100-year-old: Good wife key to long life

Although the country was saddled in the largest economic depression in U.S. history, Jack Caputo said he’d want to relive the 1930s. That was when the recently turned 100-year-old Valley Stream resident met the love of his life, Bessie, and made her his wife. They’ve been together every since.

“When I met her, she used to go walking around the neighborhood in a cavalier coat,” Caputo said. “I loved that outfit on her. We fell in love right away.”

Caputo turned 100 on Sunday and celebrated his birthday with family and friends at Filomena’s Restaurant in Franklin Square. He said that this birthday was no different than past ones, only this time the priest at his local church –– St. Joseph’s in Hewlett –– announced his birthday at Sunday’s mass and gave Caputo a special blessing. Caputo noted that when he was younger, he’d never guess that he would live to be 100. “Back then, I never really thought about that kind of stuff,” he said.

Caputo was born in Bari, Italy — a large city on the south east coast of Italy that bordered the Adriatic Sea — in 1909. He said he moved to Brooklyn with his parents in 1914 when he was 5 because his father had come across a good job opportunity. “In Italy, there wasn’t much,” Caputo said if his father’s career prospects. He lived in a few different neighborhoods in Brooklyn, he said, notably Williamsburg and Bushwick.

It was in 1934 that Caputo said he met Bessie. They both lived on the same block in Brooklyn, he explained, and neighbors would sit on their stoops and watch the boys play stickball. That’s when the two first laid eyes on each other.

“They used to play stickball in the street,” Bessie said. “We used to watch them play and that’s how we got acquainted.” Jack and Bessie married two years later and will celebrate their 73rd wedding anniversary this September.

The Caputo’s moved to Ozone Park, Queens in 1958 and Jack managed stock invoices for a local A&P on Queens Boulevard. He worked there for 23 years and retired in 1971. Six years later, they picked up and moved to Valley Stream.

The Caputo’s have two kids, Angelo and Isabel, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Jack said there is no secret to living to 100, just managing yourself within your means. “I never went out and bought the Cadillac,” he said. “I’d buy a Ford or Chevy. I never drank too much and ate lots of greens.” Bessie added that everyday, after dinner, Jack would take a two-mile walk to keep in shape.

In his spare time, Caputo said he likes to read mystery novels and watch the Mets and Jets. He said he remembers going to see the Brooklyn Dodgers play in Ebbets Field and will never forget the day when the Dodgers beat the Yankees to win the 1955 World Series. “That was the Johnny Padres game,” he said, referencing the Dodgers pitcher who shut out the Yankees 2-0 in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series. “That was their last game.”