Travel / Poland - never again [593]

The day my daughter married him, he became my son-in-law. After the ceremony, I said: John, I am Rich. Do not call me anything else. OK, Rich. This was the end of that. From this point on, not a single awkward moment.

My wife and her parents came from Poland. My relationship with her father never evolved to friendly or relaxed. Maybe the age difference of 25 years was too much for us to become friends. Him being a stubborn Polak always talking about Yalta and looking for disagreements didn't help any. But the real poison was our Polish background clashing with the American reality. There was no way I would call him father or anything like that. To me he was "you". I watched my wife stuggle with that awful Polish third-person verbal tumor, niech mamusia, to have any of this Polish crap forced on me.

I met him in 1970. In 1982, he died from cancer. During those twelve years, he would always call me by my first name while I would not call him anything. Only a complete moron from Poland wouldn't recognize this disparity and the fact that the situation was so damn stiff it was stifling . During this entire period, it never occured to him to take me out of my misery of not being sure what to call him.

This was when I resolved to dump everything Polish, from my old pictures and books to the awkwardness of prosze pana injected into everyday conversations. My respect for those who deserve it was going to be expressed by my deeds, not some third-person convoluted verbosity. What to call you - by your first name or a "you" - would be entirely up to me.

Life / Why are Polish people so obsessed with race? [160]


If you want to be nasty, at least use proper English. Please.

I know you can do it if you concentrate. What you just wrote is beneath you and takes away from your image and the standing here.

BTW, I know that "ignorant" and "stupid" are not the same, but in this case they seem redundunt. Or was it your intention to use both terms?

Just trying to be helpful.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Here is the phone number to the local FBI field office: 312-421-6700.

They are very nice guys. I talked to them. So give it a try.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Is always being nasty in the Polish blood? Or is it the water?

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


Did you ever own a full-auto machine gun?

If you ask nicely, I will be happy to teach you how to organize your thoughts before you make them public.

After that, I would show you how to write like an adult. Playing a scattered school girl can get you only so far.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


As long as the mods don't object..

I love driving and totally hate flying. I must be the only 70-something idiot who would drive to Montana, Las Vegas, and Key West. I am getting ready to hit the road again.

My LS is getting old - looks and equipment. The new ones - 2007 through 2012 - are full of problems and they are too close to ES. Only the L version stands out. My good fortune is that the 2006 models last forever so I don't have any immediate need to dump it.

I agree totally about Lexus cars being plain. To make matters worse, SC430 is a "chick" car just like Solara. That is why I got me Mustang rims and the tires as wide as I could fit. Lookswise, BM's are much better.

Back to my trips to Poland...

On the way out in 1966, the moment when the train I was on crossed the border going west is still fresh. That was like a prisoner leaving his cell just to find himself in another room with guards. Still in prison but on the way out. The moment of true liberation would come a couple of hours later.

It is hard to describe that feeling when, finally, I was in West Germany. Needless to say I didn't fall asleep for even a second.

Fifty two years later, after landing at Tegel, I was on a train going east. The guns and the dogs were all gone. And so was my opportunity to proudly show my American passport at the Polish border. Nobody asked. The train didn't even stop. Just slowed down a bit going over the bridge.

My feelings at that moment were exactly opposite to those in '66 - a sense of relief that I was out of Germany and back in Poland.

Before that train arrived in Warsaw at 4 pm, I went to the restaurant car and had schabowy with beer. It tasted like never before.

Life / Why are Polish people so obsessed with race? [160]

Why Poland can't keep Germans out and away is obvious.

Why Poland would let any Asians in is not.

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]

Because the trainer would be just like the trainee.


Aren't you glad you left?

I know you are. That was a rhetorical question.

Your enemies here are just plain envious. New Zealand is like a little paradise and they know it. A quote:

What they probably don't know is that thanks to incredible natural beauty, a humble, understated style, and few cultural and linguistic barriers for English speakers to hurdle, the island nation of 4.5 million people has become a huge draw for tourists over the past decade.

And lately, it's more than tourists: the billionaires are moving in too. West Coast titans like Internet investor and Gawker slayer Peter Thiel and Titanic director James Cameron have recently bought spreads on the island. Cameron, who directed and starred in a New Zealand tourism video in 2016, owns a 3,700-square-foot organic farm in Wairarapa, two hours east of the capital city of Wellington. Thiel, who is reportedly a newly minted Kiwi citizen, has built a stunning glass box of a house (with a tree growing out of its center) in the Bay of Islands perched above the Pacific Ocean, along with another in Wanaka on the South Island.

