An April Fools’ Blog Post You Can Believe. Really!

I need to tread lightly here. It’s almost April 1.

April Fools’ Day and Vidler’s have, shall we say, a fraught relationship.

Or maybe it would be more accurate to say our relationship with April Fools’ Day is too good.

Last year our April Fools’ posts on Facebook and Instagram caused a lot of angst among people who didn’t read them all the way through; I got some angry phone calls and emails because I had written that Amazon had taken us over. It was a joke, of course, but some people took it seriously. Very seriously.

The year before last, we posted on social media that Walmart had taken us over—a prank that said we were replacing our hardwood floors with linoleum and our wooden counters with 20-foot-high chrome racks and self-service checkout.  

Oh—we also said we had added a hologram horse ride. And we posted this photo:  

And, several years ago, we wrote that Target had taken us over.

Such pranking is what April Fools’ Day is all about, right? That’s how it’s been for a long time; some historians think April Fools' Day started in 1582, when France switched to the Gregorian calendar, whose new year started on January 1, from the Julian, whose new year was around April 1, and those who knew no better than to keep celebrating April 1 became the butt of jokes.  

While many of you loved that we had staked our own claim to April Fools’ Day with our pranks, some of you expressed concern, shock, horror, and just a little anger because you thought we really had sold out—as if we’d ever do such a thing.

Well, this year I’m taking no chances. Let me just say you can rest assured we're still on Main Street operating as Vidler's 5 & 10. Same store front. Same family running the place. Same wood floors and counters. Same mechanical horse Sandy, who still costs just a dime to ride. And same wonderful customers.

We're thankful to everyone who’s patronized and supported us for more than 90 years of fun—and putting up with our shenanigans.  

Believe me.

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