Military Time

The other night after I had dinner with some friends at the V-Dub (so this must have been Friday), Chaz and I decided to go the CVS across the street on Thayer Street. So we walked in, and he showed me where the NyQuil was (I got a night and day pack, actually), and I got some skim milk. Then we went to the register to pay. There were three workers - a white girl, a latino guy, and a black girl, all probably aged 20-24. As I handed the guy my card, the white girl asked,

"Do you know how to read military time?"

So there are three people in front of me, who work right next to an ivy league school, all aged 20-23, and one asks me if I know how to read military time. Now, I think I know military time, but... if these guys don't know it, then maybe I don't! So I say, "Yes??"

But I looked very inconfident, so the guy asked, "You know?" And I said, "I mean, I think I do..."

And then the white girl asked, "So what's 1624 in military time?" And I said 4:24PM. And she said, "Whooaaa.... how did you know that?" So I just said if it's 13 or higher, you subtract 12 and just say it's in PM. So then she pulled up a receipt and asked, "So what time did I take my break?" It said 1824, so I told her, 624PM.

They were all very amazed, for some reason. As in, shocked. Shocked! How did you know that? The white girl asked:

"Are you in the military?"

Since you're reading this, you undoubtedly know me, but just to illustrate: I'm 5'10", lanky, pale, scrawny, white, I wear tiny t-shirts and tight jeans and sandals and I have long hair. I could not look further from the military if I tried. In between some bad coughing and a little bit of laughing, I got out, "coughcough no i cough go coughcough to Brown."

And they all said, "OOHHHH!!! Yeah, I get it!" And the black woman said, "Yeah, they teach you math like that at Brown, right?" And very seriously, I said,

"Yes."

And I left the store.

Chaz and I went home to study for our Military Time 1350 course after that - we had a quiz the next day on all times from 0000 to 1159.

Peace out!