Learned the one fisted knuckle method as a toddler on my mothers knee and still use it today.
I learned about the knuckles thing from “Highlights for Children.” Nowadays I use the rhyme, which I suddenly found I could remember one day as an adult.
30 days hath september, april, june and november.
One line. One might figure that feb is such an oddity at 28 days you dont need to be reminded of it =)
if ya got to,
All the rest have 31 except feb.
A very simple second line. As a mnemonic it is actually one of the easier ones!
I used to have trouble with the one for memorizing facial nerves =(
two zulus buggered my cat, if you must know … they were transitioning to a more PC one, which I really cant remember.
I wasn’t taught this method; in fact, I only heard about it a few weeks ago from a co-worker.
Yeah, aruvqan, I know it’s not hard. My B.A. in English notwithstanding, it just doesn’t work with the way my brain is wired for some reason. I get as far as “30 days hath September” then it just won’t stick. I’m convinced it has something to do with the months being out of order. 
I know the knuckle method but have never met anyone else who did. I do it with only one hand though. I start with the index finger knuckle and when I get to the pinky, go back to the beginning.
I learnt the knuckle method from a book sometime around the age of ten. I never can remember the rhyme. Even at this moment, after having read both pages of this thread and that silly rhyme umpteen times I couldn’t tell you which months fit in there.
No knuckles - just the 30 days poem.
Footnote: I have European parents: never heard them mention the knuckle thing.
I had no idea there were different versions of the rhyme. Here’s the one I was taught…
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty one,
Except the second month alone
To which we 28 assign
'Til leap year gives it 29.
There, it rhymes, has rhythm, and also makes sense.
But once learned I really only needed to remember the first 2 lines, because February’s bit weirdness was easy to remember without a rhyme, and any other months not in the list defaulted to 31.
Didn’t learn the knuckle thing until recently - I think my in-laws taught it to me.
My dad taught me one version of the rhyme, but it doesn’t exactly completely help.
Thirty days hath September
April, June, and November
All the rest eat peanut butter
Except my grandmother. She drives an old Buick.
What the Buick has to do with anything I don’t know.
Your mother (and Dogmom’s dad) must be related to my BIL, who thought it was great fun to teach the small girl with the great memory nonsense stuff. His version:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and No wonder
All the rest had peanut butter
Except my sister, and she had twins.
Thanks, Tom. Forty years later, and it’s still in my head.
I learned the rhyme as a kid, but later on (sometime in my 20s IIRC), I learned the one hand knuckle method. MUCH better.
I learned the rhyme, but that Napoleon guy on the record messed it up for me. He recited:
“Thirty days hath Septober,
April, June, and no wonder.
All the rest have peanut butter,
All except my dear Grandmother.
She had a little red tricycle, but I stole it!” (rings tricycle bell)
I didn’t learn the knuckle thing, but one guy showed me that the upraised middle finger means “Wednesday.” Starting with his thumb, he said, “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.” Ha. Wednesday to you, pal!
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one
Save February with twenty-eight and one day more
Added every year in four.
I learned the knuckle method in high school, by a teacher who was amazed that none of us had heard it before then.
Never heard of the knuckle method before today.
The version I learned of the rhyme was:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have Thirty One,
Excepting February, alone.
Which has 28, in fine,
'Til leap year gives it 29.
The bolded parts were the bit I learned youngest, and they’re the meat of it, even now. The rest is really just filled in to be complete. If I’m scheduling on the fly and trying to figure out if there’s a 31 coming up, I never recite past November.
I learned by rhyme, not knuckles.
I learned the poem, but I always got screwed up on which months were involved (they all sound alike people!). This is the first I’ve heard of the knuckle method. I like it.
Are you callin’ me some kinda Euro? I like fireworks and Bourbon. I don’t know what the heck Grand Marnier is, but it sounds foreign.
I’ve never heard of this method before.