online edition, or seeing this on our website,you are reading this column at least a day after “April Fools Day”.
     I remember when I was a kid and someone tried to pull an April Fools Day prank on me AFTER April Fools Day, I would respond with the following saying that many of you may have also used: “April Fools Day has passed and you are the biggest fool at last!”
     When I was a little older I learned that it wasn’t nice to call someone “the biggest fool” — especially if he was a lot bigger than me!
     I read that, in Germany, an April Fools Day prank consists of tricking someone else to believe a fake story, usually to be later revealed by shouting “April, April!” at the recipient, who becomes the “April fool”.

     Other countries also have a long history with April Fools Day.
     It seems to me that in today’s confused world, some people on “Facebook” and other social media platforms and “pretend news” sources, have taken over the responsibility of producing fake stories.
     I know that we have plenty of holidays in this nation and maybe it is time to make April 1st a government holiday to honor many of the politicians on April Fools Day! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that last sentence.)
     By the way, as I’ve mentioned a few times in this column over the years, I was elected to my first term as Decatur’s Mayor on April 1, 2003 — April Fools Day! (No comment please…smile)

     • CRAZY weather! Has someone been playing an April Fools joke on us since last November?
     The weather we’ve had the past several months has been a real yoyo — up one day and way down the next.
Last Thursday evening when I left the newspaper office the temperature was 82 degrees. Ten hours later, when I got in my car to drive to the office, it was 32 degrees and my infamous car, Christine, was warning me that “there may be ice on the road”!
I’m wearing out my winter topcoat by putting it away until next winter, only to retrieve it the following day when the temperature takes a radical drop!
     I’ve never experienced such up and down temps in my life as I have since last November.
     Probably, when it gets to be 100 degrees this summer, I will be thinking about the very cool mornings when my car informed me “there may be ice on the road” and wish I was reading that message again. (Probably not.)

     • BYE ILLINOIS! — According to a new report by Illinois Policy, “Eight of 11 metro areas in the state and more than half its counties saw net outmigration to other states in the year ending last July 1, according to Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.
     “Illinois lost more than 40,000 residents to other states in 2025, though the state’s population grew marginally because of nearly 45,000 international migrants coming in and roughly 11,000 more births than deaths.
     “Still, Illinois struggles to retain residents, ranking third-worst in the nation in residents leaving for other states.”
One big reason that so many people are leaving our state is high property taxes!
     There isn’t any negative factor more on the mind of disgruntled Illinoisans that I’ve talked with than high property taxes.
     Several readers who have moved to states with less tax burden tell me how happy they are because of not having to pay the high taxes in Illinois.

     • A TOAST with Fred! I found this photo of the Decatur Celebration’s Fred Puglia and I sharing a “toast” in my office in the 1990s, although I don’t remember what we were toasting. I’m also not sure what drink Fred brought to “toast” with except that it was non-alcoholic. My drink was Diet Dr. Pepper — honest! (I apparently didn’t think V8 Juice was appropriate.)
     Several of you have mentioned to me that you enjoyed Fred’s recent series in the Tribune that gave a “Behind The Scenes” look at the Decatur Celebration.
     There was a lot of enjoyment for many at the annual Decatur Celebration in downtown over the years and great memories remain.
     The photo above is in color (if you are reading the online edition of the Tribune) and what I notice is that I didn’t have a gray (or white) hair on my head!
     That’s definitely been a “few years” ago!

     • I JOIN Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. every Thursday morning at 7:00 to discuss the news of the day on the City Hall Insider portion of his program — something we’ve done for nearly a quarter century!

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