So, there, haters. Eat s***.

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


Would you kindly explain to me under what logic would a released prisoner want to stay in prison and try to improve it?

You are wrong about not lifting a finger. I did lift a finger on that train after I lost sight of my parents. It was my middle fingers. Both of them. My final good bye to the prison called Poland and all those suckers who were not smart enough to find a way out of it.


Your reading comprehension is scary. What mental disorder is yours. Is it ADHD or PTSD?

Just curious. As a child, did you climbed trees?

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


I am never sad.

I changed my mind after the US changed Poland.

If your head didn't explode yet: yeah, it was the US that broke up the USSR and brought freedom to the slave nations of Eastern Europe. Poland included.

And, hold on to you head, I helped. I paid taxes to fund the US Army and the arms race that the Soviets eventually lost.

So, while I was paying for your future freedom, the Poles were happily collaborating with the Soviet oppressors for the little crumbs like trips to Bulgaria or sklepy za zoltymi firankami.

Now say thank you and go to your room.

Work / Native English speaker looking to teach English in the Opole area of Poland. [29]


A result of the years of extortions by the public unions and their co-conspirators in Springfield. Where is RICO when we need it? This country, with the nazi's running the colleges and the universities remainds more and more of the commie system I left 50 years ago where special people were getting special perks.

But I digress. Sorry.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]

As they say, you can't go back once you try black. Lexus is in the same category. With their great reliability and so totally awesome dealers, you would get literally addicted to the brand.

I never once was without a loaner car. They wash my cars for free while I am having coffee in the morning - plus those damn nutty bars I should not eat.

The fact that I am next to the biggest Lexus dealer on the globe, Lexus of Arlington Heights, with miniature golf, exercize machines, and a playroom for kids does not hurt either. I was told that it took 150 million bucks to build that place.

Work / Native English speaker looking to teach English in the Opole area of Poland. [29]


I was shocked when I saw what the high school teachers make in District 211 in Palatine. The average is $125,000. This information, btw, is available on line as a pdf file.

And all that for less than 10 months of work with no creativity and no risk of being fired.

BTW, I can't stand British English. After all these years, I am still having problems understanding British movies.

To my great relief, some Americans feel the same way.

Dirk diggler's reply: (mistakenly merged)


Yup. Suburban public schools pay quite well. It's common for a newbie teacher to teach in a Chicago Public School where they constantly deal with unruly kids that don't want to be there and oftentimes the court is forcing them to attend, shootings right outside of school and just a ton of B.S in general. From what I know from a girl who I went to grade school with and became a teacher, they pay around $55k in Chicago starting for a teacher. It may have gone up since then because this was like 4-5 years ago and they've had a ton of strikes since then. But when their 5 years is up, they go teach in the north shore where they make six figures, don't have to deal with ghetto ass kids, shootings and teach people who actually want to go to college and become something in life.

The admins, deans, principals, etc make even more. An admin can easily bring home 150-250k. Deans, superintendents, etc same thing. For some reason, UIC pays especially high salaries for its top admin staff. And I'm not talking about 200k, no they're bringing home 300k, 400k some people even close to 500k a year.

Not to mention the ridiculously fat pension they get when they retire.

I still couldn't believe that even though teachers are making six figures, they still walk out of the classroom and refuse to teach kids till they get more money. That's pathetic...

Travel / Poland - never again [593]

Girls and women dressed badly would never make my list of the reasons why I don't want to visit Poland again. Still, it caught my attention and not in a good way.

I am talking about those idiotic jeans faking to have been worn out on the owner rather than in a Chinese jeans factory.

Why would so many beautiful women spend money to look like they are poor or sluts is beyond me. I would never wear a suit with holes. That's what the homeless or the bums do out of necessity.

So I asked a clerk where such jeans are sold why. Predictably, I was told that girls want to be like their friends, a "logic" as circular as they ever come.

So here is my position: girls, your jeans with those two holes on your knees tell everybody that you engage in the activity the me-too movement is so much against.

How else would you get those two holes? Gardening?

