Months...they're difficult

I haven't been in school for...well...a long time.

Let me date myself, yet again, since I enjoy it so much. The fond memories I have of school include:

• Presentations using overhead projectors (why is the transparency sheet always backward?).

• Tube TVs on the giant rolling cart (your day was immediately great when that rolled into the classroom).

• Floppy discs (omg, what color did you pick?).

• Computers were still somewhat of a novelty (and Computer Day in school was awesome).

• Chalkboard eraser machines (you were definitely teacher’s pet if you got assigned that task).

You get the gist.

You know what's not going to date me? Calendars.

[Pause for the mike drop. You see what I did there? #awesomesegue!]

Specifically: the months of the year. Those have been standard since, well, depending on what you read on Google, anywhere from 46 BC to 1752. I’m pretty sure even my ancient English teacher, still in love with her chalkboard eraser at the ripe old age of 79, was born well after 1752.

Whatever the date, the modern calendar and months of the year we use today are pretty old and, dare I say, pretty well cemented by about the second or third grade.

And thus we get to the part of the post where my assumptions about what should or should not be common knowledge get completely trashed, as documented by a recent phone call:

Me: Your resume indicates you worked at XX company, but there were no dates of employment listed. When did you start and end that position?

Calendar Problems (henceforth CP): Uumm, I don't really remember...I maybe started the month before October and was there for a month.

Me: (attempting to compute) So, you started in September...

CP: I started the month before October.

Me: Which would be September.

CP: Sure, if that's what's before October.

Now, I’m no great shakes at mental math. I would struggle to tell you eight plus seven is fifteen if not for the infinite number of games of cribbage I’ve played in life (oh, darn. Did I just date myself again?), and I have no idea if eight times seven is 54 or 56, but months I’ve got down pat. Ditto the days of the week and letters of the alphabet.

I suppose I could understand you not recalling the months of the year in English if English was a second (or third or however many) language, but I would like to point out that English was absolutely not this lady's second language, and let’s be real here: September sounds pretty darn similar in a helluva lot of different Romance languages, anyway, so odds are good she should have been able to come up with something.

So, the fact that she couldn't recall September is really rather sad (and, frankly, a testament to her probable inability to learn a second language).