Love Story: An ankle bracelet made them an official couple

Sal Napolitano of Lake Ronkonkoma talks about how he met his wife, Margaret. 

Margaret Cenatiempo moved into my neighborhood, Borough Park in Brooklyn, in 1963 and began attending the same school, Pershing.Junior High School. Margaret met my friend Joanne, who invited her to hang out at the corner luncheonette and candy store on 40th Street and New Utrecht Avenue. That was where I first met Margaret.

We were both 13 and became good friends. We continued to meet informally at the candy store, where rock and roll played on the jukebox. From the candy store, our group of friends would go out to Coney Island, Brighton Beach, to concerts at the Brooklyn Fox Theater for rock and roll shows and Jahn's Ice Cream Parlor in Brooklyn.

In the summer of 1966, something changed. Our group of friends began to couple off. At age 16, I felt lightning strike and I began to look at Margaret in a different way. She was attractive, beautiful and I liked her style.

My friends said, "What are you waiting for? Why don't you ask her out?"

So, I decided to go for it, and I asked her out in July 1966 during a walk around the corner and back to the candy store, where we enjoyed the song "Leader of the Pack" on the jukebox. Our first date was to a Chinese restaurant where we ordered a “combination plate” of chicken chow mein, fried rice and an egg roll. For just $4 we had dinner for two and enough money to leave a tip.

After Pershing Junior High School, as I attended John Jay High School and Margaret went to New Utrecht High School, we continued dating each other exclusively. I made it official by giving her an ankle bracelet with angel wings and hearts engraved with our names. Margaret wore it every day.

We were both working part-time jobs, and after graduating from high school in 1968 they became full-time positions. Margaret worked at Metropolitan Life Insurance in Manhattan, and I was at First National City Bank of New York (now Citibank) in Downtown Brooklyn.

At that time, the military draft was on everyone's minds, so instead of being drafted, I decided to join the Air Force in October 1968. My service took me to Korea, California and Southeast Asia for the Vietnam War. While I was serving, we wrote letters to each other every day.

When I came home on leave in 1969, I asked Margaret to marry me, presenting her with an engagement ring in a little park outside where she worked in Manhattan. She said yes, so when I was discharged years later, we planned a wedding. We were married on Nov. 11, 1972, at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Brooklyn. Our reception was at LaPisa in Brooklyn. It was extravagant from the cocktail hour to the Venetian table, we spared no expense. We honeymooned in Hawaii and Las Vegas. 

We are now both retired from the financial industry and live in Lake Hills, in Lake Ronkonkoma. We raised three lovely daughters, have two sons-in-law and eight wonderful grandchildren. Our children are planning something for our 50th anniversary, but according to them, “It's a surprise!” So we'll just have to wait and see whats in store for us.

Our life together has been as lucky as you would want a life to be, and I'm grateful for that corner candy store because it was there that Margaret began to think that I would be a good leader of our pack.

— With Lynn Petry