LOVE STORY: Ken and Kathy Weiss of Wantagh

Ken Weiss of Wantagh recalls the memorable Labor Day weekend when he met his wife, Kathy.

On Sunday, Aug. 31, 1958, after playing a baseball doubleheader at Fort Totten field in Bayside, Queens, a couple of my teammates suggested we attend the Resurrection Ascension Roman Catholic Church dance that night in Rego Park.

We did, and during the evening I met and danced with a couple of girls but came back more than once to dance with 19-year-old Kathy Lynch of Elmhurst. I was 20. We enjoyed doing the Lindy (still do), and at the end of the evening, I asked her if she would like a ride home. I had my car, a 1950 Ford. I followed with the news that there would be three of my friends in the rear seat.

As she mulled the decision to choose the bus and train or the car, I obtained her telephone number. After the proper amount of deliberation, Kathy opted for the car and was introduced to my friends - also of fine character. We drove her home and I said goodbye, inquiring if she would be going to the dance the following week. She said yes.

On the ride back home to Bayside, my friends talked about getting together at Jones Beach the next day, Labor Day, and suggested that I bring the girl I just met.

I didn't give it much thought until the next morning when I got an early morning call from my friends asking whether I was going to the beach. I called Kathy, and after a long delay on her end of the line - she was checking with her parents and her older sister Peggy - she finally said she would go. I picked her up, and we had a great day at the beach.

We continued to meet at the dances. Those meetings turned into dates and continued until we became engaged on her birthday, July 4, 1959.

During that time I learned that her being at that first Sunday night dance was a fluke because a trip she and her sister were planning had been canceled.

We were married May 14, 1960, at St. Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in Elmhurst. Kathy was a secretary at New York Life Insurance Co., then a stay-at-home mom when our three children came along. Today we have four grandchildren.

I was a ticket agent with Pan American World Airways at Idlewild Airport, later named Kennedy Airport, before joining the New York Police Department, where I retired in 1996 as captain in the Special Operations Division at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. As a sideline, Kathy and I operated Action Sports Photography, specializing in youth sports in Nassau County between 1980 and 2005. We live and enjoy an active life.