Allan Appel Photo
DiPaola ate her meatloaf portion, and her vegan son’s, at the centenarian bash.
Yes, times have changed.
For example, when they were young girls, Maggie — nee Michelina — DiPaola remembered walking down the streets of Wooster Square with her cousins and friends, and absolutely no one bothered them.
“Because we weren’t that good-looking,” quipped DiPaola, now 103 years old.
That memory emerged in conversation with DiPaola, a former waitress, along with 24 other Greater New Haveners who have arrived at or surpassed the century mark of years.
They were celebrating the achievement at the 30th annual centenarian luncheon convened at the Jewish Community Center and organzied by the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut.
Annie Louther, 102, was on hand with the minister of her historic Dixwell Congregatinal church, Fred Streets.
No one has an accurate count of how many centenarians there are in south central Connecticut, but they number in the several hundreds, guesstimated Janise Fowler of the agency’s staff.
She solicited the names of all those folks turning 100 this year from housing developments, senior centers, and other organizations working with the elderly and in all sent out 120 invitations. Over 30 people whose longevity qualified accepted the invite, and 25 were in attendance.
At Tuesday afternoon’s soiree there were five 103-year-olds like DiPaola; six 102-year-olds; three 101-year-olds, and the others mere babies who had already or will turn 100 this year.
The gracious queen of the event was Minnie Sutton of Shelton, who cut the cake on behalf of her centenarian colleagues.
She’s turning 106 on May 27, lived her life in New York City and came to Connecticut at age 99.
Bad news bulletin for us males:
There was only one man in the throng of honorees, Gerard Langler of East Haven, a mere 100-year old. A man who made his career in advertising and with words, Langeler for the occasion self-published as a gift to his greatgrandaughter a humorous book of his favorite quotations — and his responses to them.
Such upbeat and positive attitudes emerged in conversations with the centenarians on what we all want to know: the attitudinal, diet, or other secrets of their longevity.
Here are a few sketches:
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Maggie DiPaola was born in Wooster Square, the children of a mom from Amalfi and a father from Palermo. She was able to enumerate all ten of her siblings in order, with a little help from Vincent, her one surviving child. She raised them alone waitressing at various restaurants in town because her husband, an infantryman with General George Patton’s armies during World War Two came home from the war with PTSD, before it was diagnosed; he was essentially hospitalized for the rest of his life, said Vincent DiPaola.
She learned hard work from her own life with her parents, having gone to work pressing shirts at age 14 when her own father died in his early 50s, from a lung condition. DiPaola, that his grandfather got it from unfiltered dust and other bad conditions at Sargent’s, where he worked, in that factory’s early years.
Maggie said she’s not as peppy as she used to, has nostalgia for driving her own car, which she did until age 92, and she misses work and interacting with customers. She reported that she’d go back to work waitressing in heartbeat if someone called.
At the Villa Nova restaurant, which stood out in Morris Cove for decades near where Anthony’s Ocean View is today, she not only waitressed and quipped, but danced with customers as well, she said.
Her advice: “I never smoked or drank.” As to eating, the centenarian meat loaf had no chance with this woman. She finished her own portion and because she had raised a now vegan son — the owner of a tech firm who is studying holistic medicine — she insisted on taking his portion of meat loaf home.
Named After The Great Optimist
Gerard Emerson Langeler founded the Langeler Advertising Agency in Bethany in 1951 and built it into what is now a large advertising agency serving New England. He was named for America’s great 19th writer and philosophical optimist Ralph Waldo Emerson and after retirement wrote a historical novel.
His most recent publication, How To Win the 100-Year-Dash, was his response to his great-grandaughter’s request for his wisdom.
Olga Mackew, 105, grew up on now gone Oak Street and was a saleswoman at Shartenberg’s Dept. Store.
As he heartily ate his carrot cake dessert at the luncheon, he summarized it: “Moderation and love.”
There was also another element, added his daughter, Penny Rogers: creating a family that celebrated a sense of humor “but without sarcasm.”
Asked which of the quotations in his compendium is his favorite, Langeler immediately turned to a page with, yes, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
Wouldn't it be nice to feature each of these people to know their stories and their view of the last hundred years.
Each one of them is a walking history book and I'm ready to listen.