Good friends gathered at the Scottish Home in North Riverside Sept. 13 to celebrate the 90th birthday of Riversider Marjorie Whitney Prass.

Librarian Janice Fisher watched in horror as the water from the DesPlaines River in Riverside rose higher and higher, up the steep banks that rise behind the library. The late summer weather had been beautiful in our villages. Down in Texas, Hurricane Ike was flooding the entire state. We felt empathy for those poor, faraway Texans. But, Sept. 12 to 14 was upon us, and our pity for the Texans waned. We learned to pity ourselves.

The great pumpkin patch is coming to Riverside! According to the Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan, patrons can start picking up pumpkins Sunday, Oct. 18, at Riverside United Methodist Church, 82 Woodside Road. The pumpkin patch will be in operation daily until Friday, Oct. 31 (Halloween, or “All Hallows Eve”).

Two well-known people with Riverside connections took to the stage at Navy Pier during the seventh annual Catholic Charities Gala of the Arts Sept. 5. The benefit featured a premier performance of “Gala Goes Broadway.

Not since Paul Revere rode his horse through the countryside warning the Americans “To arms, to arms, the Redcoats are coming,” have we been so explicitly warned of an upcoming disaster facing our nation.

Since 2005, parishioners at St. Mary-Riverside have enjoyed the services of a prominent musician, William E. Coble.

A unique musical program will be offered at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, headed by Toria Burrell-Hrencecin of Riverside in the ballroom of the Oak Park Arms, 150 N. Oak Park Ave. The program will feature students and teachers of the Language and Music School, founded in 1994 by Argentinian Maria Fermi, who serves as director of the school.

Those of us who wish to live to celebrate our 100th birthday and be in good health to enjoy the party, take a tip from Frank Sisulak of Riverside who celebrated his first century July 26. Sisulak, who has lived in Riverside since 1947, owes his good health to a lifetime of physical and mental activity.

For many years, summer block parties have been in Riverside to introduce residents to newcomers and to renew friendships. They are most beloved by the children who delight in a chance to ride their bikes and play in the forbidden streets, closed to traffic during the block party.

Who remembers the days when the local boy married the girl next door and the families trotted off to the local church with household gifts, such as a sterling silver tea service or the newest thing in toasters? Today’s wedding invitation often includes directions to some faraway island, or perhaps to a mountain top in Tibet where the bride and groom pledge their sometimes creative vows.

Build it and they will come.

Whether it is the present day Arabian oasis of Dubai or Chicago’s Trump Tower, the newest ways of attracting interest and willingness to participate is to offer quality and service and to gamble on the future. Bright ideas ensure success.

East of the sun and west of the moon, there lies an island off the coast of Nicaragua known by few. It is named Little Corn Island. On Little Corn, population 750, is a small resort named “Casa Iguana,” or Iguana House. There, one will find no cars, no jet skis, no phones, no movie stars, no cocktail umbrellas and, to quote their brochure, “no worries.”

If, perchance, on a quiet evening in July, a stranger, hopefully a poet, would wander into the quiet village on the banks of the Des Plaines River, he might think of himself as a bard in an enchanted forest. There, under leafy green trees, he would find two small, round stone buildings, perhaps built for gnomes, fairies or other mystic creatures. The poet might describe them as Medieval cottages of stone, covered by a teardrop-shaped roof.

Paula Scrofano has returned to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in “Willie Wonka,” the summer offering for children staged in the beautiful theater usually reserved for plays by William Shakespeare.

When Ryan Morrison stood up in the Riverside Presbyterian Church to announce that the Department of Theatre at the College of DuPage was in need of male voices, he had at least one baritone who was eager to sign for an audition. That baritone was Dr. Jay Van Cura, who had reached middle age with a voice that few had heard outside medical circles. But “the stage was calling,” and Van Cura was answering.