Love story: Victoria and Vincent Giglio, Hauppauge

Married 62 years, Victoria Giglio of Hauppauge recalls her rocky first encounter with her husband, Vincent.

I worked behind the makeup counter at H.L. Green, a five and dime store, in downtown Brooklyn in 1944, when I was 16.

When supplies ran low, we filled a big metal basket with items from the stockroom for the stock boys to carry back upstairs.

One day when I was in the stockroom, this guy Vinny, 17, tried to kiss me on the cheek. Right away I grabbed a big wooden ledger book and hit him with it. I didn't know him and didn't want him trying any funny stuff with me. Later, I found out that he told the other stock boys that he liked me and they dared him to try to kiss me.

Of course, every time I had to go down there for stock I ran into him, and he always was helpful and didn't try any funny stuff again. Little by little I got to know Vinny and found out he was actually a nice guy. He was good-looking, too. Vinny's mother knew he liked me, and, to help him win me over she would stop in and buy makeup from me. She was wonderful.

Soon Vinnie and I started keeping company, which meant going to my house on Myrtle Avenue to eat with the family and listen to the radio or to his house on McDonald Avenue to eat with the family and listen to the radio.

Vinny drove a Model A Ford with a rumble seat, and the car made so much noise we always knew when he was coming down the street. We didn't have money to go to the movies, but on Friday nights we danced the Lindy for free to the Goldman Band in Prospect Park. We loved dancing.

We married on Jan. 4, 1948, nine days after a blizzard had hit New York and left huge snowdrifts on the streets. On the way to the church, my limo got a flat, and I was late for my own wedding!

Vinny and I stayed at the Hotel Dixie in Times Square for our honeymoon. We saw Vic Damone at the Paramount theater and had dinner at Toffenetti's restaurant at 43rd Street and Broadway. It was very fancy.

Vinny worked for Republic Aviation, then Fairchild and finally at Grumman, in Bethpage and Calverton, as a quality control inspector until 1996. We have one daughter and one grandson.