A MARRIAGE of 60 years is still a newsworthy milestone, but for Portland’s Phyllis and Cyril Cram the decades have flown by.

The jovial couple are clearly devoted to each other, and to their large, closeknit family – most of whom gathered at daughter Sharryn Thompson’s home last night (March 28), their diamond anniversary.

Only two of eight granddaughters were missing from the clan gathering of 26, which included three sons and eight great-grandchildren.

Music is the superglue that binds the Cram family, with nine family members involved in the Portland Citizens Brass Band (Victoria’s oldest).

“Cyril plays, I follow,” Mrs Cram says with a laugh. Humour, it would seem, is another Cram trait. “We’re both a bit cheeky,” she says.

Mr Cram, a Glenelg Citizen of the Year twice over, has been a member for more than 40 years and is currently second baritone. He is also a JP and was the original flotilla commander of the Portland Coast Guard, which he still serves as a radio operations course assessor. 

Both he and his wife volunteered with the Australian Navy Cadets, with Mrs Cram serving on the committee and Mr Cram instructor in charge of Victoria. He retired as commander.

They loved their decades of service with the Cadets, which involved many weekends away visiting units around the state.

Community service is in their blood as Mr Cram’s parents were also involved in the Scouting Movement. Mrs Cram was a marching girl in her home town of Daylesford and marched before Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Melbourne in 1963.

It was in the central Victorian spa town that the couple met. Mr Cram was a bank teller and his wife-to-be a customer. They loved going to the pictures and one night in late 1963 Mr Cram proposed in the picture theatre.

Neither can recall what the film was.

They married on March 28, 1964 at the Daylesford Presbyterian Church, with a reception at the local RSL. They honeymooned in Mildura – they wanted warmth – and returned to Mr Cram’s home town of Portland to live.

Mr Cram, 83, worked for almost 40 years in the wool-broking business and during the mid-1960s Mrs Cram worked at the Safcol cannery, paying the wages of workers and fishermen.

In the 1970s, Mrs Cram – who turns 81 on April 8 – jointly owned and ran Spot cafe in Bentinck St with her mother-in-law Esma, who cooked the “best fish and chips in town”.

When Mr Cram and his father finished their day jobs, they would help out at the cafe, preparing flake and cooking cray.

The younger Crams lived above the cafe until they moved back into their present home in Learmonth St with their expanding family.

With such fulfilling lives and a happy marriage, it’s no wonder 60 years have flown by.