AN ANNUAL pilgrimage to Queensland has been put on hold by St Albans couple Murray and Margaret Elmer because of family plans for their golden wedding anniversary.
The couple will be joined by their four children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild when they celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on 27 July, one day after their actual anniversary. Both Murray and Margaret have spent their whole lives living in Melbourne, with Murray born in Sunshine and Margaret in Footscray.
“We met on a train,” said Murray, the talkative half of the couple. “I was 16 and she was only about 14.”
The younger Murray and Margaret were travelling on the train between western Melbourne and Moorabbin as Margaret’s sister lived in the eastern suburbs and Murray’s mate from Moorabbin knew Margaret.
“It was because of her brother-in-law, who I worked with (at Massey Ferguson), Murray said.
“I sort of made contact through him and I ran into her at the pictures, purposely.”
The couple got engaged when Murray was 19 and Margaret was 17, and then married about one year later on 26 July.
“We had a big honeymoon,” Murray said in jest.
“We went to Bendigo.”
Since they were married, Murray and Margaret have spent every wedding anniversary in Queensland and every Christmas at Ocean Grove at the caravan park, although retirement has allowed the couple to travel more often.
“We are waiting to go away to Queensland,” Murray said.
“We go every year to Queensland and normally we are gone by now. We always have our anniversary in Queensland, but this year we weren’t allowed to go (until after the anniversary celebrations).”
While the couple venture up the coast to Queensland every year for their anniversary, they refer to Ocean Grove as their “little home away from home”, especially since two of their children have bought caravans at the camping site for their families to use. However, there’s no place like home, confirmed by the fact the couple have lived in the same house in St Albans for 45 years. But, they almost moved to Niddrie instead, where the couple had a block of land.
“We were deciding where we were going to build a new house and we decided we had better build it here (St Albans) because there were no schools over in Niddrie,” Murray said.
“There were paddocks every where in those days.”
Their circle of friends stretches mostly through work and sport and Murray’s employment at Massey Ferguson in Sunshine for 35 years in charge of an automatic lathe section. He coached A-grade football in Deer Park and the East Keilor team in the Essendon District League, and has a long association with cricket in Sunshine. Murray played cricket with Sunshine United Cricket Club for more than 30 years, 20 of which he was president of the club, and now both he and Margaret are life members of the sporting association.
When asked what they believed was the secret to a successful marriage, the couple responded “compromise”.
“I always said to Margaret, ‘you bring up the kids and I’ll go and get the money’,” Murray said.
The couple said while they did struggle financially from time to time, like most people, their time together during the past 50 years had been good.
It’s certainly a year for celebrations for the Elmer family, with two 18th birthdays in the past month, the 50th wedding anniversary and, when Murray and Margaret return from their annual trip to Queensland, the next family get-together — this time to celebrate Murray’s 70th birthday.
