CAROL Cook and Ian Wearne met at a Christian Endeavour Camp at Axedale. Carol was 14 and Ian 16.
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They met again at a Youth Club dance at Strathfieldsaye on October 13, 1961. Carol’s good with dates.
“We found we had quite a few things in common,” Carol says.” We liked going to the pictures and we loved dancing. We’d go to the YMCA dances at the Carlos Rosita Dance Hall in Hargreaves Street where Coles used to be. We used to go the dance classes there off and on.
“My parents didn’t want me to get married at 20 and I was determined I would. I turned 20 in January and married in March,” Carol says.
They were married at the Neale Street Methodist church on March 27, 1965, and honeymooned at Westbeach in Adelaide.
Carol worked on the Taggerty railway buffet car between Bendigo and Melbourne – “Best job I ever had,” she says.
“She could carry cups of tea up her arms without spilling a drop,” Ian adds proudly. Ian’s father was a conductor on the same train.
Carol resigned after 10 years. “You were not allowed to be pregnant,” she explains.
Ian worked as a turner and fitter at the Railway workshops until 1982.
They have three children, Samantha, Darrin and Mathew, and three grandchildren, Rachell, Catelyn and Crystal.
Volunteering plays a big part in their lives, starting with the Golden Square cubs and scouts many years ago.
They assist the vision-impaired bowlers at the Eaglehawk Badminton Table-Tennis Stadium. Carol also works at the McCrae Street Opportunity Shop, while Ian volunteers at Golden Oaks Nursing Home and Strath-Haven.
“I enjoy every bit of it,” he says. “If he doesn’t have it he’s lost,” Carol adds. “Over the years people have given us an awful lot and I don’t see why we can’t give back.”
Carol’s favourite hobby is knitting, testing dozens of patterns for Bendigo Woollen Mills. “I taught myself when I was 14 and have been knitting ever since.”
Described as a “tinkerer”, Ian is helping daughter Samantha renovate her home.
“Communication, give and take, acceptance of each other’s faults, and trust, that’s what’s kept us together,” Carol says.