Hizzoner the Heelobowie

The Greeks have a word for emigres who, once poverty-stricken, return to visit their native land flush with the prosperity of half a lifetime in the U.S. They call them heelobowie, a rough approximation of "hello boy." In many a Greek village, the returning heelobowie ranks almost as a patron saint; each village strives to outdo its neighbors in providing a lavish welcome for him, and even after his return to the land of his adoption, legends of his largesse live on among the villagers.

Mike Colikas was born 70 years ago in the Greek village of Pyrgi on Chios

Island, one of seven places which claim to be the birthplace of Homer. He left home at the age of 23 to seek his fortune in the U.S. After a number of false starts, he found it as the proprietor of a barbershop and beauty parlor in Pittsburgh, Pa. Three times since luck smiled upon him, Mike had returned to Pyrgi as a heelobowie. In 1926 he dropped in on his birthplace and helped to restore the village church. In 1939 he paid another visit, and left behind in the church tower the biggest and handsomest clock the villagers had ever seen. Last summer, after selling his business, Mike went back to pay still another visit to Pyrgi. Once again he opened his purse and his heart, to spruce up the local schoolhouse and the village square.

Mike asked nothing in return for his generosity, but when election day came up, the contending candidates for mayor both withdrew and the villagers swarmed to the polls to elect Mike Colikas by a vote of 2,145 to 2. After the polls were closed, the two dissident voters came around to apologize in person. They had meant to cast their votes for Mike, they said, but they were illiterate and couldn't read the ballot.

Mike Colikas, the poor boy of Pyrgi. was pleased and happy, but there was one small hitch: as an American, he could not accept public office under the Greek government without relinquishing his U.S. citizenship. Put that way, there could be no question about which country Mike Colikas felt he belonged in. "I'll tell you very sincerely," he said. "I'm homesick for Pittsburgh."

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