You Must Remember This

Mnemonics. Little tricks and rhymes to help you remember things. We all use them.

Some mnemonics are pretty universal, and most people have at least heard of them. "Thirty days hath September..." for the days of the months, "ROY G. BIV" for the colors of the rainbow. Leap years are evenly divisible by 4 but not 400.

Sometimes our references come from Pop Culture. Children's programs like Sesame Street have long used music to teach numbers and letters. Thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, there are thousands of thirty-somethings who can tell you about the Louisiana Purchase or sing the Preamble to the Constitution. I've heard songs that list all the 50 states in alphabetical order, the Presidents of the The United States in order, or all the Kings and Queens of England.

Some are more personal, something a teacher or a parent taught you that's a little different than how other people remember it. I can still hear my 10th grade french teacher whenever I spell professor - "It only takes one F to fail you." I've heard other variations, but in our house the planets were aligned in the order of "Mary's Violet Eyes Make Johnny Stay Up Nights Period."

And then, there are the inadvertent mnemonics. The family stories that you think of whenever a topic comes up that helps you remember a certain fact. Maybe you got only one question wrong on a test, and you always remember what cost you that perfect score. Maybe the correct answer was said or written in such a way that it became instantly memorable.

One summer holiday, we were sitting around the pool at my uncle's house, and the adults were playing Trivial Pursuit. (Quick, which decade was this?) My dad and his brothers and sisters liked to play in teams, and bounce answers off each other before giving the official answers. This also allowed the teams to ebb and flow as people arrived or departed, without disrupting the game. A precocious kid, I preferred to hang out with the adults, so I was the official card reader for both sides. (Oh, and by the way Regis? I came up with "Is that your final answer?" WAY before you did. You can make my royalty checks payable to LadyPatsFan...) The following question came up for my dad's team:

Who was the second person to walk on the moon?

Discussion ensued. "Well, of course, Neil Armstrong was the first." "Yes. And that was Apollo 11." "Did Apollo 12 touch down on the moon, or just orbit?" "I know Apollo 13 was supposed to and didn't make it, but was 12 scheduled to land?" "Who was in line for the Apollo 12 mission?" "Okay, now who would have been commander?" "Would the Commander have stepped out or stayed behind?"

I don't remember all the names and dates and assorted trivia that was tossed around during the discussion, but I remember it taking several minutes. And I don't remember the name of the astronaut that my Dad finally named as the second man to walk on the moon. But I will never, ever, forget the correct answer to this US History question.

me - "The correct answer is .... Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin"

.... long pause while everyone stared open mouthed at me ....

Dad - "Of course!" V8 head slap. "The guy behind Armstrong on the ladder!!!"