John and Rose, Carm and Mario

Carmela changed jobs. She found a job in Tenafly with a real estate and insurance company. She made friends with a girl named Rosemarie who also worked there. Carm now owned her own car and would go to work with it. Sometimes she would come home for lunch. Several times Carm took her friend Rose home for lunch with her. Our son John got to meet Rose, and he went out on dates with her.

In the meantime Carm would say, “I will never get married. We live away from everybody. We see nothing but woods. Who is going to find me out here?”

I would say, “Carm, do not give up. Someday you will meet a young prince from the wooded areas as you are traveling or at the seashore when you are vacationing. There are not going to be any bachelors or old maids in our family.”

The summer of 1951 Carm and five other girls rented a cottage in Manasquan for one month. In the middle of the week their families could use the cottage. The weekends were strictly for the six girls. It was more reasonable.

One Saturday a fellow from Tenafly went to Manasquan to take Carm to the movies. When they got back the fellow said good night outside. Carm went in and found the girls with two fellows they met in town. Carm looked them over, said good night, and went to bed.

Two nights later the two boys took all the girls to the movies. Their names were Mario Giangola and Harry. They lived in Philadelphia. Carm said she made sure she didn't sit near the boys, but somehow, someway, Mario sat near her. So she had to talk to him. He saw Carm several times and took her on a date. Mario then asked if he could come to visit Carm at her home in Closter with his friend Harry.

My husband and I were in Asbury Park for a one week vacation. It is close to Manasquan, so we told Carm we were going to stop at her place. When we went, Mario and Harry were also there. So we got to meet the boys. They looked like nice respectable boys. Carm asked us if it would be all right to tell them that they could come and visit her in Closter. We told her it was up to her if she wanted to see him.

One Saturday Mario and Harry traveled three and a half hours to get to Closter. They had never been around these country places. They arrived in Closter at 11:30 p.m. They got to our home, but never knocked or anything. Mario thought he had the wrong place. He figured a girl living in this beautiful, big, Colonial home would never want to go out with him, so Mario and Harry went to the next town and they slept at the Clinton Inn.

On Sunday morning they came back to Closter. They asked where the Lupardi family lived. They were told we lived in a big white house on Blanch Avenue. I was outside sweeping the porch.

Mario walked up said, “You are Carmela's mother.”

I said, “Yes, come on in; she is home.”

Carm was surprised to see them. She thought they were joking about coming to visit her in Closter. We all had Sunday dinner. Then Carm got a girlfriend to go with Harry and they went bowling. They all enjoyed themselves. After a few times Harry didn't come anymore; only Mario came.

Mario was an only child. He would love to say, “Now I have brothers and sisters, also.”

Sometimes Mario would come on a Wednesday night and leave on Thursday morning, then come back on Friday night and stay until Sunday night. Every time Mario went home we would fill his gas tank up from our gas pump.

Mario and Carmela got engaged. We gave them an engagement party and got to meet Mario's parents, grandmother, aunts and uncles. They were nice people. They all liked Carmela. I was cooking a roast in the oven for the party. As I stood up Mario kissed me and said, “I am so happy I can call you Mom. I love your daughter very much.” His mother would always say that Carm was going to be the daughter she never had.

I would joke with Carm that I had told her her prince charming would meet her in the woods or at the shore. “You found him at the shore. He had a hard time finding Closter, but through patience he found it.”

John and Rose dated often. Finally they decided to get married. Rose lived in the next town. It was easy for John to go to visit Rose. Rose's parents had an engagement party. They invited Rose's grandparents, her aunt and an uncle and his wife and her brother. They also invited Tony and me, Tony and Lorraine, and John's three sisters. We were all glad to meet each other.