gonna get my polka on!

Once a year a section of Riverhead, NY, dubbed "Polka Town USA" has their annual Polish Town Fair. This huge street fair has been going on for years and it is the one time of year I get to indulge in some pierogies, polka dancing and buy something frivolous that I just cannot resist! (Okay, the frivolous purchasing might happen more than once a year.)

This year, I will even teach my goddaughter how to polka even though that probably means I will be one-two-three-hopping with her in my arms. It's all good!

As I may have mentioned in a previous blog, part of my heritage is Polish (I'm a true American mutt). My maternal great-grandparents were from Poland, and my grandmother spent part of her life living in Europe. My great-grandmother (the only great grandparent still living when I was born) spoke mainly Polish and my grandmother was bilingual. Unfortunately, as is true with most acculturated American families, the native language was not taught to the next generation. Sigh, perhaps one day I will learn more than the few words and the children's folk story I know. But at this street fair, you don't need to speak the language or be Polish to enjoy. And enjoy it I will! I will even bring along my camera to capture some of it to share.

And just remember, Polka Can't Die!

Miłego dnia, do jutra!

(Have a nice day, see you tomorrow!)

oh shitski!

Oh my goodness, this is just too brilliant not to share! I love people and humanity and all of the quirks that they possess. Someone in cyberworld found my blog by doing the following Google search:

Referring URL: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Shitski
Search Engine: google.com
Search Words: shitski polish definition
Which lead them to my post: vicarious living and polish reminiscing

That is fuckingski fantastic! I love people!

vicarious living and polish reminiscing

I added a new blog to my "daily reading" list to the right. "The Traveling Schell Show" is penned by an old friend from high school who is currently traveling in Europe and writing about his experience. He emailed yesterday to send me the link.

I love the fact that he sent the message from Poland, since my Polish grandmother talked of the home land and her time there. I can still recite a Polish folk tale about a chicken, tell you "Today I am sad", "thank you", "grandmother" and "eat" in Polish. The "eat" is from my great grandmother who told me "Jeść, jeść! Or the little bear is going to come and eat your food!" Thanks for the eating disorder and paranoia of bears, Babcia! ha ha ha...I jest. Oh, and for the record, "shitski" is not really Polish...it was just a way for great grandmother to curse in front of us and try to make us think it was just a Polish word. Man, come to think of it, great grandma had some colorful language! I think that is more foreign language retention then my four years of Spanish in school!

Anyway, take a gander at his writing and have a vicarious trip through Europe. Suddenly, I'm craving babka, pierogis and chrusciki.