Remembering October 9, 2006

October 9, 2006 8:25 AM

Help me celebrate the birth of my nephew today. I'd like ideas on cool memorabilia that later on he can have to remember this day.

Obviously, I'm going to pick up today's newspaper and probably this week's Time magazine as well. What other magazines should I get him? The Economist? The National Enquirer? I'd like to collect a range of different publications. Also, suggestions of anything else that might serve as a cool reminder of today are appreciated.

FYI: He was born in Houston, and I'm in Washington DC

posted by thewittyname to human relations (25 comments total)

While it isn't date-specific, this week's Billboard might be interesting
posted by necessitas at 8:30 AM on October 9, 2006

Maybe get all of the members of the family to email you with a message for the newborn, then you can compile them and present them with the other birthday stuff. Not really "memorabilia", but it might be a nice touch, instead of the usual baby cards that address the parents and not the child. Or get him a Playboy.
posted by Idiot Mittens at 8:35 AM on October 9, 2006

Something to commemorate the NK bomb, maybe?
posted by thirteenkiller at 8:35 AM on October 9, 2006

maybe a piece of radioactive glass from a N. Korean mine shaft cum nuclear testing site. The government is pretty cas starved, ya know...


i keed, i keed...


though I don't know where they are now [mostly because of family drama], the two things I rememer most from my childhood was a stuffed dog with all the stats from my birth written on the side ... it was meant for the purpose, having blank feilds for doctor, time of birth, etc... and a giant plastic football toy chest the old super Coach of 'Bama gave my grandfather to give to me.
posted by trinarian at 8:36 AM on October 9, 2006

Start growing a bonsai tree today. Actually, start growing a few. I tried this once on a friend's birthday and a few months later it dropped dead on me. But that's probably just my lack of green fingers.

And congratulations. He's clearly got good taste in when to arrive, since he shares the day with me :-)

That's another idea actually. Does anyone suitable and well-known share his birthday? If so see if you could get in touch with them and ask them to write a note of congratulations or sign a photo or something?

You could also get hold of copies of the front page of a few big newspapers from other countries. There's perhaps people on MeFi who can help you there (I'll pick up a copy of the Times on the way home for example, if you like).
posted by edd at 8:38 AM on October 9, 2006

Building on necessita's suggestion, towards the end of the year you can get any number of the 'year in review' publications. (Time, newspaper, all the news networks tend to have specials, which you could record for him.)

Also, people of import who share the same birthday and 'this day in history'... that info is widely available on the net. Instead of just printing off a copy of the webpage, perhaps you could compile some of the info into a nicer looking page, have it professionally printed and framed (or bound into a book if you want to go that route).

I know my day of birth wasn't terribly exciting, but as I grew older I always enjoyed seeing what was happening in the world the year I was born.

Might want to wait until he's an adult before you give him a copy of the newspaper or Time, otherwise he'll be asking who Mark Foley was and why it was wrong to be friends with boys. :-)
posted by MarkLark at 8:39 AM on October 9, 2006

Happy birthday, Edd!
posted by MarkLark at 8:40 AM on October 9, 2006

Not just specific to today but specific to who you are right now:
I'd suggest a phased approach.
Step 1: 1-4 years. Take a common cartoon or your favorite episode of a cartoon and save it to your computer. Then when you're looking after him in the early years play it each time. It will quickly become the thing he identifies with you, small kids adore repitition and your enthusiasm for it will transmit itself, making playtime with Uncle fun.

Step 2: A Fav children's book - the same, one you liked as a child is best, if not find one in a local store you are going to make memories with your nephew with. You will probabaly find you can identify ones from your teenage years better (cartoon strips?), so get copies of them now. As he grows old enough to understand, read those to him, or teach him to read using them.

Step 3: Silly YouTube vids that make you really giggle, a wide selection from safe for smallies to NSFS. Or as suggested above a song from the billboard (choose one that will not drive you too crazy with repetition) and play it each time you're with him.
Or your Fav episode of Sesame Street. same

Step 4: the magazines you mention but selected articles in particular that talk to who you are right at this moment.

Step 5: Pictures of all the family members as they are now, and if possible when they were around 2, 5, 10, etc.,

The aim of this is for you to have a selection of materials that are practical from the word go, that will entertain and delight him while you two are building up your very unique relationship. These will change as you both change, from kiddie cartoon, songs, videos, to comic strips to reading politics, to poking fun at his Mom-& Dad's wedding hairdos.
In this way you two will create memories that are unique to you, that will hopefully be fun and that will cement a feeling in him that you are a special person in his life, and will be there for him.

When he is a teen or a young adult you can show him what passed for NSFW or show him the political agonising that we went through today. Even if you only get to see him once a year, this approach can work.

They will NOT be a static group of "On this day in 2006....." that he can get from a number of other sources and that you have to wait a long time before he understands. Show the collection to the parents and offer to take him X amount of times and you're giving a gift of commitment to this new family member that will please everyone.

