Staten Island Couple Celebrates 75 Years Of Marriage
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Diamonds may be a popular gift this Valentine's Day, but how about a diamond anniversary?
As CBS2's Natalie Duddridge reported Tuesday, a Staten Island couple is indeed celebrating a diamond anniversary – and they may be breaking local records.
Joseph Scaramuzzo, 96, and his wife Marion, 95, have been married 75 years. They said, "I do," on Valentine's Day weekend 1943.
"Isn't that something?" Joseph said.
The Scaramuzzos first met when they were teenagers at a high school graduation party on Staten Island in the late 1930s.
"I says, 'Boy oh boy, that's the one I'm going to marry,' and that was it," Joseph said.
When asked what she thought when she saw him, Marion said: "Nothin'! I just went with him and that was it!"
For more than 30 years, Marion ran a hair salon out of her basement, while Joseph, a World War II veteran, worked for the Department of Sanitation.
The couple said it is their love of music and dancing that kept the spark alive.
"I danced jitterbug a lot," Marion said.
And she still does, while Joseph accompanies her on the trumpet.
"Without music, boy. we're dead. There's nothing like music," Joseph said.
They say having fun is their secret to a long marriage. And their secret to a long life?
"The good food," Joseph said.
"I don't go crazy eating junk," Marion said.
"Only the good Italian food," Joseph said.
Joseph and Marion have three sons, seven grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren. The family is so close, in fact, that one of their sons and his family live right upstairs.
"They're like the glue of our family -- whether it's parties; holidays, we all go to nan and grandpa's house," said grandson Doug Scaramuzzo.
"The fairy tale that, you know, they made to 75 years, and you know, I hope that I can make it to 75 years," said granddaughter Lisa Ward.
To mark the momentous marriage, there was a visit and a plaque from their local parish priest Tuesday.
"I've been a priest 30 years I've married many couple, but I've never anybody who's been married for 75 years. That's got to be a record. I don't think you can buy a card up to 75 years!" said the Rev. Louis Jerome.
And the couple will be celebrating the best way they know how.
