Their match up started with a meeting on the tennis court and last week Laurie and Ann Jamieson celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

“It was a private tennis court located where the car wash is today,” recalls Ann smiling at Laurie sitting across from her in their Parkes home where they’ve lived since 1979.

They moved to their Middleton Street house after 24 years on the farm at Brol-gan. “I never thought I would marry a farmer,” said Ann, who grew up in Parkes and qualified as a dental nurse after school.

“Within the first two years on the farm we had a drought and a flood,” said Ann who gave up her job to help Laurie work on the land.

“I miss the animals, especially my pet pig called Erk, the quietness and our neighbours. It was a good place to bring up our daughter Helen.” Memories of getting bogged on their way to the ball, and trying to drive a truck still makes her laugh.

Her fondest memory is when Helen came into their lives. “She is a wonderful person and we are very lucky to have her nearby in Orange.” Helen worked as a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald before moving with her journalist husband and two children to Orange.

As for Ann and Laurie’s secret to their enduring marriage – Ann says it is all about helping each other in any way you can, doing things together that you both enjoy and treating each other as equals. Laurie says ‘no comment’ with some mischief in his eyes.

When Ann was diagnosed with a rare cancer 20 years ago, it was Laurie who stepped up and cared for her. “The doctor calls my recovery a miracle. I think it also helped that I was doing so much sport all my life.”

As in a tennis match, they take turns to ‘serve’ and it’s Laurie who spoils her with breakfast every morning at the moment.

By Maggi Barnard

The St George’s branch of the Anglican Women’s Association held a meeting to plan their upcoming Flower Show and Market Day on 24th April in the hall on Church Street. At the meeting members shared their collections of salt and pepper shakers and the stories behind these, with much laughter, over an afternoon tea. On the photo are (L-R) Olive Copper, Dee Melville, Shirly Westgatth, Betty Somers, Lorraine Parker, Jan Tanswell, Norma Garment, Carol Corbet, Cheryl Thompson, Marg Klien and Vivien Cunningham.

If you love baking biscuits then a new competition hosted by the Parkes RSL Sub Branch is just for you!

The Anzac biscuit has stood the test of time and making them has become a popular tradition Australians use to commemorate Anzac Day.

The Parkes RSL Sub Branch is running an Anzac biscuit baking competition in the lead-up to Anzac Day this year.

It is a state-wide competition, hosted by sub branches, with Parkes’ returned servicemen and women excited to see locals taking part.

Entries have opened in Parkes and residents of any age from across the shire are invited to enter, get creative and cook up a storm.

The competition will be judged in an adult and a junior section, and participants can submit more than one entry. All entries need to include nine biscuits for judging.

If the cooking itself isn’t enough to entice you, there are some pretty sweet prizes up for grabs for the best biscuits.

The winner of the adult section will receive $200 and the Keith Woodlands Memorial Trophy, and qualify them for the district final. The runner-up will receive $100. The competition is being conducted at three levels – local, district and state.

The junior winner will receive $100 and runner-up $50.

The competition will be conducted under the rules of NSW Health and conditions applicable to Covid-19.

Entry forms are available at the front reception desk at the Parkes Services Club.

The entry fee is $5 and all biscuits must be delivered to the Boulevard Room at the Services Club between 10am and 11.30am on Saturday, 17th April.

For more information contact Parkes Services Club on 6862 1966.

 

Byrne Clothing and Worklocker kindly donated 25 new shirts for the CanAssist volunteers who put in many hours to raise money for cancer patients in the Parkes Shire. The shirts were recently handed over by Tony Byrne (left) to Sylvia Glendenning, Adrianne Brown and Betty Huntly from CanAssist. They are proudly wearing their new shirts.

After nine weeks of forced closure the Craft Corner volunteers were very excited to unpack their stock last week even though it was only in a temporary location.

“We will be here at 2/258 Clarinda Street (next to Discount Dave’s) for as long as it takes,” said President Margaret Tanner.

“It is very exciting and challenging at the same time to get everything unpacked.”

The Craft Corner was flooded in the super cell storm that hit Parkes on 2nd January when Clarinda street transformed into a raging river, and everything had to packed up the next day. “Fortunately, we lost very little,” said Margaret.

The shop opened on Monday and customers would not have been disappointed as its delightful range of local goods were back on the shelves.

The Craft Corner has become very popular not only among locals but attracts many visitors every year with its variety of locally produced items. The shop is particularly busy during the Elvis Festival, but has also become a shop of choice for children’s clothes since the closure of Target last year.

The opening hours are 9:30am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday, and 9:30am to 2pm on Saturdays. For more information contact Margaret on 6862 3240 or Rosemary on 6862 2570.

A small group of 12 people put in a big effort to make Clean Up Australia Day in Parkes a successful event.

“Clean Up Australia Day is a fantastic and fun event where everyone in the local community can come together to pick up rubbish to help conserve the environment,” said local co-ordinator Michelle Bicket.

“It would be great if we could see a good representation from local community and business groups next year, as many hands make light work,” said Michelle. “It lifts the spirit of participants when working as a team. The sense of achievement when cleaning up a larger area as a team is much greater than struggling with fewer numbers in the same area.” Michelle said even just an hour would make a huge difference to help clean up Parkes. Groups represented this year included Parkes Landcare and Parkes Shire Council staff.

Volunteers cleaned in PAC Park, Rotary Arboretum, Skate Park, the bicycle track and Wellington Road. “We only had 12 participants, however that did not deter them from hard work,” said Michelle. She noted there was a change in the waste collected with less bottles and cans in the environment, which could be attributed to the success of the Return and Earn scheme. There was still a large amount of take away waste in the local parks.

“We all have an impact on the environment through what we use, reuse, throw away and pick up. We can all make a difference by thinking of these things every day to benefit our environment and community.”

Although the official day is over, Sunday’s participants are calling on Parkes Shire residents to still go out and pick up rubbish in the parks and streets in your neighbour-hood. Corn starch bags are available from Council’s Planning & Environment Section at the Council Administration Centre to use for picking up rubbish.