What We Aught to Do

As we leave the ‘aughts’ and embark on a new decade, I am left wondering why the term “aught” didn’t catch on.

It wasn’t for my lack of trying; I used it in everyday life.

When someone asks me when we moved to Colorado, I’d say, “The end of double aught.”

What about those great pics of Mexico on the dining room buffet? “Those were take in aught one, our first (and so far only) vacation out of the country,” I’d boast.

When did we buy our house? “Aught two,” would be the reply.

What years were the best for the HBO series ’Six Feet Under’? “Aught three and aught four,” I’d declare.

The diploma in my office? “From the University of Colorado in aught five,” I crowed.

When were the kids born? “Aught seven and aught eight, of course,” I beamed.

My all time favorite? When filling out a check a person asks about the date, “December 3^rd, aught nine,” was the response.

Perhaps I am simply ahead of my time; the last time there were ‘aughts’, what did they call them while they were in it? Maybe calling them ‘aughts’ is something that is done after the fact. Maybe it’s only in retrospect that the single digit years can be called ‘aughts’.

So be it, then I am an innovator.