Strange Question of the Night

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My friend Katherine and I were chatting at our local last night. A woman from the neighborhood popped her head in, and talked to us for a minute. At one point she said,  "Do you remember when they had 9/11?"

Katherine and I each raised our eyebrows about as far as they lift. The two odd things:

1) Has anyone in America been allowed to forget 9/11 for more than a couple of minutes?
2) "They had": It's a construction used in sentences like, "Do you remember when they had that sale at Macy's?"

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