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


I don't recall it. I do remember getting on a train at Warszawa Gdanska, waving goodbye to my parents and swearing to never be back again. Just like some here do when released from prison.

I am surprised that you recall the facts of my departure differently. Did we ever meet? If we did, my memory is failing me.

Life / Why are Polish people so obsessed with race? [160]

I avoid analogies but this one works for me.

I have an absolute right to control who is allowed in at my place. I can discriminate all day long as I alone see fit. I am not obligated to explain why. Nobody can sue me because I discriminate. I enforce the rule without mercy. An intruder will be shot. Nations are morally entitled to the same. Like Israel.

Immigration is the greatest gift that can be given to an outsider. Yet, the current crop feels entitled and has nothing but demands. Like the Somali garbage demanding special places where they wash their smelly feet in Minneapolis. The arrogance of the Latino hordes crossing the US borders has no limits.

Poland should do all it can to make any and all immigration impossible. But what about Poles emigrating to the West? It's the other guys' problem. Deal with it.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Just one comment. My fetish is wide tires. I found out that the rims from 2005 Mustang Cobra fit my SC430 (bolt pattern and offset). So I bought a set - 18x9 fronts and 18x10 rears. So, now I have 285 tires as rear. My next set will be 295 DWS06.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


It's an SC. That V8 sound is what keeps me away from the Infinity's sixes with that high pitch. I will have real problem when the time comes to replace my SC or my wife's LS430. By then, all the cars will be running on 2.0T's four-bangers. Yikes.

I really like both 650i and SL550. I am often on cars.com looking at the 650i. I could afford used. It's the upkeep that keeps me away.

On an unrelated subject of attaching pics. What are the rules as far as size in pixels? For the farters like delph, I wouldn't mind posting pics of the objects like cars as they don't need high resolution to prove that I own one. Hey, delph, I bought mine used cheap ($21,000). For cash. You see, I am too poor to borrow.

Another question: what character defect motivates people to distrust others when ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is at stake? If I offered my alleged car as a collateral, I could be questioned. I got it. But here?

Travel / Poland - never again [593]

That's a relief. I thought I was getting senile.

Thanks.

I am bored and it's raining so here is another little story I probably would not be able to deliver from Poland.

Yesterday I was in Champaign, Illinois. At about 11, I left the campus and was on my way to my car two blocks away.

To my left, sitting on a store step, was an old guy with a cup in front of him. The cup had a couple of singles in it to reveal its current purpose. I don't donate cash as cash is often used to buy booze, so I passed him. What caught my attention was that he didn't say a word. For beggars it's rare.

That made me stop, turn around and see him look at me. I approached him and asked: Did you eat today?

Just like that. No "prosze pana, czy pan" or other ridiculous and redundant crap.

No. Do you want to eat? Sure. Where? McDonald's would be good. OK, let's go.

He got up and we crossed the street to go there. I opened the door and let him in.

At the counter I said: He will pick. I will pay. OK?

So he picked and I paid.
Thanks. No problem. Have a nice day. I walked out and was back on the way to my beautiful, silver convertible Lexus.

Life can be sweet for some of us. I am one of the fortunate.

Later, on the way home, I asked my daughter to remember to say at my funeral that I loved life.

If you read up to this point, how many perfect strangers did you treat to lunch lately?

BTW, that guy was black, if it matters to you.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


I have no clue what you are saying.

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


That's not good enough. Try doesn't count, so the answer is no. The Polish-Soviet collaborators didn't get prosecuted, tried, found guilty, and shot.

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


This sucks but I wouldn't be too harsh on the UK law enforcement. How would they get all the evidence?

Did West Germany prosecute STASI's to the fullest extent possible? Did Poland prosecute Polish collaborators with the Soviets? Did the US prosecute every single member of the SS and Gestapo?

Personally, I would execute all of them without a trial. Just for belonging, so please don't think I am turning soft at my old age.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


I am neither capable nor do I have such desire.

Don't tell them but PF can ban me in the next ten seconds to make you feel secure again.


Being born in Poland and being an American are not mutually exclusive. That's the whole beauty of "America" and that is why, with all the options available to me once out of Poland, I, without any hesitation, chose the US.

As soon as I got my naturalization certificate, in combination with how I felt, I was an American: legally, mentally, and every other way possible.

