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When Bill Clouston first laid eyes on a young Stella Anderson, he thought he wouldn’t mind finding out more about her.
The shy farmer was just 19 when he saw the 18-year-old gathered with her mother and sisters at the WDFF ball in Omakau. As was traditional, girls were ranged along the wall, while the young fellers hung around in a group.
“I was quite shy, so it took a lot of courage to go over, but I thought I wouldn’t mind finding out more about that little girl.”
The pair had a couple of dances, but the night ended with neither of them knowing much more about the other.
“I still didn’t know her name, we didn’t even speak.”
But he could see the two other girls and their mother talking while the pair danced, likely working out who he was and where he was from by the time Stella went to sit back down.
Mr Clouston made a good impression, according to his wife.
“I thought he was a nice, shy boy. Not forceful, and well-mannered.”
The pair saw each other again when Stella invited Bill to join the family for her sister’s 16th birthday party, and after that, he was a regular visitor to the family home.
He had to trade up from his trusty pushbike to a car, in order to take his girlfriend, and then fiancée, out and about.
The couple married in the Poolburn church on August 18, 1956. In the morning, Mrs Clouston milked the cow as usual, was last in the bathtub and, with her mother and “the lady from the pub”, prepared her own wedding supper.
The couple travelled around the North Island for their honeymoon, before returning to the South to settle in to their lives initially as a married couple, and eventually running sheep and beef cattle on a farm of their own, and raising five children.
When retirement beckoned, the couple sold their farm and had to decide their next move. They settled on Temuka — its climate and proximity to Christchurch Airport and overseas-living adult children were definite selling points.
They visited, found a spec house half-built that met their criteria — no stairs, and a double garage — signed on the dotted line and then returned to pack up their lives. They didn’t see the house again until it was finished, but it has served them well, and at 91-years-old, the couple still live independently.
As to what makes a marriage last 70 years, Mr Clouston says they’ve taken it day by day.
“We always got on pretty well, and she’s been damned good to me for 70 years.”
Mrs Clouston said compatibility was important.
“If you marry a person, you marry them because you like them, you’re compatible. I like a little bit of sport, and so does Bill.
“He’s looked after me well, since I have been crook, he has more than looked after me. He’d never cooked or anything like that until I was sick, he was really thrown in the deep end.”