'Some said it wouldn't last' Fallon couple celebrates 70 years of marriage

Love. Give and take. Respect.

These are the ingredients to a lasting marriage, a recipe Mario and Olga Peraldo have been perfecting for more than 70 years.

Sitting inside their small, tidy home in Fallon, the couple recalled the turns their lives have taken as they weathered adventures together.

Both descendants of Italian immigrant families, Mario and Olga began life in Paradise Valley, Nev., a small community north of Winnemucca in Humboldt County. Mario's father, intrigued with the Newlands Irrigation Project, moved his family to Fallon in 1920 when Mario was very young. Olga's family remained in Paradise Valley, operating a large cattle ranch. She attended two years of high school, all that was available to her there.

Mario attended school in Fallon, participating in FFA all four years of high school and earning FFA's highest degree of American Farmer. He also drove a school bus for a couple years while still in school - a bus with a wooden floor and canvas-flap door.

Mario and Olga first met when she came to Fallon to visit Mario's sister, Caroline.

Hearing tales of adventure and excitement, Mario had plans to take a tour around the world following high school.

"I signed up for it ... until she came along," he said, smiling at his wife. "That's what girls will do to you."

Mario graduated from Churchill County High School in 1937 and the two were married by December of that year. He was 18, she was 19.

"Some friends said it wouldn't last," Mario said.

The following year, the young couple moved back to Paradise Valley and ranched for Olga's cousin, John Forgnone. They remained there for two years until Mario's father, Emilio, fell ill. The Peraldo family ranch, located on Peraldo Lane north of Fallon, was turned over to brothers Mario and Silvio. The brothers worked the land together for many years after Silvio returned home from World War II.

Silvio married a Belgian girl, Harriet, and brought her to live on the ranch with his family. Mario and Olga had just one son, Mario Jr., who was doted on by his childless aunt. Mario said his son learned to speak French from Harriet, while she learned English from her nephew.

Mario said a buck, raised as a pet by a Stillwater family, once wandered into the Peraldo ranch and mauled Harriet in the yard. Mario Jr. was there and ended up killing the deer with a shotgun to protect his aunt. She was rushed to the hospital with bruises all over her body and a gouge in her abdomen from the deer's antler. She died about 10 years later, Mario said.

Even though Silvio died more than 20 years ago, Mario was suddenly choked with emotion in remembering his brother and crossed himself. In this brief yet tender moment, Olga simply reached out and took Mario's hand, sharing his pain while he regained his composure.

After Silvio passed away, Mario ranched the land by himself with the help of Indian and Mexican workers while Olga cooked for everybody and canned vegetables.

Wanting their son to experience things they never could, they let him participate in sports during high school and sent him to college. While Mario turned down a tour of the world to marry Olga, their son traveled the globe while in the U.S. Air Force for more than 20 years, achieving the rank of colonel.

Mario wanted to retire from ranching but held on to the ranch until his son finished his military career and returned to Fallon. During his years in Fallon, Mario served on the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District's Board of Directors and was a Churchill County commissioner from 1971 to 1980.

He has tales to tell of his time on the county commission, including the time the commissioners tried to visit a brothel in Storey County while researching whether legal prostitution in Churchill County should be considered. The commissioners stopped short before entering the brothel because they saw a number of cars from Churchill County in the brothel's parking lot and thought their mission may get twisted if residents saw the commission visiting a cathouse. The question of legalizing prostitution in Churchill County was put before voters in 1974 and passed ... something Mario still can't understand.

Despite a small stroke that took the sight in one eye, Mario still runs the swather on the ranch.

"Knock on wood, I haven't taken down a fence or anything," Mario laughed.

The couple spends their time eating out and doing a little gambling after Sunday morning breakfast.

"I can't drink, I can't smoke," Mario said, justifying his gambling, adding that they prefer slots.

But mostly, they just enjoy each other's company.

"When our time comes, we'll never know," Olga said.

This feisty little Italian man, full of tales, is balanced by his sweet, quiet wife of 70 years. He said he lives life one day at a time.

"I don't know if I'll be alive tomorrow," Mario said. "But I think I'll go for 100."