40 Years.

This is a real shoe, off a pony. It was chromed and given to me 40 years ago today, by Denise. She was the young daughter of the family I boarded with for 2 years when I was a young teacher in South Taranaki.

At 12 noon on a sunny day on the 23 rd of December 1967 DH and I were married at St. Andrews Church in Marton. He a young farmer, me a young teacher.

Why get married at such a weird time of year?

Well, It suited us. New Zealand shut for the weekend in those days! I didn't finish school till 2.30 pm on the Thursday afternoon of the 21st December. That gave me the rest of that day to drive home ( about 2 plus hours ) and the next day to get organised. We only had the school holidays till I needed to be back working and DH had to go into Military Annual Camp in the Army at Waiouru in the middle of January. He had been drawn in a ballot to do Military Service and every year had to attend an Annual camp . So we decided the best use of our time was to get married before Christmas, go on Honeymoon for a couple of weeks come back and I'd get everything sorted in our new home while he went off to camp. Strangely just about everyone we invited turned up so it can't have been that inconvenient. DH's younger brother was doing VSA work in Thailand and he didn't get there but everyone else we wanted to be there, was.

Our wedding was quite low key....we didn't want a big fuss.......My only elder sister had made a big drama of her Wedding and I knew that was her way of doing things - not mine. ( I knew exactly what I wanted, didn't change my mind or have any tantrums ).We didn't get Studio photos taken so just had some taken in the local park ( no I'm not sharing those ), but I have kept a few mementos like my lucky horseshoe; the guest list; and I still have my wedding gown and can still fit into it! I haven't stored it so well and some of the guipure lace on the train has discoloured. ( I still like the elegant design - nothing frilly for this girl .)

We had a party with friends on our 35th Anni but can't really afford that this time so we are going out to lunch shortly; just the 2 of us. We decided to have the day off !

I think that is a Ruby Anniversary....but I'm not expecting any ( ha ha ). Many of you reading this have already got to this milestone. I think in those days you were expected to get married, far more than today, and many of my friends from that same generation are still married. I wonder how many more we can clock up?