Pops back where he belongs in St. Charles

The sign on the side of the small restaurant at 818 E. Main St. in St. Charles said it all for patrons of one of the city's most popular lunch spots.

"Pop's is Back!" the sign proclaims, and for the regulars at Pop's Place it meant Nick "Pops" Koutsonicolis was back at his restaurant after nearly a year and a half.

"The people have been streaming back in here and hugging me, they are so happy to see me back," Pops said of his return. "I have no idea if it is true, but they say the food tastes a lot better since I came back."

The 66-year-old Pops has been back for about a month, ending a short "leave," for lack of a better term, during which his hired help operated the eatery for him.

"I was just tired," Pops said of his previous decision to stop his commute from Norridge to St. Charles for 12-hour work shifts from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

"I started thinking about coming back, and just decided it was time again," said Pops, who first took over the restaurant in 2001.

His wife Toula, who also worked at the restaurant in the past, is coming back in late September.

Pop's Place features gyros, Italian beef, burgers, Polish sausage, chicken and fries, as well as the original Tastee-Freez brand ice cream. It has had great exposure on Main Street for many years, though patrons usually figure out ways to avoid left turns in or out of Pop's Place during heavy traffic periods.

I chose the Italian beef during my visit with Pops, and it was an excellent choice. And it was apparent that those in the restaurant were happy to see him back.

"If nothing else, he sure knows how people feel about him," said Kris Anderson, who said she has been going to Pop's Place for years. "At lunchtime, the people were lined up here to see him."

Heroic Samaritans: If Charlene Sheehan says she was "glad I was there," then one can only imagine how Larry Larson feels.

Sheehan, a Batavia resident with 29 years of nursing experience, "met" Larson purely through fate a few months ago - and it helped save the Yorkville man's life.

Sheehan, who works at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, was coming home from teaching a computer class in an industrial part of Bolingbrook as part of a training program through Adventist Midwest Health.

Larson was driving his heating and air-conditioning company van in that same area, when he suffered a massive heart attack. Sheehan was the second to arrive on the scene, where another nurse, Julie Simunjak of Alsip, was checking on Larson.

"When I saw the truck and people there, I thought to myself, OK what's going on here?" Sheehan said. "There were only a couple of nurses in that entire area, and we just happened to be right there."

Sheehan said that Larson was still breathing when she first attended to him in the van, but after a while he lost his pulse.

She quickly pulled him out of the van and began administering CPR until emergency crews came to transport him to the hospital. He eventually underwent emergency procedures to get blood flowing in his heart vessels before being transported to another hospital for six-artery bypass surgery.

"I was really happy to see he made it," Sheehan said of Larson, who is recovering. "This is the first time I have had to do this in my 29 years of nursing, and he was very lucky that we were in the area."

For the firefighters: The timing is perfect for a couple of upcoming events in which firefighters should have their pride fully on display.

With the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in this country taking place on Friday, Sept. 11, the Geneva Fire Department will hold its first Fallen Firefighters Memorial Golf Outing that day at Tanna Farms on Hughes Road in Geneva.

At 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, the St. Charles Fire Department will conduct its official ribbon cutting and dedication for the new station on First Street.

Both of these events deserve community support and recognition. Stop by the St. Charles station and thank our fire officials for the work they do - and check out their new digs at the same time.

For those who would like to participate in the 11 a.m. Sept. 11 golf outing at Tanna Farms, contact Geneva's Deputy Chief Scott Spencer at sspencer@geneva.il.us or preregister online at golf.firehero.org.

Cost is $120 per player for lunch, 18 holes of golf, door prizes and awards dinner banquet.

A last-second victory: The power of an e-mail campaign was on full display the past month. I mentioned the e-mail voting taking place for the Paul Ruby Foundation and its quest for the Markham Mark of Distinction $25,000 grant that would aid Parkinson's disease research.

Mary Bencini of Geneva was keeping everyone informed about the "standings" and how far behind the local project was compared to another national project also seeking votes. It seemed like, right up to the last day, the Paul Ruby Foundation was hovering between 4 percent and 5 percent off the lead.

Out of the blue, Bencini sent an e-mail to everyone involved early last week proclaiming a victory for the foundation and its cause.

No doubt, those involved in the campaign were reveling in the glory of the victory during Saturday's scheduled Concert for a Cure at Tanna Farms.

dheun@sbcglobal.net