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Do Poles drink before noon? [95]
You really don’t know a bloody thing about American Polonia, even though I have tried to explain it so łopatologically as possible so even a moron could grasp it.
Think of a retired couple in Buffalo, Greenpoint, Cleveland or Chicago. He may have worked in a steel mill or car factory, she may have been a housewife. The house is finally paid for; the five kids have been off on their own for some time. A few bucks (dollars) have been set aside for the one big trip abroad. Of course, some may choose the Caribbean, Britain, France or other such stereotypical tourist haunts, but our discussion focuses on a couple that
has decided to visit their ancestral homeland. Since more likely than not they are US-born, it's actually a visit to the country of their parents or grandparents. All they may know is some family stories and a few faded snapshots. To expect a royal reception, they would have had to have touched base with their long-lost relatives ahead of their trip by corresponding. They may speak only halting Polish or nothing at all. They sign up with a PolAm tour group which gives takes them on a guided coach tour of Poland’s major tourist destinations but also provides free time to make contact with families in Poland. The old Polonia from which our hypothetical couple was descended was entirely rural and hailed from tiny villages in the three partitions, so they will invariably want to visit the old family homestead and family graves. Maybe see the church their great-grandparents were married in. Their Polish relatives will probably butcher a pig, maybe whitewash the fence and tidy up the farmyard. At any rate, typically it's a big deal for both sides. These are not the kind of snooty, urbane self-styled sophisticates with whom you probably hobnob but simple, common, salt-of-the-earth folks, hospitable to a fault. Maybe that's why you have such a hard time understanding. This thread was not about morning drinking but about ancestral kinship, family ties and Old World hospitality. As a language professor you should known that śniadanie in Polish is a broad and capacious term meaning everything from breakfast to brunch and lunch. If the meet-up had taken place at noon or 1 p.m., would you have also gone on your morning inebriation rant?