BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture Welcome to the forum, please tell us something about you!

Im a 53 year old Vietnam veteran ( never had veterans day off ) who married a polish woman who came here in 1979. She was 19 i was 27 ( hey! whats wrong with marrying a younger woman ? ) Two kids 18 and 20. I'm a manufacturing inspector and my wife is a accountant ( An account without one day of college ). Were from Albany NY. Right now its colder than hell here. I'm a third generation Pole on my mothers side. A fourth generation Pole on my fathers side. I have no idea where my name "Mason General came form. Off the top of my head i guess.

Jaga -

Belarussian and Ukrainian are even more phonetically written than Russian.

With English, the problem is that we are still using 500 year old German spelling rules, and yet the pronunciation of the language has become more Romance-related over time. This is why we have confusing things, such as the "-ough" ending (many different pronunciations), the silent "K" on "knee" and "knight", and we say "lite" for "light", and so on. It's horrible!

Hussar,

It seems we come from the same location. I am a second generation Pole who also come from New Britain, CT. Born and raised there.

I was a member of Sacred Heart church and attended the catholic school there. We were taught two languages, Polish and English. Also two religions, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Back then there was New Britain High School only. It was down in the south end of town and currently is a elderly living home of some sorts.

Every so often I drive down there to stock up on some good Polish food. We come back with bread from the Waterbury Bakery and Kielbasa from Martin Rossol on Grove St.

On Saturdays when we were growing up, we would go to the Roxy theater on Broad St. with a quarter in our pockets. This would get us in the theater and I still had enough left over for a bag of popcorn and a eskimo pie.

Across the street from the theater used to be a store front that had chickens. You'd walk in and view the many live chickens in cages along the wall. When you selected one the owner would dispatch the bird, gut it and clean it on the spot and you went home with some of the freshest chicken you can find.

At the botton of Broad Street used to be a grocery store that had a large fish tank on a back bench. This was loaded with live eels and it was a source of fascination for us to watch.

Well, enough reminiscing for now. Its about 10 below zero here right now and its time for a hot cup of coffee.

Skeeter, where do you live in CT? I live in Meriden, but went to to elementary school in New Britain... Holy Cross to be exact. Brooklyn bread from Waterbur y? (mmmmmm makes my mouth water) Rosol has good food as well as other places in New Britain now. Never heard of the Roxy theater. Interesting stuff though on Broad St. Now they're renovating it.

Mason,

thanks for telling us something about you. You are not the only Vietnam veteran, John (Skeeterj) is another one.

I am glad you married happily a Polish woman, maybe you could add something to our articles about Polish family and Dating?

check from the sitemap:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art939.asp#FAMILY

Hello everyone! I am researching my family's history. My grandfather on my dad's side immigrated from Poland, and both my grandmother's parents, from my dad's side. I am in the US military stationed in Germany and am trying to get as much on location research completed as I can before I have to move on to another assignment. I look forward to participating in this forum and to learn new things from all of you, thank you.

Masongeneral,

Welcome VietNam Veteran. This here is the best board on the internet now. Just for your info I spent 10 years in the US Marine Corps. We operated out of the
'I Corps' area in Viet Nam.

What branch of the service were you in?

Nothing wrong with marrying a younger woman. My wife was 21 and I was 27 when we got married. She comes from an old blood line here in New Hampshire. I provided great genetic stock from my ancient Polish blood line. It rejuvenates theirs and ours.

Talk about cold - - this morning at 7:AM it was 15 below zero f (-26.1C). We are expecting a snow storm to begin this afternoon into tomorrow.

Predictions are 12 to 20 inches.

Hussar,

I live in central New Hampshire. We have been here since 1970. My wife is a Colebrook, NH girl and that is up on the Canadian border.

The theater I refered to was on the corner of Broad and Washington streets. Right next to the Falcons club. I don't know if it still there.

I was baptized at Holy Cross church. Back then there wasn't any school associated with the church.


JSokolowski,

Welcome to the forum. Hope you can find what you are looking for.

Hey skeet) i was a draftee and spent two years in the Army and about eleven months in Nam. Nothing spectacular, but was happy to get out. 10 below this morning and were expecting 10 to 13 inches of the white stuff today. Love New Hamp., been there many times. Love the Northeast, but i have to admit the winters are too long. Great hearing from you Skeet

Hey skeet) i was a draftee and spent two years in the Army and about eleven months in Nam. Nothing spectacular, but was happy to get out. 10 below this morning and were expecting 10 to 13 inches of the white stuff today. Love New Hamp., been there many times. Love the Northeast, but i have to admit the winters are too long. Great hearing from you Skeet. Went to public grade school, but we went to something called Polish school after school hours. We were supposed to learn Polish, but all we got was religion. Taught basically by uneducated nuns and learned mostly nothin. We drove them crazy and they drove us crazy. Mostly a waste of time. But it was something to remember.

I'm not sure if it's still there, but next time I am in New Britain I'll check for you. If it's the area I am thinking of, I think there's a delicatessen there now. At some point, there was one HCS church, but it was taken down to make a bigger one. The old one is a parking lot for the bigger church now. The New Church is on the corner of Farmington Ave. and Biruita St. The school might close though. Lower and lower enrollment. It's been cold down here too and we're expecting at least a foot of snow today.