A GOOD sense of humour and a happy home have helped a couple stay together for more than 70 years.
Alec and Ivy Bates, both 91, met at a dance hall in 1940 when they were 19 and celebrate their Platinum wedding anniversary today (Wednesday).
“She was a bit bossy,” said Mr Bates. “She’s the joker of the family.”
“I was dancing, but he didn’t dance,” said Mrs Bates. “He started talking to me and then walked me home.
“I think a sense of humour has helped a lot over the years. That and Alec being easy-going.”
The couple married at St John’s Church in Epping in 1942 when they were 21 and lived with Mrs Bates’ mother in Tower Road before moving to their home in Centre Avenue shortly after it was built in 1947.
Their first son, Brian, went on to work for the Guardian’s predecessor, the Gazette, before his death at the age of 67 in 2010.
Their second son, Derek, was born in 1947 and their daughter, Patricia Woods, came to live with them in 1948 after the death of her mother, Mr Bates’ sister. The couple formally adopted her as a teenager.
“This was always an open house for children,” said Mrs Bates. “They used to turn the table upside-down and put a sheet over it for a den and all the neighbours came.”
She worked at several shops in Epping High Street and Centre Drive and became a dinner lady at Ivy Chimneys Primary School in the 1970s.
“Epping has changed a lot,” she said. “We have some lovely neighbours though, especially Sylvia Cole and Sheila Luffman, who take us shopping.”
Mr Bates, who was born in Fiddlers’ Hamlet, near Epping, worked at British Matthews, an engineering company that was based in Centre Drive, for 48 years.
“I did maintenance on the machines – lathes and guillotines – and made shell caps during the war,” he said. “I only had a sick day once, after I hurt my back taking a machine apart.”
He played football for the firm and also boxed, played table tennis at Allnutts Hall, Epping, was a member of the Spotted Dog darts team and was a keen pigeon racer.
The couple will celebrate their anniversary with their children, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren this weekend.
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