Columbia helps couples celebrate 50 years in style

For some couples, the secret to a lasting marriage is being in love. For others, it's just luck.

For Delma and Orlando Castillo, it's ballroom dancing.

That's how they met 55 years ago, at an Arthur Murray dance studio. Delma had won a free lesson. Orlando just liked to cut a rug.

"He came up to me and asked me to dance," Delma recalls. "I said, 'No.' "

She was 20, barely out of school and allowed out only with girlfriends. Orlando, a year older and wiser, bided his time. He spotted his heart's desire a few weeks later beneath the sparkly chandeliers of Ybor City's Centro Espanol.

It was a Sunday matinee on the second floor with fancy orchestra music. This time Delma said yes.

They've been married 51 years. And they're still dancing.

"It's been working," Delma says.

The Castillos are among 300 Bay area couples celebrating their golden anniversaries and beyond with a complimentary lunch Sunday at the Columbia Restaurant at St. Armands Circle in Sarasota.

The event coincides with the chain's 50th year in Sarasota. The original Columbia opened 104 years ago on La Septima Avenue in Ybor City serving Cuban sandwiches and café con leche to cigar factory workers.

Couples married for at least a half-century gathered there in 1955 to recognize the restaurant's first 50 years. They had weathered the Great Depression and two world wars, staying together despite the times - or maybe because of them.

Today's golden anniversary couples have overcome their share of hard times by making the most of the good ones.

Here is how they keep their love - and marriages - alive:

Jennie and Bob Casey
Married Dec. 29, 1956
Children - four
Grandchildren - five

"We respected each other's space," says Bob, 74, of Sun City Center. "We allowed each other to do what we wanted to do."

The little things counted. If Bob went fishing with the guys, he made sure Jennie had the car to go see her mom.

They made time for each other every day, says Jennie, 71, whether it was walking the dog or bike riding or swimming. Just the two of them.

"My wife will tell you that there was a great deal of love involved and that's true, too," Bob adds. "Love doesn't come easy. It takes a lot of work!"

Ruth and Jean Yadley
Married June 16, 1946
Children - two
Grandchildren - four

"You've got to have trust," says Ruth, a Tampa native whose age is "questionable" and that's the way she likes it. "If you have problems, you've got to sit down and talk. You don't have to always agree. Just have to keep the lines of communication open."

"If you're unhappy, divorce" says, Jean, who won't divulge his age either. "You have to be happy in life."

He met Ruth when she was a senior at Hillsborough High. They waited to marry until she graduated from college and he returned from the war. Education was important. So were individual interests.

"So when you do come home in the evening," Jean says, "you have something to discuss."

Sometimes you make concessions, Jean says. "I like to travel. She learned to like to travel."

Lillian and Bob Solin
Married July 4, 1948
Children - one
Grandchildren - two

"It's a lot of luck," admits Lillian, 84, of Sun City Center.

"I don't think it's so long," says Bob, also 84, of his six-plus decades of holy matrimony. "We're just starting. A lot has to do with give and take. Not just breaking up when the small things happen."

"He puts me first," Lillian says.

"You just have to go with the flow," says Bob, whose father once told him, "You get married when you're ripe for the occasion."

Lillian met Bob at a football game. They were on a date. With different people. Bob waited awhile. Then he asked her out. They married about six months later.

"That was it," Bob says.

"And that was it," Lillian says.

Nell and Bob Elliott
Married Sept. 7, 1957
Children - two
Grandchildren - four

"You have to be honest and considerate," says Nell, 71, of Sun City Center. "Always there to support each other.

"And it helps, too, if you like the one you love."

She and Bob have remained the best of friends since becoming high school sweethearts back in Cleveland, Tenn. They have taught their sons by example: Both men have been married for at least 25 years.

"Compromise on little things as well as the big issues," says Nell, who conferred first with Bob, also 71, before revealing their secrets. "Remember to take time to pray and have fun and love will grow greater and stronger."

Delma and Orlando Castillo
Married June 15, 1958
Children - three
Grandchildren - seven

"You have to take the ups as well as the downs," says Orlando, 75. "Don't try to force the other person to change because that's impossible in a marriage."

Be respectful and take it slow. Orlando took his time getting to know Delma - he had to. Her parents only allowed him to hold her hand on dates. Once, when a strap broke off Delma's dress, he offered to take her home.

"No," Delma told him and called her father instead. He took her home, she changed her dress and returned to the dance. Orlando was waiting.

When you get married, make sure it's to someone you're madly in love with.

"We're very in love," Delma says. "That's what counts."