Nostalgia: ‘We just decided not to bother with The Beatles’

Mary Gallagher, 71, of Dalkeith, recalls meeting husband John, 75, with whom she recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.

“We met at a dance hall in Musselburgh in 1960. John, who was working in the building trade at the time, used to go regularly to the church next door, Our Lady of Loretto and St Michael, where we still go now. He would have been 23 or 24. I was 19 and I worked at C&A on Princes Street.

“I was with quite a large group of people, there must have been about ten of us. I hadn’t met John before, but he asked me up to dance and we made a date to go to the cinema. Most of the chaps wore suits to the dance halls back in those days, or blazers with trousers. I think John had a suit on the night we met, but I can’t remember what I was wearing.

“They used to play lots of fantastic music at the dances. We both really liked Mario Lanza singing Be My Love and there was a Scottish singer called Peter Mallon, we loved his music too.

“It wasn’t very long after that that we got engaged. Everyone thought we were kidding because it happened on April 1, they didn’t believe us until they saw the ring. We got it from Abbots on Greyfriars Street, where everyone used to go.

“We went to Blackpool for our honeymoon and we saw a band called The Bachelors. The Beatles were also on but we decided not to bother with them. Chance of a lifetime, and we missed it! We also saw Dusty Springfield, though she was part of a trio then, Morecambe and Wise, Cannon and Ball and Ken Dodd. We actually met Ken Dodd in the street outside. I pointed him out to John and he made one of his funny faces at us. It was a very eventful honeymoon.”