For a while following my arrival here, I was concerned that I might be approached to spy against the US for Poland, one reason being that my first employer, Stewart Warner, had a military department. No, I was not there but it was in the same building. Some would agonize over the decision what to do after such a phone call.

I suffered no so such pain. Exactly in less than a minute I would be talking to the FBI asking for instructions. That minute I would need to find their phone number.

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


Hey, my dear Polish super patriot, you can't have it both ways: brainwashed by the Soviets AND getting the f*** out of Poland to be as far away as humanly possible.

Your post is a goldmine. I will try to come back to it later and disect that roach. For now, it's exactly this kind of Polish super patriotic mental disorder - which turns logic and facts into undebatable blasphemy - that made me run from your kind.

See you later.

News / An article: NATO is the American occupation of Poland and Europe, by Mateusz Piskorski [233]


It's a neat trick to argue wars using teary stories.

No, I don't care what happens in Latvia or Poland because all the people I care about live where I do.

What I also care about is that the US is going broke playing the dumbest world cop ever. The US is doing it because the mf-rs who rule the country make big bucks off of that insane DOD budget and because the people we call useful idiots - the mindless low IQ patriots and the messiah complex victims - support said mf-rs to feel good. If only for a day or two.

I will never foget that stupid broad telling the UN how the Iraqi soldiers were throwing babies out of incubators. America burst into tears and the war was on.


Make it 2 hours. Or by email - instantly and without firing a shot. Like in Crimea.

Travel / Poland - never again [593]


Did ever have bowel movement? If you did you would know that it is more important than a tsunami in Asia - like the one in 2004 that killed 250,000.

As far as my post above, it's a story about Poland still being a third-world country in the most critical aspects of life. It would be true and relevant even if I had no desire to s*** in Poland during my entire two-week stay.

BTW, where would you, the brilliant one who never has bowel movements, go while standing on the platform at Gdansk-Oliwa? Run to the cathedral and pray?


Do you know what zakrystia is. That's a place where the priests are when they are doing nothing.

That zakrystia had a door. If you grab and move the handle sometimes a door will open. This specific one did so I walked in and asked: where is the singer?

I know that the complexity and the temerity of this is mind blowing to a Polak. How would anyone dare walk into the sanctum where mere mortals should not dare.

Easy. I am now an atheist and don't buy any of that holy this and holy that. I turned atheist when it dawn on me that all those so called miracles are one big fat lie for the gullible. That happened when I was 14. Do you know why miracles are lies? Because never in the history on mankind, an amputee got his own arm back. It's always something bacterial or neurological. Never ever a missing limb.

My friendly advice to you: ignore me. You will always lose.

News / An article: NATO is the American occupation of Poland and Europe, by Mateusz Piskorski [233]

OK. So, under what law are the Americans in Syria?

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


Did you ask your kids for permission before you took that picture?

Or is it you and your partner?


You just crossed the line. You are too logical.

Being really stupid and emotional is in the Polish culture and traditions. I could go on for hours about it but I don't want to deflect from your subjects.


So your generalizations are excused. Hers are not.

Did I get it right?

News / An article: NATO is the American occupation of Poland and Europe, by Mateusz Piskorski [233]


If it is true, it's the stupidest rule anyone could come up with. Under that rule, if a Latvian border patrol gets shot and killed by the Russians, the US has to send its army to Latvia and chase the bad Russians across the border and kill them.

Life / My Last Link To Poland Died - Why Leaving Poland Was My Best Decision [249]


That is the dumbest comparison I have seen here.

Like a zoo, Washington DC is an African jungle. Duh.

My apologies to jungles.


I really enjoyed reading your posts. Calm and very personal. It's a pity others turned your thread into a legal debate.

My situation was exactly opposite and similar at the same time. When I decided to leave in 1966, I didn't have a gf or a wife to join me. In fact, I deliberately avoided being committed emotionally. Leaving Poland alone in those days was tough enough.

When I came to Chicago, I decided that under no conditions would I marry a person who was not already in the US. Importing a wife always runs the risk that she would be marrying America not me.

Your posts show that you are 100 percent committed to your new life. I am proud of you because this is how all immigrats should be. I didn't come to the US to add to the "Polish community". Standing on two boats at once can be very painful. Many I met were neither here nor there, wondering and longing. I am here and wondering no more.

Good luck.