-
Benjamin is Born
He is born at age 70. A wrinkly old man, with knowledge and experiences he hasn't even aquired yet. "Wrapped in a voluminous white blanket, and partly crammed into one of the cribs, there sat an old man apparently about seventy years of age. His sparse hair was almost white, and from his chin dripped a long smoke-colored beard, which waved absurdly back and forth, fanned by the breeze coming in at the window. He looked up at Mr. Button with dim, faded eyes in which lurked a puzzled question." -
Benjamin Starts Kindergarten
When he turns five, he goes to his first day of school. "He initiated into the art of pasting green paper on orange paper, of weaving colored maps and manufacturing eternal cardboard necklaces. He was inclined to drowse off to sleep in the middle of these tasks, a habit which both irritated and frightened his young teacher. To his relief she complained to his parents, and he was removed from the school. The Roger Buttons told their friends that they felt he was too young." -
Benjamin has his Twelfth Birthday
Benjamin is becoming a young man, his parents barely even notice his differences from the other children anymore. He is also growing up to be very determined. He insists "I am grown... I want to put on trousers." -
Benjamin Applies to Yale
Benjamin is accepted into Yale's freshman class but when he goes to meet with the headmaster he does not believe Benjamin is eighteen and rejects him. It would be one og the orst mistakes Yale ever made. -
Benjamin Turns Twenty
In 1880 Benjamin Button was twenty years old, and he signalized his birthday by going to work for his father in Roger Button & Co.,
Wholesale Hardware. It was in that same year that he began "going out socially"--that is, his father insisted on taking him to several fashionable dances. Roger Button was now fifty, and he and his son were more and more companionable--in fact, since Benjamin had ceased to dye his hair, they appeared about the same age, and could have passed as brothers. -
Benjamin Meets Hildegarde Moncrief
Benjamin started; an almost chemical change seemed to dissolve and recompose the very elements of his body. A rigor passed over him, blood rose into his cheeks, his forehead, and there was a steady thumping in his ears. It was first love. -
Benjamin is Engaged to Hildegarde Moncrief
the engagement of Miss Hildegarde Moncrief to Mr. Benjamin Button was made known (I say "made known," for General Moncrief declared he would rather fall upon his sword than announce it), the excitement in Baltimore society reached a feverish pitch. The almost forgotten story of Benjamin's birth was remembered and sent out upon the winds of scandal in picaresque and incredible forms. -
Benjamin Realizes His Fate
"Good Lord!" he said aloud. The process was continuing. There was no doubt of it--he looked now like a man of thirty. Instead of being delighted, he was uneasy--he was growing younger. He had hitherto hoped that once he reached a bodily age equivalent to his age in years, the grotesque phenomenon which had marked his birth would cease to function. He shuddered. His destiny seemed to him awful, incredible." -
Benjamin Fights In The War
Benjamin's discontent waxed stronger. At the outbreak of the
Spanish-American War in 1898 his home had for him so little charm that he decided to join the army. With his business influence he obtained a commission as captain, and proved so adaptable to the work that he was made a major, and finally a lieutenant-colonel just in time to participate in the celebrated charge up San Juan Hill. He was slightly wounded, and received a medal. -
Benjamin Goes To Harvard
"One September day in 1910--a few years after Roger Button & Co. Wholesale Hardware, had been handed over to young Roscoe Button--a man, apparently about twenty years old, entered himself as a freshman at Harvard University in Cambridge. He did not make the mistake of announcing that he would never see fifty again, nor did he mention the fact that his son had been graduated from the same institution ten years before. He was admitted." -
Harvard defeats Yale in Football
Just as Benjamin had told them years and years ago, Benjamin led Harvard to a victory over Yale. He became a football star. -
Roscoe's First Child is Born
"In 1920 Roscoe Button's first child was born. During the attendant
festivities, however, no one thought it "the thing" to mention, that
the little grubby boy, apparently about ten years of age who played
around the house with lead soldiers and a miniature circus, was the
new baby's own grandfather." -
Benjamin is turning into a new born baby
"His nurse, Nana, in her starched gingham dress, became the center of his tiny world. On bright days they walked in the park; Nana would point at a great gray monster and say "elephant," and Benjamin would say it after her, and when he was being undressed for bed that night he would say it over and over aloud to her: "Elyphant, elyphant, elyphant." Benjamin soon could not remember anything about college or his wife or anything he had done in his lifetime.