MARY VISITS POLAND

one day in our school we were studying about Poland so I brought posters in a peasant costume I got from my grandmother when I went there then miss Wilson asked me to tell the class about my visit well I began when I was six years old I went and visited my grandmother on a Polish bomb that was in 1939 just before the war started in Europe my father wanted to visit his mother and relatives whom he had not seen for a very long time besides he thought it would be a nice vacation for me too I remember my grandmother my uncle Thomas and his horse and wagon and the old village in which they lived their home was made of wood the roof is batch with straw behind it was a pond where the Ducks used to swim when they walk they wobble from side to side this is also where the children play but it's not a safe place because they might get in the way of my uncle's Hoss shevach he walked round and round all day long it's rush week for their daily bread grandfather guarded she thick he wore a hat to protect his head from the Sun it didn't stay on his head much though everybody works hard to raise enough food to eat you see polish peasants do not buy food from the stores away we do everything they eat comes from their own phones the women dig potatoes while men do hard at yours but they also have fun after a week of hard work comes sunday on sundays even my smallest cousins dressed up to look their very best they took special care to curl their hair very much as we do though of course their styles run a whole different then they go to church the children walk separately from the grown-ups only the six stay at home nobody has an automobile they walk riding horse drawn wagons some ride their bicycles the wagons are parked near the church were horses Monta while they wait in my grandmother's village women and girls were the same costume my aunt told me these are called nova costumes because they are worn only in nova CH province they are very heavy and hot since they are made up of at least three woollen skirts one Sunday there was a wedding at the church the bride and groom had to push through the crowd bride wore the law which costume with a veil over it after would there was a dance in the open air the dance was called the crew yo yo we short time is a little boy he listen to this music and when he became a great composer he wrote many beautiful Tunes based on polish folk songs next day children went to school in school the little ones dance in a circle sing songs and crop the hand then they sit down at the table draw and learn to write the alphabet some of the girls were ashore it is strange to see them play the same games we do not all of them have shoes but that does not stop them from running fast and having fun peasant families cannot always afford to buy shoes for growing children after a few weeks we love my grandmother's village to visit Krakow near the children made school trips too old to start building the museum's we do that here in America to numbers on that stand to their school Krakow was the capital of Poland in the old days of King here stands the cathedral where the trumpeter of Krakow was shot by a Tartar arrow while he was blowing his trumpet call the Vistula River runs right through the center of the city the peasants of Krakow are the dance they call the cracovia these costumes are very colorful the boys were peacock feathers in their half and the girls have Gary ribbons and beans the most exciting part of our visit was the trip to the top three mountains there in the southernmost part of Poland on the border of Czechoslovakia we rode over the mountains in a cable car we could look far down into the valleys it was just like riding in an aeroplane the Polish people say that to them these are the most beautiful mountains in the world this is where the girls live go dao means Martin ear and pose the Goo Dolls villages are in the valleys between the mountains they have farms in the mountains there they grow potatoes weed and other food but the girls are Shepherds small children tend the Sheep in the meadows their clothes made of sheets for the beautiful design on the trousers are embroidered by hand grown-up men wear the same costumes around the ad is a band of seashells that is because as the girl say they originally came from the seagulls their belts are made by hand out of leather with heavy metal buckles at home the women weave cloth they even make their own shawls and blankets they paint pictures on their dishes and called beautiful designs in their spoons and furniture even the paintings of the saints are made at home these things are so beautiful that a special school has opened so that young people from all the cities in Poland could learn the Guru on you well the boys learn wood carving the girls necklaces one of the favorite designs is a mountain flower then I'm sund'ys the girls relax to the music of the bag pipe and fiddle young folks done in London the boys fight for a girl the boy who loses his hat is out that's the way I remember Poland the gay dance is the beautiful costume the oldest rock buildings and the hard work in the fields our last stop in Poland was gdynia gdynia is a new city port on the Baltic Sea it is clean and modern and reminded me of America then came our ship flying the American flag and then goodbye to Poland as we left for home we did not expect at that time that war would come to Poland so soon