My dad was a first class prankster but there were 2 where I think he outdid himself. My mother had a brother who lived on the other side of the country but once a year they would drive to see us for a visit. They always enjoyed a few beers. My dad took a case of beer and drilled 2 little holes in the bottom of each can, drained the beer and refilled with water. He dripped candle wax on the holes to seal them. It must have taken hours! So when they all gathered after dinner for a beer my uncle took a swig and almost spit it out complaining that it tasted like water. My dad could barely contain himself. My dad said his tasted fine, my uncle tried another and same thing. The others all tried one and by then my dad couldn’t stand it anymore, he about fell off his chair laughing. The story is still told at family gatherings and my dad is dead almost 20 years and I think that happened about 40 years before that.
The other was as my dad aged he was not a good sleeper. He would be up half the night reading or watching television. Out of boredom one night he took a high powered light and shined it onto the eye on the street lights and put them all out. When he took the light off of the eye, they all slowly came back on. No big deal but he started doing it when the guy driving the street sweeper would come around. Dad would hit the lights when the sweeper hit a certain spot. The driver would stop and back up so dad would let them come back on, as soon as the sweeper went forward he would put them out again. It became a nightly ritual. One day the driver happened to stop into my dad’s store and since the store was at the back of the lot where our house was, the guy started to tell my dad the story of how his sweeper must have some electrical impulse that turns the street lights in front of our house off and on. Again my dad could barely contain himself but I don’t think he ever told the fellow the real reason.
Innocent fun from a different era. I think I inherited my devilishness from my dad!