Getting a lift home after a dance led to marriage for Murray and Greta Thomas, who are now celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary.
Back in 1955, Greta and three friends headed south from their hometown of Dargaville to pick fruit in Appleby. On Saturday nights they headed to dances at the Stoke Hall and were prepared to walk if they had to.
Getting there was easy, as the orchard manager’s wife would take pity on them as they set off on the long walk to Stoke and got her husband to drive them.
“But we had to find our own way home to Maling Rd. If anyone at the dance asked if they could take one of us home, we said there was four of us! We never walked home. They’d take us home and we’d give them a cup of tea and send them on their way.”
Then one night it was Murray and his mate who offered them a ride home - and there was a spark.
The girls returned to Dargaville at the end of the fruit-picking season and the letters flowed – usually three times a week.
When Greta returned the following season to pick fruit, wedding bells were in the air and they made plans for a 30 June wedding – 10 days before she turned 21. At the time, being under 21 meant parental permission was needed, and Murray had to write to her father.
Following their Dargaville wedding in June, the newlyweds returned to Appleby to live in Murray’s grandparents’ house on the small family farm. It became home for the next 60 years, and their family expanded with three sons, Allistair, Grant and Gary.
“I rebuilt just about everything in the house,” says Murray, who began his working life in a Richmond electrical store before moving to the local power board.
Greta says the secret to their long marriage is simple.
“We just never argued. What was there to argue about? It’s all give and take.”
Throughout those 70 years, they have been keen travellers within New Zealand and overseas, especially if music was involved.
“We went to all the operas in Christchurch and Wellington,” Greta says. “I liked Pavarotti, so we went to Melbourne. We used to go on Operatunity tours and on one plane it was all entertainers.”
Today, Murray is 92 and Greta 90, with 12 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. They now live in a villa at Arvida Oakwoods retirement village, and although they had been planning a quiet anniversary, their son Gary has planned a high tea at Melrose House in Nelson.
