Thanks for the Memories Poland

This past April, while still mostly confined to a wheelchair, I finally took a vacation. The first in my 55 years. My wife planned a 10 day flash through Berlin and then through Poland by train to our true destination - Gdansk. From there we would set out and explore. My wife is fascinated by the Polish language and had spent a year learning all she could. (She is still studying to this day.) What a blessing that turned out to be!

While in the U.S. Navy in the early 1980s I had visited Scotland, Israel, and Thailand. Later jobs sent me to Canada and Mexico. Neither for much more time than the work required. This was different. On this trip I had the time to meet people and talk. Nothing about world events so much as daily life. In doing so I found something I never expected.

I found HOME.

I'm back at my house in Mobile, Alabama now. Right on the Gulf Coast. Chances are that I'll never again set foot in Poland. Yet I will never truly be at *home* again unless I do. Never have I met people with such depth, such soul, and such a taste for Freedom. Oh God, I do miss Poland!

Well, if I can't be there, perhaps I can read of Poland here. Thanks for allowing me to join in.

M.T. "Bull" Jones (KK4AXX)
Mobile, AL USA

Welcome home, Bull!

Your wife is a lucky woman to be married to someone who appreciates her keen interest in languages. Many husbands wouldn't. For that matter, I'm also one of 'em! My wife's an "amateur" linguist, though more in the direction of German, Hebrew, Spanish, and Italian.

Best of luck....POWODZENIA:-)

Thank you. Beth is quite a marvelous woman. She turned what would have been a great trip into something of mythical proportions. The Polish people are, in my opinion, the finest people on the planet. I miss them. Not a day passes that we don't talk of our experiences there and bemoan our inability to return. No kidding, if possible we would ex-pat to Poland tomorrow. What a nation!

Recall the "All in the Family" episode when Meathead's Uncle Cas (Kazimir) comes to visit and promptly instructs Archie on Polish families: "Now watch this, will ya? (Fingers clenched firmly together as one). This is my family. Now, you try and pull my family apart, huh?!"

The Poles have a wonderful old saying, proudly displayed usually near the crucifix in the living room of every traditional Polish home: GOSC W DOMU, PAN BOG W DOMU!" (A Guest in the house, the Lord God in the house). Pretty much sums up the guileless Polish character and its feelings about the central core of hospitality to a T.

Sorry for the lack of the appropriate diacritical marks aboveLOL

Yes! That's exactly how the people made us feel. We were a group of five, (me, Beth, and our youngest three children), that became six when our eldest son met us in Gdansk. He is spending a year in Poland. (I half expect a Polish daughter-in-law before he comes back to the States.)