‘Patrick’s Place’ reached another milestone last week, but I kept its 21st anniversary rather quiet compared with the 20th.
Some anniversaries just naturally feel bigger than others. That’s true even when a “lesser” anniversary is a newer one. In 2024, for example, I marked the 20th anniversary of Patrick’s Place. That’s probably about 19 years longer than I though it would have lasted. This year, naturally, it’s time to acknowledge this blog’s 21st anniversary.
But anniversary 21 somehow doesn’t seem bigger than 20. I think there’s something impressive-sounding about anniversaries that are multiples of five. There’s definitely something impressive-sounding about anniversaries that are multiples of 10.
My parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last year. This year, they’ll celebrate number 61. Each anniversary that comes could be said to be a testament to my mother’s patience. After 60 years, I’m not sure how my dad hasn’t driven her crazy by now. I’m sure he’d be the first to agree with that. She’d be the second.
But even though hitting the 61st anniversary is a bigger accomplishment than the 60th, 60th sounds bigger.
Even traditional wedding gifts follow that line of thought. Many tables that list traditional wedding anniversary gifts go year by year through the 20th. (The 20th anniversary’s traditional gift is china. I suppose I should have bought myself a fancy mug I could drink coffee from while I blog.)
But once you hit 20, those tables typically jump by multiples of five: 25, 30, 35, 40, and so on. Does that mean there’s no traditional 21st anniversary gift? No, not at all. But you have to look a bit harder to find out that the 21st anniversary gift happens to be brass.
Offhand, I can’t think of anything brass that I’d need, either.
In four more years, it’ll be silver
I suppose it’s not entirely unreasonable to suggest that I could hit my 25th anniversary on this blog. After all, at this point, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. I never dreamed I’d reach 10 years of blogging, much less 20.
And here we are at 21.
Never say never, right?
