Forest Park has a most unusual guest for a few days. She is Palma Drale from Uganda. A beautiful, soft spoken woman who is instantly friendly and interested in everything she can learn about us. She wanted to hear a symphony concert, so, as luck would have it, the Oak Park River Forest Symphony was performing last Sunday. Palma enjoyed the concert very much and was delighted to hear the soloist, a percussionist from the Chicago Symphony playing a world premier piece on the vibraphone. The entire audience was delighted as a matter of fact Palma says they have frequent concerts in Uganda, but they are choral concerts as the Ugandans love to sing.
Janet Paulin, our lady of many talents, will have her work on display, and for sale, at the Westchester Community Church , 1840 Westchester Blvd. on Saturday, June 7 from 10 a.m. – 2p.m.. Also available at the Flea Market, Garage Sale, Craft Fair, Bake Sale will be just about everything. A similar event will take place on Sunday, June 8 , also from 10- 2, at the Elmwood Park Women’s Club, 11 Conti Parkway in Elmwood Park.
If you read the recent newsletter from Triton College, you were probably as impressed as I was reading about Mario Lamar, the young man from Maywood who is making his way through this world by hard work, study and overcoming adversity. He was ninth out of 14 siblings, their mother home schooled them through 12th grade. He recently graduated from Triton but was unable to attend his graduation ceremony because he was on active duty with the naval reserve. He is currently pursuing his BA degree in International Studies at Moorehouse College in Atlanta. We salute Mario Lamar’s spirit and wish him luck.
Nancy Robinson is very excited about the crowded calendar of Norwegian activities this summer. Unfortunately, some of the events have already taken place. The historic manor house and site of the 1814 signing of the constitution was recently the site of some remarkable new discoveries. Archaeologists dated some of these back to 1770. This house was declared Norway’s first national monument in 1814. A parade to commemorate “Syttende Mai”, a great Norwegian holiday was celebrated with a children’s chorus performing. There was a black tie dinner dance and so much more. Master of Ceremonies was Orion Samuelson; the keynote speaker the Hon. Svein Ludvigsen, Governor of Troma County, Norway. To learn more about the historic Norwegian treasure manor house visit www.eidsvoll1814.no/. Norwegians are proud that the former Norwegian Prime Minister Jans Stoltenberg has been selected as the 13th Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). (The Norwegians also make wonderful Christmas cookies).
Forest Park was sorry to say good bye to Loraine Crowley. Those of us up in years remember her father “Whitey” and the family dogs. One big black lab, lovable but definitely crazy, used to escape by jumping through windows, so they installed strong screens, undaunted, he jumped through strong screen So the Crowleys finally installed chain link fencing on the windows. That worked.
Birthday celebrants this week are Shirley Stange, twins Max and Emma Strong, Tyler Robert Fink, Mike Jargstorf, Tom Conrad, Zianna Turek, Mark Janopoulos, Matt Schuler ,Bill Tresise, Brenda McNeill, Gary Fink, Tricia Cassiani, Bob Ashcroft, Ben Reina, LaVerne Cameron, Sarah Lotus, Joan Biskupic, Ashley Santelli, Patrick Carr, Lynette Carr, Lauren Arneri, Margaret Rohde, Paul Schlittering. Happy anniversary to Judy and Phil Jilek, Tim and Ruth Stefl.
This article has been updated to include the birthday of Max and Emma Strong.
Jackie is a former Chicago and Elmwood Park schoolteacher with an undying love for music, friendly pets and a host of life’s other treasures too numerous to list. She was born on the far southwest side of Chicago in a great neighborhood when it was a great time to be young.
