storing date as a varchar since 1997
Revert "storing date as a varchar since 1997"

This reverts commit b46feaac8e06f0fb3c43c81b48f193850cec50c0.
Revert "Revert "storing date as a varchar since 1997""

This reverts commit a3af24c64577a351c30d7aab77359c690a0d9996.
storing date as a varchar since 1997

i am pretty smart