Two of the most “weel kent” faces in a north-east town have celebrated 60 years as husband and wife.
Ask Jock and Mary Ingram, of Huntly, to shed some light on the key to a happy marriage and the answer comes easily to mind.
“We had our up and downs like everyone else” said Mrs Ingram, smiling as she thinks back on the couple’s six decades together.
“We just we looked out for each other.”
The warmth they have for each other was not always reflected in the weather on their big days.
Their wedding itself, April 27, 1955, was marked by downpours of freezing north-east rain – although they admit that was preferable to the snow they woke up to on their anniversary 60 years later.
After tying the knot at Drumblade Church the bride and groom celebrated with friends and family at the Gordon Arms Hotel.
Both were from farming stock and both had attended Drumblade School, although Mr Ingram had left early to work in the fields, following in the footsteps of his father, while Mrs Ingram went on to the Gordon Schools at Huntly.
Mrs Ingram said: “Jock left school when he was 13 and a half, that was the end of the war and they needed young children to help on the farms.”
Love finally struck at a Friday night dance in 1950 when Mrs Ingram, now 80, was just 16 and Mr Ingram, now 85, was 20.
The couple’s first farm together was at Howe of Ashalloch, where they lived for six years before moving to Midashalloch, where they kept cattle and stayed happily for the next 29 years.
To help pay the bills, Mr Ingram took up a job as a milkman with Menzies in the early-1970s, balancing it with his farming work, while his wife worked in a couple of solicitors offices in Huntly.
Mr Ingram kept up his milk round until 1994, during which time the company had changed hands to Mackies and then to Wisemans.
Mrs Ingram said her husband was well known in the area – and not always for the right reasons.
“A lot of the people knew him on the milk round,” she said.
“Jock was inclined to whistle and he got into trouble sometimes for whistling at 6am. He often was told to pipe down.”
One of the couple’s four daughters, Hilda, died when she was 31.
Through their surviving daughters – Sheena Reid, Linda Drummond and Joyce Mackie – they have six grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Nearing retirement in the early 1990s, Mr and Mrs Ingram sold the family farm and had their dream home built on the banks of the River Bogie on the edge of Huntly.
And for their diamond wedding anniversary, the rooms of the house were blanketed in cards from well-wishers, along with balloons, gifts, banners and a telegram from the Queen.