History / Where Are Milicjanci (Polish Police during Communism) Now? [7]

Now Poland has a free market economy and a member of the EU, NATO and so-called democracy etc., the majority of the Polish population no longer walk in fear of being beaten up by the police.

In the 70s and 80s, the milicja gave me and my family heavy looks and followed me around, presumably because I used to have VERY long hair and looked alternative. More than once I nearly got my head kicked in by these protectors of the workers paradise. My reaction then was to keep walking (fast but not too fast) and keep smiling!

Being so confrontational was truly uncalled for!!
WHERE ARE THESE SCUM NOW? Many of them must still be alive breathing our air; they must have names and addresses, email addresses, mobile phone numbers...

Are they forgiven and forgotten? Not as far as I'm concerned.

Life / Tricks & Dodges (The Poles are nothing if not inventive) [26]

The Poles are nothing if not inventive.

When satellite TV first came on the scene about twenty years ago, it was someone in Poland who was the first to get satellite TV for free by using a metal dustbin lid. This was a couple of years before the channels were coded. This was mentioned in "The Daily Telegraph" at that time, but I don't have the details to hand.

Other tricks they use (and not used in other countries as far as I know), are:

- blocking your chimney with a hat, slit into a cross shape at the top. You then get a blocked chimney with the resulting smoke in the house. When the chimney sweep shoves his brush up, the hat opens up and all seems well to him. When he pulls his brush down, the hat closes again.

- using a large bicycle wheel (tyre removed) as a TV antenna, linking it up to your TV. You'll get a brilliant reception, but your neighbours' TVs will have an unwatchably poor one.

- putting a cracked egg in a wall when doing, say, tiling or plastering. After a couple of weeks your room will pong to high heaven for ages, and you won't know how to get rid of it.

Anybody got any more bright ideas?

Life / Before 1980 family in Poland was friendly towards immigrants; now they are not [11]

In the 1980s, all of my family in Poland - countless cousins, aunts etc etc, were very friendly towards us from the UK. After the fall of Communism, relationships changed with the new system. In those days, we always brought a carload of bananas, pineapples and other goodies to Poland for them every year; they begged for 'zaproszenie' to work unofficially in the UK, even jostling & pushing each other to be first. These days, a few are still friendly, most distant but casually friendly, and two or three positively hate my guts simply because I don't go to church anymore! This was highlighted last week at my cousin's funeral, where most were pleasant, but those hateful few sat as far away as possible at the 'stypa' and ignored us completely. If I still had something to offer them, such as in the way of easy money, things would definitely change once again. These days, some of them (who now have small businesses thanks to our zaproszenie) wouldn't PiiS on me if I was on fire on Christmas Day!! What's your family like? Better I hope.