Love Story: Alice and Edward O'Mara of Coram

Alice and Edward O'Mara of Coram celebrated their 50th anniversary this year. Alice recalls her first date with Edward and what he forgot to tell her.

My family and I moved from Manhattan to Flushing, Queens, in 1956 when I was 16. One day I stopped in at a typical candy store in the neighborhood called Saint's to buy a greeting card. There was a soda fountain and tables in the back, with a jukebox and a small dance area.

I ordered a soda, and the young man behind the counter, Ed, began flirting with me. He was 18 and worked full-time for a marine engineering company during the day and then part-time at the luncheonette. He also attended night classes at Queens College. I was a junior at Mary Louis Academy, an all-girls' high school in Jamaica Estates.

Little did I know that a few weeks earlier Ed saw me getting off a bus with my parents and said to his friends, "You see her? I'm going to marry her."

Not long after our meeting in the candy store, I was trying to navigate the Queens bus system once again when I ran into Ed at a bus stop. He offered to walk me to my destination - I had gotten lost several times already - which was a couple of blocks away from Queens College where he was heading for a class.

During that walk he asked me if I'd like to go out with him to a dance. I loved to dance and accepted his invitation.

Ed picked me up for the dance, but once we got there he told me he didn't know how to dance and encouraged his friend to dance with me, but only to the fast dances. Ed reserved the slow ones for himself.

As we continued dating, going to more dances and to the movies, I was discovering how wonderful and kind Ed was.

On one date he was dressed in his first really nice suit. We were on our way out in his father's car when we saw an older couple whose car had a flat tire. Without hesitating for a second, Ed got out and fixed that tire. I knew then that I had a keeper.

We were married on July 4, 1960. Ed and I both retired in 1995. He was an engineer with Grumman. I was a math teacher with the Middle Country School District. We have three children and seven grandchildren.

Fifty years have gone by, and we're usually together 24/7 and still love and admire each other for our best qualities and, most of the time, ignore our worst.