New Batavia Popcorn Depot owners hope to open in May

As new residents in Batavia 15 years ago, Talitha Mueller and her husband David went through the process most new move-ins encounter - they didn't know a lot of people or business owners.

Almost like a magnet, the Batavia Popcorn Depot at 1 N. Water St. caught Talitha's attention and lured her in, just as it has for so many area residents since 1929.

"I saw that place and it became like an almost daily ritual for me," Mueller said. "I was raising kids at the time, so to get out of the house we would walk down there and get popcorn."

During these visits she met Robert Pepper, popcorn proprietor.

"I struck up a friendship with Bob, as we both had kids and dogs and were White Sox fans," she said. "His son Jack took over about eight years ago, and we became friends as well."

It all nurtured a dream for Mueller to maybe someday own that popcorn stand if Pepper ever left the operation.

"My friends would laugh at me about that, but when it closed last September, we started asking what was going on, and it turned out Bob was in supported living and his son moved to Colorado to start his own shop."

That equation meant Jack Pepper was going to sell the popcorn depot to earn money to support his father. And Talitha and her husband stepped forward to carry on the Batavia Popcorn Depot history.

They bought the business about three weeks ago, basically right in time to encounter the business and lifestyle shutdown brought on by coronavirus.

"I am OK with waiting to open, and I want it to be a good time to open for the whole community," Mueller said of the uncertainty unfolding week to week.

"We want to make sure our helpers and vendors are OK with the schedule and we want to keep them safe."

Theoretically, the Muellers would be involved in one of those rare businesses that hits all of the check marks in terms of being OK to stay open. It is outdoors, it is all "carry out," per se, and it is a food service.

If people were to stand in line more than six feet apart, it's possible it could work, depending on the status of the virus landscape at that time.

Mueller just isn't sure - and she is fine with taking the most cautious approach to start her new journey.

"I was hoping for May 1, but we're just not sure at this point," she said. "The timing is based on the city, because the mayor wants to do a ribbon cutting, so it depends on where we are all at as a community."

Regardless of how or when the popcorn depot opens, it will continue an interesting history, with roots in 1929 when a couple of 14-year-olds, Norm Freedlund and his friend Buddy Anderson, built the shack at its first location on South Batavia Avenue and called it "Buddy and Normy" French Fried Popcorn.

"It's been in four different locations I can think of since then," Jim Freedlund of Batavia said about his father's childhood business venture.

The Batavia Popcorn Depot eventually found its home in the general area of Water and Wilson streets, and it's been there for the better part of 70 years.

In the coming weeks, prior to determining an opening date, Mueller is hoping Robert George Merrill, a Boy Scout from Troop 6 in Batavia volunteering to help, will be able to paint and clean the small stand.

Mueller is also hoping to eventually offer jobs to students with special needs who are part of her other business venture, Helping Hand Advocacy Services.

"We will have exterior and interior improvements, but we have to keep it exactly the same, because it is a historical landmark," Mueller said.

One other thing will stay the same. "The recipe for the popcorn is not going to change," Mueller said, noting what is likely music to residents' ears and the most important part of the whole venture.

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A 'thank you' to nurses:

It was supposed to be an interesting spring break for Hailey Raval of Bartlett, working as a volunteer at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva.

Coronavirus wiped out any chance of that happening, so the 15-year-old sophomore from the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora asked her mother, Rina, to help her find out what other volunteer options she might have.

Her mother contacted Gina Tinio, who lives in the same Bartlett neighborhood of Woodland Hills as the Ravals and works at Delnor.

Tinio initially set up Hailey's volunteer opportunity, so Rina asked if there was anything else Hailey could do.

"She came up with the idea to make thank-you cards to support the nurses because they were working such long hours and are under a lot of stress," Hailey said.

Hailey spread the word about that plan, and 18-year-old sister Alyssa and 13-year-old brother Drew began helping her make cards. After her mom posted on the community page on Facebook, many other neighbors said their kids wanted to get involved.

With those creating cards and dropping them off at the Raval home, Hailey said she sent 75 cards the first week. She followed that up with more than 100 the second week.

"We're trying to do the cards every week, until the nurses aren't stressed anymore," Hailey said.

<h3 class="leadin">Pig roast rescheduled:

It was another reminder of how things are changing quickly, even for events that are planned for June, with the coronavirus casting its long shadow.

After mentioning last week that the Campton Township Open Space Foundation was planning a June fundraising pig roast event, planners have now postponed it. They are hoping to do it in the fall of 2020, or maybe the spring or summer of 2021.

The committee is looking to raise $7,000 for a restoration project at Harley Woods in Elburn. If that amount were reached through a GoFundMe page the committee has set up, the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation would match at a 3-to-1 ratio in putting $21,000 toward the project. Plus, the state committee would provide $6,000 to cover labor, making it an overall $34,000 project.

<h3 class="leadin">The Clothes Whisperer:

No one will ever accuse Paula Mueller of not having a knack for getting the word out about her Paula's Couture Consignment store at 4½ Wilson St. in downtown Batavia - even when it can't be open to the public during the state lockdown.

Through her social media channels, Mueller has notified area residents that if they are cleaning out clothes closets during the stay-at-home mandates, she is willing to come by the house and pick up those clothes.

Anything she can't make use of at her consignment store, she will deliver to the Batavia Clothes Closet.

"I believe the Clothes Closet is still closed and not taking donations, so I am storing the clothes," Mueller said.

Batavia Clothes Closet is Mueller's "charity of choice," so she is making the pickups for that community service.

For those looking to buy items from Mueller's store online, she has been taking mobile payments through Zelle and Venmo and then delivering the clothes to the customer.

"I feel like the Easter Bunny leaving stuff all over town," Mueller said. "I drive around and drop items off at their front doors and leave them a note.

"Then it's back in the car, using hand sanitizer, and off we go," she added.

When she gets clothes dropped off at her shop, she washes them. She's also spending a lot more time in gloves and using sanitizer.

"There's a lot more steps, and it is a lot more complicated, but I am doing whatever I can to keep the store operating while it is closed, for how ever long that is."

dheun@sbcglobal.net