An ace of an April Fools' joke
Courtesy photo A giant ace of spades playing card rests Saturday morning near City Beach in Coeur d’Alene
Pattie Strub stands next to a giant playing card Saturday morning at City Beach in Coeur d’Alene. Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo Pattie Strub paints what will become a giant ace of spades playing card.
Courtesy photo Pattie Strub works on her April Fools’ Day ace of spades.
COEUR d’ALENE —The Final Four wasn’t the only big game stirring things up Saturday in Coeur d’Alene.
“I was walking along the beach early this morning ... and I was surprised to see this giant playing card,” said Pattie Strub, in a message sent to The Press.
Strub, of Coeur d’Alene, sent photos of a gigantic ace of spades propped up at City Beach.
She mused whether it was related to a giant die that washed up near the downtown beach during the flooding earlier this month. That large game piece turned out to be a large, metal tank a local citizen had placed stickers on to make it look like a die. The floodwaters had carried it from a distant beach.
But Strub already knew the playing card was connected to the giant die.
Two hours after sending her first message, Strub sent The Press a few more photos.
“It was fun making it,” Strub said in her message, with an emoji wink.
She did it with the help of two accomplices, her sons Will and Nick Strub.
It was indeed the flood-delivered game piece that gave her the idea.
Strub first thought of making huge poker chips, but soon realized it would be too daunting a task.
The card is now gone, likely removed by the city. Strub said she returned to check on it later Saturday morning, and it was no longer there. A city worker told her things can’t be placed at City Beach without a permit. It was in his truck headed for the dump.
Strub told him she didn’t know she needed a permit, and he put it back while she was there.
But later, it was gone again.
The giant playing card lives on, however, in photos being widely shared on social media.
“On the Inside North Idaho Facebook page, people are talking about making this an annual event — fun and games Cd’A — encouraging people to make large game pieces,” Strub said. “It could be anything from Candy Land, Battleship to the candlestick from Clue.”
Strub said she thinks April Fools’ Day is an unappreciated holiday.
“But I think it’s kind of fun,” she said.