By Ira Greenberg, October 13, 2019 — I used to work at the NYU [New York University] medical center, up until the time that I graduated. I worked full time and I went to school at night. NYU paid for my school since I worked for them. When I graduated, in February of 1963, I went into the service. I got a month’s leave in July of 1964 and I went back to my old boss at NYU and asked him if I could work. I wanted to make some dough! She said I could work, but I couldn’t have my old job back. I used to be a supervisor, but somebody else had my old job. That person was Mary, who’s now my wife. I started working for her, and I’ve been working for her now for fifty-five years!
At the time, there were about seven or eight other people who worked with us in the office. We all decided we were going to go out to Coney Island on the weekend. But little by little, one dropped out, and then another dropped out, another, until it was just the two of us left. To this day, Mary denies it, but I believe that she got everyone to drop out of the trip little by little so she could have a date with me. The two of us went to Coney Island, in July of 1964, and that was our first date. And we were married by February of 1965. We didn’t waste any time! I was released from the service on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. We wanted to get married, but my parents were not thrilled about it. We came from different religions. Mary started the process of converting to Judaism, but my mother really gave us a hard time and was very insistent that we break up. One weekend, we decided to pack up and tell our parents that we were going skiing. We ended up going to Yonkers, New York, and legally got married at the Justice of the Peace, on February 27th, 1965. And we never told our parents, ever. They never knew. We remarried in a temple three months later. Our siblings knew about the elopement, but never our parents. To this day, we celebrate both anniversaries. We get more gifts that way! February 2020 will be fifty-five years.