Is there anyone of Polish heritage in West Central Indiana?

I'm originally from Chicago and am of Polish heritage, but currently live near Attica in West Central Indiana, and was wondering if there is anyone else of Polish heritage in the area, specifically in the Attica/Covington/Lafayette/Veedersburg/Crawfordsville area in Indiana or around Danville, Illinois.

Surely I can't be the only one, but sometimes it seems that way. For example, when the topic of favorite foods or beer comes up, and no one has any idea what I'm talking about. Or worse, when they think that the pierogi and "kiełbasa" they do sell here in the supermarkets (on occasion) is anything even close to authentic! If they only knew!

So, how about it? Do I have any "neighbors" on PF?

My anecdote, while disapointing, might bring a smile to your face, because it might be familiar. One of my brothers lives in Terre Haute, Indiana. Several years ago, he and his wife (fiance at the time) went to his future in-law's house for Christmas Eve. They were students at Indiana State at the time. My brother shows up with several pounds of smoked and white kielbasa (I know it's not traditional Wigilia fair, but our family adjusted the tradition to fit our taste buds), two cases of beer (in case they ran out) a bottle of brandy, Krupnik, and vodka. He said he was nearly laughed out of the room. A few people picked at the smoked kielbasa, NO ONE touched the fresh stuff, and none of them took a drink.....at all. They thought he was crazy. That was close to 20 years ago. He has never spent Wigilia there since.

I'm sure there are Polish students at Purdue.

and faculty. same with Butler, IUPUI and IU. There may be some poles at Valpo U too.

No Poles at Valpo went I went there. Valpo is heavily Lutheran.

there are poles or descendants in that area though.. there just aren't any on the forums.

My Dad (who isn't Polish--my Mom was Polish and Slovak) grew up in Terre Haute (and I have a lot of family from his side still in that area). My wife and I just recently reconnected with an old friend from there, who now lives in Brazil, just east of T. H.

We took him and his kids to the Taste of Polonia a couple of weeks ago. They're not familiar with Polish food, so we shared a ton of kiełbasa, gołąbki, and several kinds of pierogi. They raved about it into the next day. (Our friend raved about the cute Polish girls even longer.)

They've already expressed an interest in returning next year, so we treated them to some kiełbasa and Alexandra's pierogi from our freezer last week. They were ecstatic.

We're going camping with them this weekend, and they requested that we bring some kiełbasa & sauerkraut. (I figure that'll be great with some Okocim around a campfire.) It's refreshing to see the flip side of your brother's experience, where, when you share a part of the culture, it's embraced.


I imagine so, but I try to stay away from campus: it's a mess the way it's laid out. And besides, these kids nowadays.... :-)


They're so hard to find, though, as there's not much Polish Pride on display around here.

polishcsi.org

Thanks! Cool link--I had no idea they even existed. I'm going to watch their event calender for sure.