The first, the third, 60, what are you saying exactly?



Photo by telachhe - CC-BY

People say things in the strangest way.  All of my life, whenever someone would ask me my birth date I would say the month first, then the day and finally the year, never adding the zero in front because it is assumed. There are some people here in Indiana that when they are asked their date of birth they will say, the first, the third, 60 or 01, 07, 1972. I am confused. What? During the day, I am taking a lot of calls and I write down a lot of information.  But when someone says things a bit differently I am taken back a little and lose my bearings.  Often I will ask them to repeat what they had just said. Where in the world did they learn to say their birth date in such a confusing way? This is not just a one time thing, but it happens almost daily. The thing is I have lived in Indiana for a long time and never heard anyone say it until I worked at a hospital.  I want to shout through the phone, "You sound very ignorant, did you know that?!" OK, I am done complaining now.