People of Conshohocken – Joe Januzelli

People of Conshohocken – Joe Januzelli

9/15/2017

by Brian Coll

This is part of our People of Conshohocken series…
We have close to 10,000 people in our borough, add in the residents of West Conshohocken, Plymouth, Whitemarsh and Lafayette Hill and we have a large community. Some of the people that will be featured will be well known in the area, some will have just moved into the area, some will have been here their entire lives. Some of them may be business owners, or people who walk around the area, or maybe work in the area. Maybe you know them, maybe you don’t. Everyone has a story. While we are only going to take their picture and maybe ask a question or two, we want to share these stories with you.

********************************************************************************

I don’t know how long I have known Joe Januzelli, it could be as far back as taking a ride on one of the old firetrucks at the Saint Cosmas and Damian Feast, it seems for years they had one of the old fire trucks there and a great group of volunteer firemen and women would take the kids for rides up and down the avenues. It could be from seeing him around at Washies Fire House, after all, he has been a volunteer there as long as I have been alive…..

Joe was born and raised and has continued to live in Conshohocken his entire life. I touched on his years with Washies Fire Company, he joined there in the early to mid 70’s and has been a part of the Washies family ever since. When I asked Joe what his favorite Conshohocken or any memory was most of them stem from Washies, after all, he met his wife Beth there. Even back then  she outranked him! He started talking about the old fund drives and his dad took him out on one in one of the fire trucks, he never thought they would get a fire call and have to race to the scene. Joe said it was kind of like in the movie Backdraft where the kid goes to the scene of a fire in the fire truck. The fire was down by the old bridge and his uncle Sam pulled up in another truck to help put out the fire. After that, Sam (the legendary Sam Januzelli) took him for a tour of Conshohocken in one of the fire trucks and showed him around and since then he has been hooked!

Look for Joe at the Mayor’s Special Events Halloween Parade in about a month with one of the old fire trucks.

Now…. I need you to keep reading.

Joe has been fighting cancer for over a year now. The doctors feel he is on the right path and they are talking about what is next for him and his recovery. Joe was able to catch his rectal colon cancer before it was too late. It did spread to his lungs and liver but the chemo therapy did it’s job and Joe is making the most of life at this point. Joe and his wife Beth are going to the race track one of the weeks and really trying to live life.

You can say that is Joe’s favorite memory right now, beating cancer and getting to keep living. If you can take something away from the conversation I had with Joe…. get a colonoscopy. Don’t wait too long. His parting words as he walked towards the door were…… enjoy life, never take it for granted.

I agree Joe, thanks for chatting with me today. I’m really glad you are still around to have this conversation.