Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
This Day in History: Bastille Day! In 1789 Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution.
Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Yesterday we studied Mathematics; today, lets take a look at Poetry.
One form of poetry is knows as Haiku.
Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
The other day, I mentioned that Wójcio Rysiu hiked the Appalachian Trail. Well, let me tell you about that …
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Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
One of the things that Babcia Krysia and I love to do is travel. My Parents and siblings (William — siblings means brothers and sisters) also enjoy traveling. In September 1977, my Sister Hanka was working for Laker Airlines; and had an opportunity to get free airplane tickets. Although we had school and job obligations, given the opportunity, Hanka, Oleńka, Elżunia, Babcia Krysia (who pretended to be my “sister,” so that she could qualify for a free ticket) and I packed our bags, and we went for the weekend to London, England. Marek and Rysio stayed with my Parents.
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Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Let me tell you about the first house that Babcia Krysia and I purchased.
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Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Let’s talk about some recent history — September 11, 2001. It started out a beautiful day in New York City. Wojcio Rysio had just completed hiking the Appalachian Trail, and was planning to go back to Washington, DC. Rysio was going to rent a truck to move his stuff to Washington; along the way to the U-Haul rental center, we stopped at a bank in Westfield to get a certified check that he needed. While on line to speak with a teller, I overheard one of the bank customers talking about a plane that crashed into the World Trade Center.
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Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Last night it was decided that you are to call me “Dziadziuś” — that it good. Dziadziuś is a diminutive form of dziadek (pronounced gah-Dek, with the “dz” sounding like the “g” in “genes”), which translates into English as grandfather. William — note that the “dz” sound in Polish is always like the “g” in “genes”; or “j” (like in “jar”); and “ś” sounds like the “s” in “she.”
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Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Let me tell you about our trip to Warszawa in Poland.
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Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Let me tell you about how I came to the United States — I was born in Argentina, on January 9, 1949. In the 1950s, I lived with my Parents, my Brother Tom, and three Sisters, Olenka, Hanka & Elzunia, in a rented house in Ramos Mejia, a suburb of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, South America.
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Dear William (and Daniel, Catherine, Michael & Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Discussing this Blog with Malgosia and Babcia Krysia, I was urged to write a bit about my life — so, her it goes:
The year was 1969, and I was a Sophomore in college (at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York). In college, I joined ROTC (US Army Reserve Officers Training Corps). The previous year, I pledged and was accepted into the Carolyn Guard Military Service Society.
Our sister service society was the Boosters, who had their meeting room right next to our meeting room on the third floor of the Annex Building.
Between classes, we would all hang out together — one of the Boosters was Joan.
Joan was a year older than me (she was a Junior), and she was a Psychology major (at that time, I was an Economics major — later I switched to Finance). Joan had a boyfriend, Arthur, also a Psychology major. One day, I heard that Joan and Arthur were going to spend the weekend, cooking in the nude (relax, these were the 1960’s — lots of interesting things went on at that time).
Since I was interested in Joan, I got jealous, and I called her up by telephone, and presented a well-crafted argument as to why she should not spend the weekend with Arthur, and instead, she should start hanging out with me — it worked (poor Arthur; I do not think that he ever forgave me).
During the course of our relationship, we decided to go to Europe that Summer. We bought Eurail Train Passes, which allowed for unlimited train rides all over Europe; and we purchased airplane tickets from Kennedy Airport to London, England on Caledonia Airways (a charter flight operation).
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