Dear LPG, 

Today, being April Fools’ Day, is just another day for most of us oldies.  We are past playing jokes on people and most of us are more likely to miss the fact that the big day is today.  

But now that I have brought the subject up again I have no doubt that some of you will be remembering the times that you have been fooled before, and I am not only talking about on April Fool’s Day.  

It is one thing when your friends make a bit of a fool of you by pinning a silly message on your back or hiding your keys, but another if you are easily tricked and fill the shoes of the fool all by yourself.   

I remember the time that I was fooled royally simply because of my own gullibility.  A long time ago I used to work in Holborn.  One April fool’s day back in the mid-1980s, one of my colleagues told me that Nelson had fallen off his column.  When I heard the news I said, ‘Your joking!’ but the person who told me said all I had to do is go to the roof of the building if I wanted to see all the problems it has caused central London traffic.  My thinking was, ‘Well, if you can see it from the roof, it must be true’, and I spent the rest of that day truly believing that one of the most unlikely buildings in London had collapsed.  

If it had happened now I might have got out my phone or checked on Google but back in those days we used typewriters and phones that were well and truly attached to the desk.  So, in the knowledge that I had been reliably informed, I really believed that Nelson had toppled.  The only thing I neglected to do was go up to the roof and take a look for myself.

As I said, being taken for a fool is one thing but being that gullible made me feel stupid when I found out that it never happened, and the silliest thing is that I have no special interest in the structure. 

So perhaps the big question today is will someone make a fool of you or are you, like me, likely to make a bit of a fool of yourself?

I found an online quiz which might help you to work out just how gullible you are, and I suggest that, if you get a low score, today might be a day to not venture out.   

FW, Camberwell

FW offers you the Gullibility test she mentioned…

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