EAST NASSAU — Mack and Florentine (“Tina”) Croyle grew up going to the same schools in the small town of Puritan, Pennsylvania. But when they formally met, when he was 17, Mack knew that he “wanted her” to be his wife. “I wanted him, too,” said Tina.

It was wartime. They were married Nov. 19, 1944 at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama, just before Mack left for active duty in the Phillipines and Japan.

“When the Chaplain asked, ‘Do you take this woman…,’ instead of saying ‘I do,’ [Mack] kept saying, ‘Yes, Sir,’” Tina laughed.

Life began for the couple after Mack’s return from the Army. They lived in Pennsylvania, where Mack worked in the coal mines and where their five children, Ken, Loretta, Fred, Barbara and Shirley, were born.

“We were blessed,” Tina said.

The family moved to Albany and Mack worked at Winthrop Laboratories as their fire chief, said their daughter, Shirley.

The couple finally settled in East Nassau. Mack joined the Tsatsawassa Fire Company. He served as chief from 1974 to 1983 and is now a life member.

Over the years, the couple’s children had their own children, who had their own children. On Saturday, five generations of Croyles took over the Tsatsawassa Firehouse to celebrate Mack and Tina’s 70th wedding anniversary.

Daughter Barbara died in 1993. Son Fred, whom no one expected to attend, given that he was in the hospital with pneumonia — he is, his brother Ken said, the “longest-surviving heart/lung recipient” in the country — made it to the reunion, wearing a surgical mask and leaning on a walker. His mother’s joy was obvious.

For their 50th anniversary, the couple had renewed their vows. One granddaughter, Verna Tavares, couldn’t attend that day because she was giving birth. She told the couple that her son was their “anniversary present.”

Depending on whom one asked, there are either 55 descendants or 65 — down to great-great-grandchildren. Several are members of the fire company.

Many of the descendants have left the area, but they came from as far away as Oklahoma (their “baby girl,” Shirley) to celebrate an anniversary that few achieve.

Now 87, Tina’s a little hard of hearing, she said, and at 91, Mack has lost enough of his vision that she had to “take away his driving,” which is hard on him.

“I’ll take care of him as long as I can,” said Tina. “That’s what you do.”