Anniversaries

A friend of mine celebrates her twenty-sixth wedding anniversary today, a silver and a spare. If you do the math, you'll realize that she got married on September 1, 1985, which fell on a Sunday, so it was the day before Labor Day - Monday, September 2. This prompted me to ponder if maybe she and her husband chose September 1 as the wedding date so that her husband would remember their anniversary. If not the exact date, than certainly the fact that they got married on Labor Day weekend.

I have never been unable to understand why so many married men forget their wedding anniversaries. (Not that my friend's husband does.) Is it that inconsequential and insignificant a day to them - the day they take a wife - that they forget? Me, I have no trouble remembering people's wedding anniversaries. I'm not married, but I do remember learning that my aunt and uncle got married on June 29, 1963, and I remember learning that my parents got married on October 10, 1964, even though their divorce made that date irrelevant. I obviously wasn't there in either case, but I remembered the wedding anniversaries once I learned them.

Heck, I remember dates of record releases - not just the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album (June 1, 1967), but less consequential albums like the Rolling Stones' Tattoo You (August 24, 1981). I remember dates of historical events, like the Battle of Yorktown (October 19, 1781) and the coronation of Napoleon (December 2, 1804). I also remember that today is the 72nd anniversary of the day German armies invaded Poland, something every American of Polish descent should know - and I'm not even Polish! My point (and I do have one) is that if you give me an important date, I'll remember it.

Ands no date could be more important to a married man than his wedding anniversary, the day his bride radiated with beauty, the day he became a man, the day his life changed forever. And yet men forgetting their wedding anniversaries continue to inspire sitcom episodes to this very day.

I always vowed that if I ever got married, I, with my knack for remembering important dates, would remember my wedding anniversary. But how can you remember your wedding anniversary when you have no wedding anniversary to remember?

Gee, that's sad! :-(