Congratulations! In other times children learned huge amounts from all family members, nowadays we don't have a lifestyle that allows that to happen but sometimes he'll get lucky and be born into a family where he gets an uncle like you! :-)
posted by Wilder at 8:49 AM on October 9, 2006 [1 favorite]

I would suggest a bunch of different men's magazines. Then give them to him on his 18th birthday. "Today, you are a man."
posted by antifuse at 8:50 AM on October 9, 2006

Take-out menus from _your_ favorite places in DC... it would be fun "Wow, unc, you mean it only cost X?", and would be fun for him to visit your haunts when he's grown.
posted by silusGROK at 8:57 AM on October 9, 2006

I would suggest a bunch of different men's magazines. Then give them to him on his 18th birthday. "Today, you are a man."

I love this. I bet though that, come 2024, he'll be wrinkling his nose at all the bleached, implanted ladies, because tastes will have done a 180
posted by juliarothbort at 8:58 AM on October 9, 2006

I just did this for my 1yo son. I included the Economist, Wired and Vanity Fair, as well as Time's (Newsweek's?) "cool inventions" issue from this year. You could also set aside some popular music and movie CD/DVDs from the year (include a few genres).
posted by cocoagirl at 8:59 AM on October 9, 2006

Two bottles of this year's vintage wine or port - one for his 18th birthday and one for his 21st.

Some photos of his parents and other family members would be nice.

I would suggest a bunch of different men's magazines. Then give them to him on his 18th birthday. "Today, you are a man."

I love this. I bet though that, come 2024, he'll be wrinkling his nose at all the bleached, implanted ladies, because tastes will have done a 180

Woohoo!
posted by goo at 9:07 AM on October 9, 2006

When my first child was born, I picked up newspapers from that day, and also recorded our local evening news. I thought it would make for interesting viewing/reading as she got older.
posted by mike0221 at 9:18 AM on October 9, 2006

It's also John Lennon's birthday, so a copy of Sgt.Pepper.
posted by brujita at 9:20 AM on October 9, 2006

Today's Front Pages is fun. You can download pdfs of the front pages of papers from around the world, but you have to do it today. Congratulations!
posted by lukemeister at 9:55 AM on October 9, 2006

If you want to commemorate any events that happened in other yers on October 9th, here's the wikipedia page for 9 october.

Some of the things that stand out to me:
-Anniversary of Leif Ericson's landing (today is also columbus day)
-the 1919 Black Sox World Series scandal. You could have his socks bronzed instead of his shoes to commemorate Shoeless Joe.
-The Fox network started broadcasting in 1986.
posted by gauchodaspampas at 10:03 AM on October 9, 2006

Get a box of every 2006 baseball card from whatever maker (fleer, topps, etc.)
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 10:10 AM on October 9, 2006

It's also John Lennon's birthday, so a copy of Sgt.Pepper. posted by brujita

You beat me to it!

I live in Houston and can pick you up a copy of the Chronicle newspaper for today and mail it to you if you want.
posted by nimsey lou at 10:11 AM on October 9, 2006

A huge swath of October 2006 comic books. Keep them in a box until he starts reading comics on his own, then casually mention, "Oh, I got these for you when you were born," and give them to him.
posted by Greg Nog at 10:39 AM on October 9, 2006

My parents saved some fashion pages (depicting bell-bottoms, peasant dresses, etc.) from the New York Times magazine to show what people were wearing when I was young. Maybe you could save some catalog pages or magazine articles or photos of street scenes showing typical menswear of the time, and/or how a well-known place in your community looked at that time.
posted by bunky at 10:41 AM on October 9, 2006

Add to your newspaper stack some nutty tabloids: Enquirer, Weekly World News, and such. You're in luck - this week (according to the WWN website) Batboy was sighted in a NYC subway!
posted by booth at 11:04 AM on October 9, 2006

Depending on your political bent, you can have the current President sent a note of congratulations. I did this for my nephew, although Clinton was it office at the time.
posted by FreezBoy at 11:16 AM on October 9, 2006

FreezBoy, thanks for the info about the Presidential note-of-congratulations! Following your link, I just filled out a request for a note for my daughter, born back in April. And, I'm also going to ask whatever celebrity shares the same birthday for an autographed picture!

I imagine that the glitterati get requests for autographed photos all the time, and seeing as how many of them probably end up on eBay, they are probably reluctant to subsidize someone else's eBay business. However, a request for a picture to be signed "Happy Birthday mathdaughter" is probably more likely to be honored, as what are the odds it'll just be sold at auction? Well, OK, there is this, but that's all I could find.
posted by math at 12:38 PM on October 9, 2006

Today's (really this week's) number one single or album.
posted by cushie at 9:21 PM on October 9, 2006