By Justin Flynn
Sixty years of marriage may seem like a long time, but for Brian and Shirley D’Elton, it’s gone quickly.
The Ocean Grove couple celebrated the milestone yesterday, Thursday 27 July, and the time has positively flown by.
“It’s gone quickly,” Brian said.
“I think marriage is a bit like boxing – you have plenty of bouts, but you get in the ring and have two rounds and as long as it’s a draw at the end, then that’s good.”
“We have arguments and get over it,” Shirley said.
“I yell a lot, but Brian just laughs.”
Brian and Shirley, both 84, met at a dance at Moonee Ponds in 1952 and both liked what they saw.
“I thought ‘she’s not too bad’ and I kept telling her each time I saw her that she looked better each time. Her eldest sister said ‘don’t waste my sister’s time, are you going to marry her?’”
“I had to get permission from my brothers to go out with him,” Shirley said.
After a four-year courtship, they got married at Moonee Ponds Town Hall.
Brian and Shirley have three children – Michele, Grant and Ross – and five grandchildren.
“Nobody’s perfect in life, but they all turned out well,” Brian said.
Brian keeps busy these days by bowling while Shirley goes for a walk every day for at least an hour.
They moved to Barwon Heads 10 years ago and settled in at Rondor Caravan Park, but when it was demolished to make way for a housing estate, they moved over to Ocean Grove.
“It’s a great area, you can be in Melbourne in an hour and a half comfortably, there are beaches, Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre is half an hour away and we have a great little shopping centre here,” Brian said.
Brian, a former jumps jockey, spent 40 years in the butchering industry and said he and Shirley couldn’t be happier.
“We’ve been lucky with the people we’ve met down here,” he said.
