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Sadie Salerno, of Merrick, turns 108

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Sadie Salerno was well prepared for her interview. After all, practice makes perfect.

On Oct. 6, her 108th birthday, Salerno and her daughter Pauline Luparello graciously welcomed a reporter into their home in south Merrick. People making a fuss about her birthday — from family and friends to elected officials and reporters — is not a novel experience for Salerno. In recent years, Salerno has garnered newsprint in Merrick Life, YourNewsMag, Newsday, and publications of the Town of Hempstead and National Centenarian Awareness Project. Still sharp, albeit somewhat hard of hearing, Salerno could anticipate the questions.

“I’m happy. I’ve enjoyed life,” Salerno said, more than once.

She also demonstrated a sense of humor about age. “Nice to have known you,” Salerno said, with a laugh, at introduction. When the interview had concluded, she asked the reporter, 25, if he was old enough to drive.

Salerno was born in 1906 in Manhattan. Teddy Roosevelt was president at the time. The 16th, 17th, and 19th Amendments to the Constitution, which instituted the federal income tax, popular election of senators and women’s right to vote, did not yet exist. Neither did movies with sound, the Model T, or stainless steel. Average life expectancy was 48.7 years old.

Salerno grew up on Elizabeth Street in Little Italy, a middle child among six brothers and sisters. She was then and now proud to be American-born — her parents and older siblings hailed from Sicily. Luparello said her mother has recounted stories of seeing Zeppelins fly and horses and buggies pulling fire engines. An older brother was a musician, and Salerno got permission to attend dances at which he worked and could keep a supervisory eye on her. She later taught dance steps to many younger family members.

She met her future husband, Salvatore Salerno, in a Manhattan factory where she worked as a young woman. “We were in love,” Sadie said.

They were married more than five decades, and had three children: Pauline, Paul and Robert. Initially they moved to “the country” — Blairstown, N.J. — where Salerno worked at a resort, and the children bathed in a lake. When it was time for Pauline to go to school, the family moved to Midwood, Brooklyn.

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