Memories

I never learned the little story that should have helped me remember the order of the planets (at least, I don’t remember learning it). I just learned the names of the planets and the order they came in (except for those weird times when two of them switched places, but I guess with the demotion of Pluto, that’s not a problem anymore…for other people. To me, Pluto is, and always will be, a planet. Go Pluto!) I do wonder if there are some little stories out there that now just end for no apparent reason since Pluto’s not officially a planet anymore.

But the planets aren’t the only group that made me try to remember a story. There was also Physics Class where I had to learn something about kangaroos hopping down driveways, and I still generally remember what those stand for, but I also remember that at times I spent more time figuring out what they were hopping down than what the word was actually supposed to represent.

Moving along this same train of thought, I can't forget my dear Aunt Sally, even though I'm pretty sure no one ever tried to teach her story to me (I guess she represents that relative you only hear whispers about, but never get to meet). I know that she has something to do with math, but I got along quite well without knowing exactly what, so I guess it doesn't really matter that I don't know. All in all, when I have to remember a list of things, I generally find it easier to just make up a new word by stringing all of the letters together, but that’s just me, and people have told me I've crazy.

Now, I can't end this before I talk about the months, and the story/poem thing about which ones have thirty days and which have thirty-one and all that stuff. I never did learn that one, but I do know what order the months come in thanks to the song I learned in Second Grade:

January, February, March they’re cool.
April, May, and June out of school.
July and August and September it’s fall.
October and November and December that’s all.

Frankly, I’ve found that a lot more useful than the how many days are in each month one (isn’t that was calendars are for?). I suppose I should try to learn it, but I usually screw the numbers up, or forget what the story/poem is supposed to say. I just know it has the word "hath" in it.