Love story: In Brooklyn, dance and movie lead to marriage

Lorraine and Leonard “Lenny” Bressack, formerly of Manorville, were teenagers when they met. Lorraine recalls their courtship.

I was 9 years old when I moved from New Jersey to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, to live with my aunt and uncle after my mother died.

Five years later, in 1946, I was hanging out with friends at the Jewish Community House on Bay Parkway in Bensonhurst, which offered many activities for teenagers.

Later that night we returned to attend a dance on the Community House’s Roof Garden. While dancing with a friend, I spotted a handsome young man across the room. My friend said, “That’s Lenny. He’s on my baseball team at Lafayette High School.” He then danced me across the floor to Lenny and introduced us. I was Lorraine Hurwitz back then.

Lenny, 17, was a senior in high school. He told me he was at the Jewish Community House earlier that day and caught a glimpse of me. He thought I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He began to walk over to me but turned around when he saw me talking with another boy.

We danced together the rest of the night, and Lenny asked if he could take me out on a date. We went to the movies that weekend and saw “Notorious,” starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. We were rarely apart after that.

Lenny would come over to my house every night after dinner and my aunt would jokingly tell him to stay home once in a while because Lorraine needed to wash her hair. One evening I was baby-sitting for a neighbor. Lenny stopped by and saw me struggling with the baby’s diaper. He took over and changed the diaper for me. Like me, he was an only child but had experience caring for his cousins’ babies. I was very appreciative and knew then that I would marry him.

We became engaged three years later and were married on Aug. 27, 1950, by a rabbi in a chapel in Bensonhurst. Lenny was 20. Back then, men had to be 21 to obtain a marriage license, so Lenny’s parents had to sign a consent form. We honeymooned at the Nevele resort hotel in the Catskills.

In 1955, we moved to Long Island. Lenny owned a children’s clothing store in Hewlett from 1953 through the early 1980s. He retired in 1992 as a sales representative for Calvin Klein in New York and New Jersey.

I worked for retail stores on Long Island in personnel management positions until we moved to Florida in 1994. I then worked as a pro shop manager at Boca Point Country Club in Boca Raton until 2012.

We have two children and two granddaughters. In August, we celebrated our 65th anniversary with our family in Fort Salonga.

With Virginia Dunleavy