Joe Napolitano: Full of Zest at 105

Healthy and still mentally sharp, with eyes so good he could read his birthday cards without glasses, Joe Napolitano celebrated his 105th birthday last week at his home on Iliff, where he lives independently. Joined by photographer Rich Schmitt, I visited Joe on his August 19 birthday, as I have enjoyed doing ever since he turned 100. I like a guy who has lived in three centuries (he was born on a freighter off Gibraltar in 1899 as his Italian parents returned from living in Brazil) and who recently renewed his subscription to the Palisadian-Post for two years. Arriving unannounced in the late afternoon, I had to pound away on the front door and then shout through the kitchen window before catching Joe’s attention (his ears are not as genetically fortunate as his eyes). Face beaming, he welcomed us into his tidy home and led us to his kitchen, where he was cooking a large pan of homemade applesauce, made from the gala apples he had picked from the tree in his backyard. ‘I freeze it and then I have frozen applesauce every night for dinner,’ Joe said. ‘It tastes wonderful’just like apple ice cream.’ He spooned out a bowl for me to sample and said, ‘With my compliments!’ I told him, quite honestly, that it was indeed delicious. Joe continues to cook all his meals (he fixed barbecued lamb chops for his birthday) and clean his house, as he has been doing for nearly 10 years since his wife died. He also gives loving attention to an assortment of fruit trees that includes apple, orange, grapefruit, plum, apricot, peach, persimmon and fig. ‘My grandson came last week and we filled 22 shopping bags with grapefruit that we took to Venice [a food shelter run by St. Joseph’s Center]. ‘They’re big, but not sweet like the ones you buy in a store,’ Joe said apologetically. ‘They need sugar.’ I asked Joe how he felt. ‘I feel good today,’ he said, lighting up his pipe. ‘I don’t take any pills or medicine and I don’t have any aches or pains’just old-age wear. I want to die like my grandfather back in Italy. He was 97 and he smoked a pipe up until a week before he died. He wasn’t sick or anything; he just didn’t want to live anymore.’ On Sunday afternoon, Joe’s niece Tonia organized a party at his house and about 60 relatives joined the festivities. Tonia was married to one of Joe’s younger brothers, Pasquale, an artist who lived to be 101. Joe’s two children are deceased, but he has eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, including 8-month-old Kendra. ‘This is her first Olympics’and Popa’s 27th Olympics,’ observed grandson Greg Catton of Sherman Oaks. ‘He only missed the 1896 Olympics!’ Sitting at a patio table under an umbrella, Joe welcomed all the hugs and handshakes from arriving relatives, saying at one point, ‘My face is getting pink from all the kisses.’ He also greatly enjoyed receiving a can of Borkum Riff tobacco”the tobacco for rich people,’ he said. He could afford to buy his own, but it’s a luxury he can live without between birthdays. ‘I feel great; I couldn’t feel better,’ Joe told his guests. ‘The Palisades climate is helping, too. It’s a beautiful day.’