Number 84

I'm not alone in seeking the significance of Number 84. It seems 84 is an abundant number, sometimes even an excessive number.

• Numberland has some interesting observations about 84, including a poem about a rude poem about Julius Caesar.
• Number 84 in the Phobos list of the 100 science fiction books you just have to read is Alice in Wonderland.
• There may be mystical significance for Number 84 in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

And in my forays into Google, I keep coming across these words or similar:

Every one knows that the numbers seven and twelve are the most glorious in Holy Scripture ... and 7 x 12 = 84 ... thus 84 really stands for the perfect consummation of God's salvation plan for all those whom God has chosen to save ...

That won't be me, then.

In searching for 'significance', I had hoped to reach out to something beyond maths or religion. Even though the two subject prizes I won at my secondary school prize-giving were for maths and religious education, I only ever wanted the English prize.

Perhaps that is the significance of Number 84.

In 1984, the year before I won those prizes, I realised I was in love (oh yes, far more than a crush) with my female English teacher.

So, for me, 84 indicates a beginning of sorts.

I could go on to add that 1984 was also the year I holidayed with my family in the Norfolk Broads, went out with a boy for 6 months with the pleasingly rhyming name of Sean Vaughan, bought a Wham! t-shirt, refused to read George Orwell's 1984, kept a diary in which I insisted on recording the time I got up and went to bed each day, strode out in a pair of red boots ...