Kevin and Lois Parkinson met on the bus as they rode to Lilydale High School and are looking forward to celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in Gladysdale this Saturday, 16 May. 30602
By Monique Ebrington
KEVIN and Lois Parkinson’s golden wedding anniversary will be filled with celebration, reflection, family and friends in Gladysdale this Saturday 16 May.
Kevin and Lois met and became good friends in the 1950s as they rode the school bus to Lilydale High School.
Lois, then a Yarra Junction resident, said that the romance blossomed when the handsome young man from Gladysdale started showing an extra interest in her.
“In those days there were dances all around the valley and we used to go as a group of friends. Suddenly he was just visiting me on a personal note,” Lois said.
Lois finished school at the end of Year 10 and started work in the Shire of Upper Yarra offices as a secretary while Kevin trained to be a police officer.
It was just before her 20th birthday that they were engaged to be married.
“It was nothing romantic. We just discussed it and thought we’d get engaged, so he asked my mum and she was happy with it because she thought he was wonderful – he used to chop all the wood for her,” Lois said.
Methodist Church in Gladysdale was the perfect place for their wedding on Saturday 16 May 1959, with Kevin and his family’s history in the area.
They moved to Boronia for seven years to raise their young family of four while Kevin worked as a policeman training to be a detective.
In 1966 the couple decided to get into farming and move onto the land, spending 25 years in dairy farming, first in the Murray River District.
Lois said they decided to move back to be near both their families and returned to Yarra Junction and worked at the Caulfield Grammar School’s farm and Brooklyn Orchards.
Their youngest two children attended Gladysdale Primary School, which Lois said was a nice touch as Kevin attended the primary school many years before.
The couple now have five grandchildren and have retired to a property named Arrabri at Moyston, in the Grampians.
Together they tilled the soil and transformed a one-tree property into a flourishing farm with thousands of native trees, propagated and tended to by hand.
Lois said that they were both looking forward to returning to Gladysdale and celebrating their golden wedding anniversary at the most appropriate venue, the Gladysdale Hall.
“In the entrance there’s a plaque dedicated to Kev’s father Donald and Uncle Benjamin for all their services towards maintaining the hall and we went to so many dances there in our youth,” she said.
“It’s also very close to the little church we were married in so it’s just the perfect place to celebrate our 50 years of marriage.”
