Josie: I was a country girl from Tatura, and I had a girlfriend here in Werribee … she invited me to her wedding. We met at the wedding, and it must have been love at first sight because after eight months we were married, which these days is unheard of.
We met in February, got engaged in June on my 21st, and married on October 27, 1956. We got married in Tatura at 9 o’clock in the morning. I was two minutes early. We had our wedding photo taken in Melbourne and then 500 people in Werribee [for the reception]. We had lots of friends! In those days, everyone was invited.
Tell me about your courtship.
Josie: He lived far away [in Werribee] and he didn’t have a car to come up and see me, I think we only saw each other about 12 times before we got married. He would catch a train and my father used to pick him up at the railway station.
Angelo: When I first started to go up to Tatura to see her, they used to call me a film star, because I was so tall!
Where did you live after you got married?
Josie: Angelo was renting his uncle’s farm; they were working his uncle’s farm, together with his brother. So we lived in his uncle’s house for a while, and moved here in early 1957 …Maria was born in November the same year.
Then we had another three daughters – Nives, Loretta and Anne. We have four wonderful son-in-laws, 10 fantastic grandchildren and three great-children. There’s another one due just before Christmas.
Angelo: We are a very happy family.
What’s kept you in Werribee South?
Josie:
Angelo’s always been a market gardener. So we’ve been here all the time. It was a big change [for me].
Angelo: From milking cows to growing vegetables! Josie grew up on a dairy farm.
Josie: It didn’t take too long to get used to it.
What about the growth of Wyndham?
Josie: It’s getting a bit too busy … we just like it to be nice and natural and quiet. I like the good old days. We used to go shopping and you’d know everyone. Now, you don’t know anybody.
