Some people do not like being made to look foolish on the first day of April.

But many of us enjoy making someone else feel momentarily nonplussed on that day.

The day is designated as “April Fools’ Day.” Why? A consensus answer is lost to history, leaving fables as sources of its origin.

Even grammar takes a hit concerning this day. The Associated Press Stylebook gravely insists that the day be written as “April Fools’ Day,” using the plural possessive form of “Fools.” A Google search reveals several alternatives, e.g., “April Fool Day” and “April Fool’s Day.” There does not seem to be one authoritative version.

I took self-inflicted hits with respect to April Fools Day.

As a newspaper editor, I let my offbeat sense of humor decide that newspapers in DuBois and in earlier years in Warren should publish stories that looked like the real thing but actually had fictional roots that were humorous — to me and to the slightly demented colleagues who gleefully joined in the misdirection.

We told readers, with mostly straight faces, that the feds would force local communities to build housing for poor people in rich neighborhoods. We said that Americans would be forced to adopt the British custom of driving on the left sides of roads instead of on the right, as we do today. We claimed that PennDOT was so strapped for cash that it would stop fixing some bridges and force motorists to go back to 19th Century ferryboats, with l-o-n-g delays at small streams.

In each story, we carefully inserted “clues” that were intended to alert readers that these were April Fools stories, published on April 1.

There was a serious point behind the stories. News outlets, print and broadcast, try to get our stories right every time. But some stories that start out one way turn out in a different direction. This is most often found with respect to government. Remember what started out as a third-rate burglary at a political office? High level government officials lied through their teeth in covering up their misdeeds. (See “Nixon, Richard, 1972-73.”)

Because a news story is written or broadcast at a specific day and time, the first story can be incomplete. A fire occurs. Is it arson or accidental? The writer(s) of the first story rarely know. ”

So readers or viewers need a smidgen of skepticism.

Our glee at writing those April Fools stories exceeded the mirth (among other emotions) that readers gave us as feedback. Most readers either shrugged or, after a “Wait … what?” moment, saw through the stories.

Some were amused. A few were miffed at having been fooled. Someone might be outraged, perhaps because that person had excitedly told the fake story to another person, and been rebuffed with, “You dummy, didn’t you see that that was an April Fools’ Day story?”

One year, in Warren, we went too far. Back in 1973, we published a big story and photograph beneath the headline, “Kinzua Dam Demolition: Pilot Project To Aid Economy?”

This was total fiction.

Our fake premise was that Hurricane Agnes one year earlier had caused a catastrophic “one hundred year flood,” expected to occur only once in a century. So, we solemnly said, the Kinzua Dam just above Warren that had been built to control 100-year floods on the Allegheny River was no longer needed and the federal government had decided to tear it down and sell the newly-enriched farmland beneath it to raise federal money and boost the local economy.

We even included a “photo,” carefully staged. It showed a toy Tonka Truck crane and its clamshell bucket poised to chomp into the concrete, thanks to trick photography and an ultra-wide angle lens. The toy truck was actually perched on a nearby railing by Gary Lester, then a photographer at the Times-Observer and my chief co-conspirator.

We also included a clip-and-mail coupon box so interested persons could register to be in line to buy some of the land.

We forgot a few things.

¯ We forgot that back in the 1950s and 1960s when the land for the dam was taken by the federal government through eminent domain, the residents of Kinzua, Corydon and surrounding areas were hurt and angered to be forced out of their homes, some of which had been in the same families for generations.

¯ We forgot the likely reaction of the Seneca Nation of Indians, much of whose sacred reservation land was taken despite a treaty going back to Chief Cornplanter and the American Revolution.

Reaction was swift, loud and outraged. Critics even gave speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives.

“What do you have to say for yourselves?!?” we were asked.

We bowed our heads in shame and replied, hesitantly, “… April Fool?”

It did not go over well in some quarters.

Ever since then, the furthest I will go is to insist that someone might have a flat tire on their vehicle, then (from a safe distance), exclaim “April Fool!”

Denny Bonavita is a former editor/publisher at newspapers in DuBois, Brookville, New Bethlehem and Warren. He lives near Brookville. Email: notniceman9@gmail.com