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Happy Anniversary

“Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Haaappy Anniversary

Pour a cheerful toast and fill it

Happy Anniversary

but be careful you don’t spill it

Happy Anniversary

Oooooh Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Haaappy Anniversary

Happy she and happy he

they’re both as happy as can be

Celebrating merrily

their happy anniversary

Oooooh Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Haaappy Anniversary

We now state emphatically

its happy anniversary

not another day could be

a happy anniversary

Oooooh Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Happy (slow)

Happy (slow)

Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy (fast)

Anniversary!!!”

The words above, believe it or not, came from the Season 1, Episode 19 of The Flintstones which aired on Friday, Feb. 3, 1961, at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. It was an episode where Fred bought a piano (as an Anniversary gift for Wilma) from a crook nicknamed “Eighty-Eight Fingers” Louie. Fred obviously didn’t know the piano was stolen, and when the police showed up to arrest Fred for being in possession of a “hot” piano, the police let him first show it to Wilma, with a police quartet serenading both of them with the song which began this narrative. Fred was eventually exonerated when “Eighty-Eight Fingers” was apprehended and said he sold the piano to a frumpy, dumb looking guy, and the judge agreed that described Fred to a “T,” so he got off the hook.

One Score and 18 years ago, I met my bride at a now defunct nightclub (2001) on Fairmount Avenue in Jamestown, and six months after that we returned to that very same Discotheque where I requested the song to which we first danced (Three Times a Lady by the Commodores), and with a ring in my pocket I asked her for her hand in marriage. One Score and 17 years ago (the 366th day after we met), we wed, and this coming Wednesday we’ll celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary.

Being that it is a weekday and Sally will be working the next day (I might be too, if I get a call to substitute teach that day), and after Softball practice, our celebration will probably be a nice dinner, maybe a glass of wine, possibly a television movie, or our favorite Wednesday programs, and probably end with each of us dozing off in our chairs before the end of said movie or program happens. That may sound kind of boring, or unromantic, but it really epitomizes what our relationship has been over these 37 years, and it’s been anything, and everything, BUT boring and unromantic.

Whatever we have for dinner on Wednesday, will be a symbol of 37 years of always being able to have food on our table, sometimes the same foods multiple times a week, because it was what we could afford. Very early in our marriage, with two children and me being on a newer teacher’s salary and Sally working two part time jobs for us to make ends meet, we found ourselves eating chicken about five times a week because it was only $.39/lb. and that’s what we could afford. Often times, the other two meals may have been inexpensive packaged breaded veal patties, which Chas and Chris just LOVED (NOT!), and the other meal might have been spaghetti or something else inexpensive (but easy to stretch) to fix. But there was always food on the table, and it was delicious, as Sally is an excellent cook, only one of her amazing talents. So as we sit down to whatever’s for dinner on Wednesday, I’m going to think about these 37 years and how we have never been wanting for food on our table.

The glass of wine we’ll use to toast ALL the special moments we’ve shared, almost like the special things that happen to people and how they toast those times and events, and Sally and I have shared so many wonderful and memorable times, special events, and occurrences during our years together. With our wine we’ll toast each other, our longevity together, our children, grandchildren, our great-grandson, our cat, our family and friends, our many opportunities, and our very special travels over the years [including Missouri, California, Hawaii, Tennessee, the Pittsburgh area, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Virginia Beach, Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, the one-day, overnight, and weekend trips to catch many activities of our kids and grandkids including music concerts, the youth, travel, high school, and/or college sports of Chas, Chris, Jon, Kolby, Jeffrey, Justin, and Josh, plus three years at the Cooperstown Dreams Park, Indians Spring Training in Florida and Arizona, the umpteen jaunts to Cleveland … the Opening Days and being there for the ’95-’99, ’01,’07, ’13, and ’16 Playoffs including the ’16 World Series, a few trips to Canada, a day in Tijuana, our trip to Chicago (Wrigley Field) and Rockford, Illinois, The Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, multiple trips to Florida, Myrtle Beach, and cities visited to attend Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Neil Diamond, (looking forward to Billy Joel this July), and Jimmy Buffett concerts, just to name a whole lot more than just a few.] It’ll also be a toast to the two of us, our friendship, devotion, and love for each other as best friends, soulmates, and the love of each other’s lives. A few years ago, Sally contracted a local Art Teacher (who happens to be a former student of mine from “a few” years before that … Thanks, Aleida!), to do a painting which hangs above our bed and reads “I Love Us.” What an appropriate toast for our life spent together, but with all we have, and have been able to do, judging by this small list of highlights, we’ll need a bit more than just a glass of wine to toast all of it. (Not to worry though…we’ll still be ready for work on Thursday.)

The time we spend watching the TV movie, or our favorite Wednesday programs, will mark the many nights just spent in the quiet of our home, a home that’s doubled as a playground and learning center for our kids growing up and the kids who spent so much time here under Sally’s care. It’s been a HOME that we made together, not just a house that’s always needed some work, improvements, and/or changes, but rather our home, filled with memories of our kids growing up, of holiday, birthday, and our kids’ milestone celebrations, of our annual Christmas parties with special people in our lives, of our honorary families from Babe Ruth World Series, of the many children Sally has helped raise by taking care of them, not to mention having a living room filled with a hundred plus bobbleheads and a hundred plus baseballs, some framed, hanging jerseys, a few 1920’s baseball mitts, and other baseball, and a few football, furnishings making the room more of a museum than a living room, symbolizing so many baseball and softball memories we’ve had these past 37 years.

And as far as falling asleep in our chairs, now sometimes between eight and nine o’clock, that will symbolize 37 years of falling asleep together, be it in our bed, or next to each other in our recliners, under the warm, secure blanket of love that we have shared these 37 years.

So what might appear to be an average, run of the mill, not too exciting Wednesday evening mild celebration, our anniversary will, in fact, not just be a celebration of our wedding day, but a celebration every day of all 37 years of our ups and downs, good times and bad, times of sickness and health, and times both sad and happy, in other words of a celebration of our LIFE … and what a WONDERFUL life it has been. Happy Anniversary, Sally!!

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