Val & Dave Todd who are celebrating their 65th (Blue Sapphire) wedding anniversary

Yorkshire Evening Post

Transcript

00:00We met at Garforth where we lived, there were a gang of us, more or less, we went with lasses

00:08and up together, we'd go up to the railway station into the waiting room there, you know,

00:15and maybe have a seat, and they'd see us at the other side, but they had to come over

00:24the stairs to get to us because they didn't want you to stay there, and we went alright,

00:30didn't we really, you know, we got out of the way in time, we used to get back upstairs

00:34out of the way.

00:35Just a big gang of lads and lasses, and that was when we were 15, 16, wasn't it?

00:40Yeah, then it wasn't at Gascoyne, wasn't it, when we were just old enough to go into Gascoyne

00:45because the jukebox was there.

00:47Oh, they had coffee bars then?

00:50Yeah.

00:51They had a coffee bar, and there were jukeboxes and milkshakes and everything.

00:56That was at the garage down Whetfield Road, wasn't it, the littlest garage, they had this

01:00coffee bar.

01:01And then it just went on from there, didn't it?

01:04Yeah.

01:05Then going to pictures, and then I ended up sitting with you, and I've been sitting with

01:10you ever since.

01:11No, you're telling lies!

01:12With regard to family, how many children and grandchildren, great-grandchildren?

01:22With two daughters, Tracey and Melanie, and we've got seven great-grandchildren, no, with

01:28two daughters, then we've got two grandchildren, Emma and David, and then we've got seven great-grandchildren,

01:37ranging from 20 to eight.

01:40Brilliant.

01:41One's got three and the other's got four.

01:47What do you put your secret of long, happy, I assume?

01:51Well, I think it's not being together all the time, but being together, because he came

01:59in at five and I went out at six, and he'd then go gardening after tea, and then he would

02:05come and pick me up, and we'd have a drink, then we'd come home, and that's how we went

02:10on, and I did it seven days a week, till I fell, when I was 59, and I haven't worked since.

02:18Can you just tell us about your careers?

02:21What did you do?

02:22Well, I started off, when I first left school, as a machinist at a factory at Garforth, that

02:29made all Agenbacks, overalls, and things like that, and bus coats, and then we came to Farm,

02:37and we lived at Farm, and then I didn't work, and then I went out cleaning, and then they

02:43asked me to go to a golf club and clean, because he were working at a golf club at the moment,

02:48and I went, and I ended up from being cleaner, to cooking for 200 people, and serving behind bars.

02:55And Dev, what did you do, career-wise?

02:58Well, I started off farming, and when I left there, I went on to golf course, for about

03:05a year, and then there was a fellow who played golf, who lived in one of the posh houses,

03:13he says, I bought another house, he says, and it was the first £100,000 house in Wetherby,

03:23and it was on Linton Common, and he asked us, will you come and garden for me, live

03:28in, and garden for me, and we just nicely bought this house, well, started buying it.

03:34So, we did that, but after about three years, or four years, they decided they were moving,

03:42so, we came back to this house.

03:45We rented this house.

03:46At just the minute, we did, but, he said, I've one or two wealthy mates doing it now,

03:55he said, I'll set you up in your own business, doing their gardens, you know.

04:02Well, that's how I started up, doing three or four gardens, and I ended up working on

04:07my own, in Linton, and Collingham, and Wetherby area, working on my own gardening.

04:15And everybody at golf club wanted him.

04:18I did the golf club, I kept the golf club, when I left working there, I carried on, still

04:23looking after gardens there for quite a lot of years.

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