Populate drop down with select dates on a custom page

Can someone PLEASE explain the steps to dynamically populating a drop-down on a page? I've googled extensively and no examples I see seem to work, or don't have enough detail for a newbie.

My issue is I have to put a drop-down on a custom page that will display 4 dates, for the user to select from.  The 4 dates come from ps_pay_calendar (check_dt).  I have the sql written that will pull the 4 dates (they will change based on what the current date is).  The sql works just fine in sql developer so that's not the issue.

I can't seem to find the proper peoplecode to populate a dropdown using this sql - I get errors that the field I'm using for the dates need a prompt table or a translate table. What prompt table???