Many of us remember the beginning of Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address opening with a number, which we had to learn the meaning of, as it wasn’t expressed in the manner we were accustomed to hearing.

Back in the days of Lincoln and the Civil War, a “score” was a term meaning twenty, thus making Lincoln’s words of “Four Score and seven years ago…,” actually mean 87 years ago. If we still used “score” to mean twenty, any total of anything over nineteen would begin with at least one score.

If you have young children, or if you remember it from your childhood, the Children’s Program, Sesame Street, usually opened with the “brought to you by” announcement which included a letter or two and a number or two.

In following the ways of Sesame Street, I’d like to open today’s narrative by letting you know that today’s piece is brought to you by the letters VFTB, and the number two score and five.

I’m hoping you catch the significance of the letters sponsoring today’s column, and I’d like to share with you some of the significance of the number two score and five.

First, did you know that a forty-five-sided figure is called a triacontakaipentagon, or that in Chemistry, 45 is the atomic number for rhodium, or that if you added the first ten digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) of the decimal number system together, the total would be 45?

Other significances of the number 45 are, World War II ended in ’45, and in the year 4545, according to Zager and Evans, “You ain’t gonna need your teeth, won’t need your eyes. You won’t find a thing to chew, and nobody’s gonna look at you?”

Did you know, if you traveled 45 miles, you would’ve traveled 72.4 kilometers? Also, are you aware the length of 45 feet is equal to 13.7 meters, and a weight of 45 pounds is equal to 20.4 kilograms?

In numerology, 45 is a blend of stability (represented by the number 4) and change (represented by the number 5). It signifies positive life transitions, which can be achieved through hard work and welcoming and embracing new opportunities.

Famous athletes who have worn the number 45 include Michael Jordan (Birmingham Barons of AA in his Professional Baseball Career, and in his return to the NBA following that), Donald Audette, (Buffalo Sabres of the NHL), Bob Gibson (St. Louis Cardinals Pitcher, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981), Rudy Tomjanovich (wore 45 for his entire NBA career as a Houston Rocket), and Ernie Davis whose number 45 is retired by the NFL Cleveland Browns though Davis never got to wear it in a regular season Browns game. [After the Washington Redskins traded the rights to draft Davis out of Syracuse University to the Cleveland Browns for Bobby Mitchell and first round draft pick Leroy Jackson, tragedy struck. Davis wanted to go to the Browns because his classmate John Brown was there and would be his roommate, and because Jim Brown (no relation to John), whom Davis admired from his days at Syracuse, was already a Brown, but before the season started, Davis was diagnosed with leukemia. A conflict then occurred between Browns Owner Art Modell, and General Manager/Head Coach Paul Brown. Modell brought in doctors who said Davis was well enough to play, but Brown still refused to allow him to play. He did practice with the team and made one appearance on August 18th 1962, in a pre-season game for the Browns. Though he did go into remission, his cancer recurred, and Davis passed away on May 18, 1963.]

Now, a lot of this information might just be considered trivia drivel, and some people might be a hundred percent correct thinking so. The number 45, though, is very important to Sally and me, especially today, as we are remembering, and will be celebrating, the 45th Anniversary of the day we got married. Five years ago, we planned to renew our vows in front of family and friends, but COVID-19 had other plans for all of us, so we decided to do it at a later date. Yes, 45 is a nice round number, but we figure in five more years, Lord willing, we’ll celebrate our 50th, an even better round number, and we’ll have a whole lot more to celebrate.

For today, though, we’ll look back and cherish 45 years of marriage, and 46 years of knowing each other. We embarked on a long journey in 1980, one which we hope has many more roads to travel. We’re not sure what our destination will be, or when, or even if, we’ll ever reach it, but that doesn’t matter, because I’ve always tried to live by the adage, “It’s not the destination, but the journey.” It’s been an amazing journey so far, one that’s not always been the smoothest ride, but we’ve learned much from it, learned to make it work, and it has worked very well! Life is what it is, with bumps in the road, hills to climb, potholes to dodge, but with so much more joy, happiness, love, and affection anyone could ever ask for, because we’ve practiced respect, compromise, tolerance, and appreciation for each other. I truly believe we both feel that way.

At one of our trips to Cincinnati (2021) for a Jimmy Buffett concert, two years before his passing, we did some Parrothead Parking Lot Partying with a couple friends we’d met at previous concerts and with whom we’ve kept meeting up with celebrating Jimmy and the Coral Reefers, other entertainers, wine tasting weekends, and ballgames too. We’ve met new people at every concert, and stayed in touch with many, but at this particular one, there was a young (early to mid-20s), engaged couple, who were getting married in a few months, and as conversations went here and there, they asked us the key to our marriage longevity. Our response was that splitting up (the D Word) was never, nor would ever be, an option. I think they really believed we lived by that, (which we always have, and always will continue to do.) It’s worked for us. They then proceeded to invite us to their wedding, which, unfortunately, we couldn’t attend, but were very flattered by the invitation, and their respect for our relationship. We keep in touch on social media.

Today we’ll, once again, look back at the good, bad, better, worse, worst, but definitely the best (which outnumbers by way far, the bad, worse, worst) of these past 45 years, we’ll drink a toast to each other, and re-commit ourselves to another 45 years of our continuation on this amazing journey.

Happy Two-Score and Five Anniversary, Sally. Thanks for taking this ride with me.