Wedding cake journeys to Silicon Valley – and back – for 50-year milestone
A wedding cake that newlyweds took with them from Edinburgh to California half a century ago will return home to the Scottish capital to mark the couple’ s 50 th wedding anniversary.
Ron Le ckie grew upon Rankeillor Street in Corstorphine in the 1960s and his family owned a well-known coal business operating from St Leonard’s depot. He met wife Rhondda Leckie from Clerwood in 1965 on a blind date organised by friends during his final year of study at John Watson’ s School on B el ford Road.
The pair soon fell in love and stayed together while Ron studied engineering at HeriotWatt University and Rhondda worked in the civil service at St Andrew’s House.
Shortly after Ron’s graduation, the young couple married in a small ceremony at Greyfriars Kirk, which they fondly remember as a “wonderfully historic location to be married in”.
At the reception, the couple had an elegantly frosted wedding cake purchased from Wahlb erg’s Baker y in Pathhead. As custom dictates, the couple held on to the top tier for use at their first child’ s christening.
The newlyweds kept the precious cake packed safely away in at in in their Edinburgh home hopefully awaiting news that Rhondda was expecting.
However, as the years passed this news did not come.
But in the meantime, the couple took on an adventure of a lifetime after Ron was offered a job in California through American company Signetics. The adventurous pair moved from their home in Edinburgh to Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco, in 1976 where they have lived ever since.
Ron said: “My wife kept the cake in a sealed tin and it emigrated with us.” While setting up their new life in California the old tin continued to gather dust and then 18 years after being married a delighted Rhondda gave birth to a baby girl named Susan.
Ron said: “It was not till we star ted to plan celebrations for our Golden Wedding anniversary we thought it would be good to blow the dust off the cake tin and share the story.”