If I were going to do that though, there could be several dates that might come to mind. There was the time I was going to take a girl from Provo to Logan to a Gordon Lightfoot concert. We ended up going to the local premiere night of the movie “King Kong” instead.

How that happened is a longer story than I have space to share here now – maybe another time. I was looking forward to the concert, so I was kind of disappointed. But Jessica Lange’s debut performance in the movie helped ease my sadness.

Another memorable going out socially date was when I took the young lady who ended up being my wife to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. It was late when the play finished. We were ready for our late-night drive back home.

We arrived at the vehicle, a 1978 VW Campmobile (which we actually still own), to find ourselves locked out. My key was visible in the ignition. The spare key which I had entrusted to my date/future wife was visible sitting on the tabletop covering the two-burner gas stove.

Have you ever tried to break into a VW vehicle like that? I have. Short of breaking a window, there was not going to be success. Can you guess where the only locksmith in town was? That’s right! — at a drinking party up the canyon.

Dang! I don’t have the space here to tell you how that night ended up, other than to say that the “happy” locksmith was finally located and delivered to us. And the “happy” locksmith became unhappy after he opened the VW and then saw that I had almost no cash and intended to pay with a check.

Okay, enough about those kind of dates. Let’s get to what this column is really about. I’m talking about the fact that many of us remember certain calendar dates for one reason or another.

There are general dates that we should all remember. These dates would be the birthday dates of family members, wedding anniversaries and events like that.

My wife is really good at helping me remember our wedding anniversary date. The date is engraved on the inside of my wedding band.

More importantly, when our anniversary is approaching she’ll ask, “What are we doing for our anniversary this year?” Then later, “What are we doing for our anniversary next week?” Then, “What are we doing for our anniversary on Friday?”

I don’t have a chance to forget. Some wives lie in wait, watching to see if their husband will remember the date. And when they don’t, there’s trouble. My wife’s philosophy: Why invite trouble?

What motivated me to think of this topic is that I just had a noteworthy anniversary in my life. On October 14th, it was the 10-year anniversary of when I passed a 6-millimeter kidney stone. I have crossed fingers that I can keep my streak alive of not having a recurrence.

When I was diagnosed with the stone in February 2012, there was a friend who I see often who was early on with the pregnancy of her youngest child. We kidded about who would deliver first. She did!

Another October 14th remembrance for me is that it marks my first commercial airplane flight in 1971. It was a flight from Salt Lake to New York City for a wide-eyed 19-year-old me.

September 14th, while we’re on the 14th theme, is another date that means something to me. In 1994, that’s when the first “Inside Sanpete” column appeared in The Pyramid.

This column was kind of the brain child of Penny and Paul Hamilton of Mt. Pleasant. Penny was the editor of The Pyramid at the time. As I recall, she suggested the “Inside Sanpete” title and here we are all these years later.

Those are the dates that came to my mind these past few days. I’m suspecting that all of you readers have special dates that get triggered in your minds as the pages on the calendar get turned over. I think it’s a good thing to remember events that way.

A last thing about dates to remember, besides the Pearl Harbor Day and Independence Day type dates. There are a lot of those.

Back to the possible confusion I brought up at the beginning of this piece of what I mean by “dates” – remember the movie “Miss Congeniality?” William Shatner played the part of the host of a nationwide pageant.

He says to the Miss Rhode Island character in the public speaking part of the pageant competition: “Describe your perfect date.” Her response: “That’s a tough one. I’d have to say April 25th – because it’s not too hot and it’s not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.”

— Merrill