Judy found Ray a bit quiet, not realising he had been concussed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought, \u2018there\u2019s a good-looking fella\u2019, so it started from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were engaged around 15 months later and were married at the Holy Trinity Church in Gisborne.<\/p>\n
Their first child, Phillip, was born in 1968 and daughter Susie came along in 1970.<\/p>\n
Gisborne couple Ray and Judy Taylor’s wedding photos from 60 years ago. Photo \/ Leonie Sheehan<\/p>\n
The Taylors now have five grandkids and three great-grandkids.<\/p>\n
Ray recalls buying an engagement ring and following the custom of asking the mother and father for their daughter\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got up there and after about three hours, Judy\u2019s mother said to me: \u2018Have you got something you want to tell me, Ray?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI said: \u2018Oh yeah, yes, I have actually, I wanna marry your daughter\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ray does not actually remember officially asking Judy herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just sort of happened \u2013 \u2018let\u2019s get married\u2019 sort of style.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray, now 84, and Judy, 80, have had long and productive careers, Judy as a teacher and Ray as a wool classer.<\/p>\n
Judy taught for 45 years, starting at Kaiti School.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had lots of teaching experience all around, I think they called me \u2018two-year Taylor\u2019 for a while,\u201d said Judy, referring to the number of schools she worked at, including Tolaga Bay, Gisborne Intermediate, Mangapapa, Te Hapara, Central and the Northern Health School for kids with health needs.<\/p>\n
Ray\u2019s career was just as busy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started work in 1960 with Gisborne Sheepfarmers, which was a great firm to work for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ray moved to Tolaga Bay to class wool there and three years later became the manager of Gisborne Sheepfarmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 1977, I came back to Gisborne and we had the big supermarkets here in those days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the second [Sheepfarmers] supermarket in New Zealand to ever open. It\u2019s where Liquorland is now on Gladstone Rd.\u201d <\/p>\n
After it closed down, he spent the last 20 years of his career with Work and Income in charge of all its subsidised work programmes.<\/p>\n
Over their working and now retirement years, they have shared hobbies such as bowls, along with a long list of their own interests such as duck hunting, pigeon racing, floral art, yoga, rugby, gardening and even the Chinese practice of Qigong.<\/p>\n
Ray was involved with pigeon racing, then got into showing budgies, winning a few best bird in show titles around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve only got one bird now,\u201d he said, referring with a laugh to Judy.<\/p>\n
While both believe in love at first sight, their secrets to a long-lasting and happy marriage are a little more practical … don\u2019t squabble over money, give and take, and support each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could always rely on Jude. I used to like my pub days in those days, especially when I was in Tolaga, and you\u2019d still come home on speaking terms,\u201d Ray said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t really had any arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s kind, very kind. [but] frustrating at times because everything has to be done the day before yesterday,\u201d Judy said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got on because we\u2019ve been so involved with other things and interested in what each other was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray and Judy are celebrating their diamond anniversary tomorrow at the Vines restaurant with family and friends, including some from their 1964 wedding party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judy found Ray a bit quiet, not realising he had been concussed. \u201cI just thought, \u2018there\u2019s a good-looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[51074,74,218464,4624,218463,177,6928,8414,35291,71,12506,119102,636,2374,111,139,69,1118,1523,4762,5714,6327,213,163,1361,165,1530],"class_list":["post-426028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-51074","tag-after","tag-afterrugby","tag-anniversary","tag-blossomed","tag-celebrate","tag-celebrating","tag-couple","tag-diamond","tag-from","tag-gisborne","tag-judy","tag-marriage","tag-meeting","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-over","tag-party","tag-romance","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-taylor","tag-that","tag-their","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}