Peter and Erris Thomson

BSLJO - You know this family - Granddad and Baba, your grandparents

Peter and Erris went to Kings and Queens High School which were next door to each other on Andersons Bay Rd in St Kilda, Dunedin. They first met in the summer of 1963 at their friends’ tennis court playing tennis. Helen and Mary Caughey lived in Andersons Bay, Dunedin and had a big house with it’s own tennis court. The twins invited their friends, Peter and Erris to make up a doubles tennis game.

Peter and Erris were 17 years old and didn’t know each other when they were playing tennis at their friend’s place. Erris was at the net and hit the ball straight back at Peter and hit him “where it hurts most”!! I called out, “Are you all right? Does it hurt?” Peter thought my name was “Harris” and said that he was OK. Thank goodness I thought. That was how we first met!!! We loved tennis and played a lot together from then on.

They both loved sport and were very good at it. Peter played hockey for Kings High and Otago University and Erris played hockey and tennis for Queens High and volleyball for Dunedin Teachers’ College. When they left school they continued their studies - Peter went to Otago University and Erris went to Dunedin Teachers’ College. Peter boarded in Mornington with Mr and Mrs Robinson and Erris lived with her family in Fairfield which was several miles out of Dunedin on the main road. They met often during their studies. Peter took a course in psychology and for one assignment he asked Erris to be the guinea pig. He put needle pricks into her hands and wrists to see if it felt hot or cold!!!

While they were courting Peter had a BSA 350 motorbike followed by an old green Austin A40 Devon which wouldn’t stay in first gear unless he held it in place!! Erris had half shares in the family’s little blue Austin A35 - an Austin each! Erris was a scardy cat and wouldn’t ride on the BSA with Peter even though he was a very careful rider. One snowy night in Dunedin Peter was riding home to Mornington on his motorbike. It was snowing very hard and he could hardly see in front of him. A traffic officer saw him and told him he didn’t have a headlight showing. He made Peter push his bike home even though the headlight was actually working!! It just wasn’t showing up strongly in the snow storm.

Both Peter and Erris were students so they didn’t have very much money. They worked during the university holidays. Peter drove a friend’s TK Bedford truck delivering coal for Speights Beer factory in Dunedin and a truck with hay and sheep at Somerville’s Transport Company in Lawrence, Central Otago. He loved driving trucks. Erris worked packing icing sugar and tartaric and citric acid at Kings Food factory in Dunedin and also as a delivery girl driving an Austin Mini station wagon for Austin Motors, Dunedin. She really enjoyed driving the Mini delivering spare parts to garages around Dunedin.

One late night Peter and Erris were out in the Austin A35 on a road going to a Fairfield construction workyard. They realised they needed to get out of there and tried to turn the car round. Unfortunately the back wheels rolled off the edge of the road and the car got completely stuck on it’s chassis!! They had to walk to Peter’s friends house where the TK Bedford was parked, drive it to the stuck Austin and tow it out!! Phew.

They had been going out/courting for some time when they decided to get engaged to be married. They were out in the Austin at night again and decided to ask Erris’s parents permission - regardless of the late hour!! The car was kept in the garage under the Gibbs house in Flower St, Fairfield right under Kathleen and Malcolm’s bedroom. It was impossible to drive in and open and close the garage doors without waking them up!! Oh dear. They were awake by the time Peter and Erris crept in and went into their bedroom. They stood at the end of their bed and Peter asked if he could marry Erris. Of course they said “Yes”! They have now been married for over 50 years!!!

They were married on November 16, 1968 in the Fairfield Presbyterian Church. They waited until after Peter gained his BSc Hons in Statistics from Otago University. Most of the guests at the wedding were members from the Gibbs and Thomson families and only a few friends of Erris and Peter. This is not how it works these days!!