NORTHAMPTON — In late March, Devon Powers left a sign outside her Northampton home.
“I went to the zoo and saw a baguette,” she wrote on the sign. “The zookeeper said it was ‘bread in captivity.’”
Over seven months later, Powers continues to update this sign each day with what she dubs the “Dad Joke of the Day (To bring a smile to your face).”
It was a “spur of the moment” idea, Powers said, and she wasn’t sure if anyone would enjoy it. But amid the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Powers, who works as a surgical technologist at Holyoke Medical Center, thought that the sign might bring cheer to others and herself.
Powers was inspired to start the joke of the day after reading about a similar story elsewhere and thought that the sign might serve as “a nice thing to laugh, chuckle at a little bit. Just something to bring a smile to your face during all of this, when we kind of have to struggle to find something that does that,” she said.
“And of course, I love bad jokes, so that helps,” Powers added with a laugh.
While Powers fondly calls the jokes “bad,” those who walk by her Florence home describe the jokes differently. Powers started posting the jokes with few expectations. But the display has since attracted numerous fans: Some leave notes saying how much they appreciate the joke of the day, while others thank Powers personally if they see her out in the yard. One person even left her a $20 gift card to Herrell’s Ice Cream & Bakery, she recalled.
In a particularly poignant note, Powers recalled that someone “said that a friend of theirs’ husband had passed away, and every day they come by, take a picture and send it to the person to kind of lift their spirits a little bit.
“So that’s really nice to get a note like that,” she said. “Even though I expected nothing of this, it’s nice to hear it’s helped people a little bit. Even if it’s a little bit.”
Powers also finds that the jokes also help to improve her own mood.
“Since I work during a pandemic, it’s something that kind of keeps your mind off of things a little bit,” she said. Her coworkers always ask about the joke of the day, she said, and sometimes contribute their own. Other times, Powers will draw the jokes from family, friends, joke books or the internet.
Powers, who has updated the sign all but a handful of days after late shifts, estimates that she has told 235 jokes by now.
“Some say zombies get smarter for every brain they eat,” the sign read the day after Halloween. “Just some food for thought.”
Powers recalled another favorite joke that she received from a friend in New York: “What do you call a Tyrannosaurus Rex that sells guns? A small-arms dealer.”
She thinks that she’ll keep the sign up for “as long as I have jokes,” she said. “People have been pretty awesome about it.”
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.The Link Lonk
November 03, 2020 at 02:24AM
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In Florence, a 'dad joke' a day keeps the gloom away - GazetteNET
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