From egg and spoon to honeymoon

WARWICK SMITH/Manawatu Standard

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: Doug and Margaret Anderson celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary today. It all began with an unusual pick-up line.

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He used to come into the cookery for her butter buns.

She was the smiling girl behind the counter, he was the boy in the blue overalls on the motorbike.

One day he asked her to jump on the back of his motorbike to join in with an egg-and-spoon race.

She didn't want to but was too polite to say no.

That was the beginning of the Margaret and Doug Anderson love story.

The couple celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary today in their home in Rongotea.

Married at 21, the pair can remember with clarity the day they tied the knot in a Presbyterian church in Auckland. Surprising considering Doug copped a nasty knock on the head on the day.

The trouble started when their photographer failed to turn up after being involved in an accident.

The photographer they ended up with tried to balance camera gear on the table next to the bridal party, which promptly toppled over, hitting Doug on the head.

The happy couple didn't let that ruin the evening though, dancing along to the orchestra until midnight.

Doug then bundled his new bride into the car to drive her up the north coast to Warkworth for their honeymoon.

Perhaps it was the bump on the head that did it, but in the dark he took the wrong route, heading up the east coast instead.

"We didn't get to our honeymoon destination until 4am," Mr Anderson said.

The couple moved to Palmerston North after the wedding for Mr Anderson to take up a share-milking job in Halcombe.

He did this for three years before moving to another share-milking job in Rongotea.

"We've been here ever since."

After working on the farm for three years, Mr Anderson got back into mechanics, starting a business he still runs today, buying and re-selling Mercedes Benz cars.

Mrs Anderson said despite a life-time of seeing her man in blue overalls, she still knows very little about cars.

She spent most of her time raising their three children.

"Spending time with our family has been our happiest memories."

The couple agree they are lucky to still be married after all this time.

"These days you're lucky if the marriage lasts a year," Mrs Anderson said. "Either that or bad health hits you and takes you from each other."

The pair say they argued little over the 60 years.

"We have had differences of opinions but the key is just to listen to each other and talk it out."

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