Practical jokers can be found anywhere but there seem to be a lot of them in the livestock business.
Malcolm Weir of Aberdeen, Sask., told me that one time he had gone to Saskatoon for a convention. At seven a.m., there was a knock on his hotel room door and here was a porter with steak and eggs for breakfast.
Malcolm protested he hadn’t ordered anything but the porter insisted the bill said Malcolm Weir and that was where he was delivering the goods.
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Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
The not inconsiderable price was added to the Weir hotel bill, which Malcolm paid.
He found out in due course that the order had been placed by a practical joker of the livestock fraternity.
Malcolm didn’t do or say anything for a couple of months. Easter came and the joker’s wife, Marie, received a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Her husband, Allan Haight, received an equally gorgeous bill for them.
About three months later Malcolm quietly asked Marie if she had received a bouquet of flowers at Easter.
“Oh, was that you?” she asked.
A problem for most practical jokers is that they pull the legs of so many people it’s hard to figure out who might have retaliated.
I had an uncle in Toronto who was a great leg-puller. I was sent to cover the Toronto Royal Winter Fair one year and found it quite a hassle keeping track of and photographing the beef and dairy cattle, market animals, heavy horses, pigs, sheep and grain show. I told my uncle about this scrambling to and fro.
“I know just the fellow to help you,” he said. “Call this telephone number.”
It was Dial-a-Prayer.
