Family and friends of longtime Calverton resident Antone Kolenski gathered at Riverhead Polish Hall Sunday afternoon to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Kolenski became a centenarian on Jan. 31.
With Albina, his wife of nearly 74 years, seated at his side, Kolenski sat smiling and sipping a whiskey sour as he chatted with relatives and old friends.
“I haven’t had a drink in more than two years,” Kolenski said, grinning, clearly enjoying his cocktail. The couple live in a Port Washington nursing home, near their daughter’s residence.”They don’t let you drink over there,” he said, smiling mischievously.
“I never thought I’d live to be a hundred,” Kolenski said. “Or that we’d be married for 74 years. It’s something,” he said.
The Kolenskis, who have two children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild, have the distinction of being are the longest-married couple in St. Isidore’s parish; they tied the knot at the church in 1940. St. Isidore’s pastor, Father Robert Kuznik, was on hand this afternoon to say the blessing.
They met on a blind date arranged by Albie’s cousin, Joey Yakaboski.
“We went for a drive around — with another couple,” she recalled. They’ve been together ever since.
Kolenski worked in agriculture all his life. He started a greenhouse business on his land on Route 25 in Calverton and worked it successfully for 30 years. He lost his home and business to condemnation when the state extended the expressway in the early 1970s.
“I watched them tear down the greenhouses,” he said.
“I couldn’t drive past there for a whole year,” his wife said.
After that, Kolenski moved his family to Baiting Hollow and took a job managing the Talmage greenhouses, a job he held for about 20 years, he said. He then started his own greenhouse business again.
“Riverhead has changed so much, even just in the three years we’ve been away,” Albina Kolensi said. “I resent it,” she said. “I liked all the farms, but that’s progress, I guess.”
What’s the secret to living a century-long life?
“There’s no secret,” Tony Kolenski said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Keep your mind occupied. Be happy. Think of others,” his wife added. “And above all else, trust in God.”
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