Remembering a Practical Joke

For over a decade I've had a tradition of going on a canoe or kayak trip with several of my friends. Over the years the list of people on this trip has changed. Some people learned after one trip that they hated it, never to come again. Some were slow learners and went a few times before realizing that it wasn't their cup of tea. But a core group of four has planned and attended this male bonding ritual for the entire decade.

This "core four," as I like to call us, has known each other for at least ten years, and some of us go back thirty years. As you can imagine, we're more like brothers than friends. We tease each other, we help other out in times of need, and most importantly, we play practical jokes on each other.

On one specific trip several years ago, G-Man and I played such a joke on Boogie. Over the course of the previous day and evening, Boogie had managed to annoy G-Man and me in some stupid way or another, so we decided to do something to get even with him. We didn't come up with anything immediately, but when the opportunity presented itself the next morning, we quickly seized it.

Part of the ritual on our trips was that the last canoe leaving the campsite would carry the trash for the day... a term we affectionately dubbed "garbage scow". G-Man and I were first, so Boogie and Spicoli were stuck with garbage scow duty. That was when the idea hit -- steal Boogie's canoe paddle.

"Man, he'd be sooooooo pissed," we thought. "Yeah, let's do it," G-Man and I decided. Thus the plan began to take form. As we took Boogie's paddle, we realized that he'd just take Spicoli's paddle and then Spicoli would end up screwed. So we took them both.