Forest Park’s newest resident is the very handsome, very smart young Endrit Grajçevici, newly arrived from Greece and Kosovo. Mr. Grajcevici earned a master’s degree in Greece and is furthering his scientific and math knowledge at the Illinois Institute of Technology. While there he’ll be living at the dorm and part time with relatives here in town. Forest Park welcomes Endrit and hopes he’ll enjoy his stay here. Some of his relatives are Aulon and Elir Rrahmani (shown here).
Another part-time Forest Parker is Ellie Sorokin, whose family is from Russia. Ellie is a performer, dancer, set builder and painter — anywhere there is a show to produce. When she’s not performing her fire dance (she can do a similar dance with knives), she’s painting the sets at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, which will present Oklahoma in a few weeks.
“Authors Under the Awning” is drawing crowds on Thursday evenings this summer. Augie Aleksy and his author friends are always happy to see readers. Last week, Frances McNamara was back with her Emily Cabot mysteries. Death at Hull House, a murder in the midst of a smallpox epidemic, puts Emily in jeopardy from the disease and a killer. Her other historical mysteries are Death at Chinatown, which incorporates such issues as immigration, conflict between eastern and western medicine, women’s struggle to balance work and family life, all woven into a mystery. Death at Woods Hole is the fourth book in the Emily Cabot mystery series. In this work, she deals with dueling scientists among other issues.
Summer is on the wane, but as Mary Schmich said last week in the Tribune, it’s late but it’s not over. There’s still one more Friday on the front porch at Pleasant Home where old-time silent movies have been playing on Fridays at 8 p.m. The piano accompanist is the very gifted Tom Holmes (not our Tom Holmes). This Friday is the last and it should be great. It’s a Charlie Chaplin full-length feature film, The Circus, which was the seventh highest-grossing silent film … in 1928.
Happy birthday this week to Leslie Kelley, Wilma Haley, Hazel Anne Rossi, Madelyn Entler, Dee Shoman, Colleen Cassiani, Tiffany Cassiani, Rosalie Koldan, Donna Chan, Len Gappa, Milady Gerter, Bethany Hawkins, Brandi Mintz, Marie Gianelli, Matt DeCosala, Paul Richards, Michelle Becker Baum, Aaron Scheiwe, Zachary Drane, John Connor Trage, Jessica Huebner, Pat Petrey, Derek Walsh, Ron Apilado, Steve Knack, Steve Sedlack, Patti Mullin, Sarah Goetz, Lois Bugajsky, Tim Scheiwe, and Colon Tomikins.
Happy anniversary to Sam and Jamie Alonzo, Melissa and Anthony Tureck, Hafid and Siham Hamadene, and to Bill and Maureen Flagg.
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.
