Poland 1985 #3of4

(Except Gdansk, Kraków, Oswiecim, Poznan, Szczecin, Warsaw, Wieliczka, Wroclaw.)

After a few days of seeing people so depressed and oppressed, Emmy says she wishes we had not come to Poland. All the bumps on the road, the crowds, and the lines, lines, lines everywhere — so depressing for us and we aren’t even in those lines. By hindsight, neither of us would have missed our visit to Poland for anything. The people we met were of even more interest and more importance, than the sights we saw.

We see houses that are partly built, with people occupying the completed portion. The road here is better, most of the time, than it was yesterday, but we must be careful that we don’t suddenly find a bad place. A difficult drive.

In Poland we see many horses and wagons in the fields. Some fields are being farmed like I farmed during the late 1930s and early 1940s in Pennsylvania. I remember all about the horse-drawn binder we see in the wheat fields, and I remember stacking sheaves in a “shock” for drying, then hauling the wheat to the barn for the thrashing machine, just like we see the people, mostly women, doing in Poland today. Emmy has expressed her concern for these hard working women, but has yet to express that sentiment concerning my childhood labors.

The truck exhaust smell is terrible. Don’t know if it's because of bad fuel, or bad engine adjustment. In some fields we see small patches of what we think is tobacco, maybe just enough for private use. We are now on a brand new road between Kraków and Warsaw, they have not yet painted the lines, but we can only go 40 mph as it's not level and smooth.

Along 35 to 40 miles of highway south of Warsaw there were roadside fruit stands, each with very little, bad quality produce. At one place we bought a few pears, apples, and some plums. I paid the lady more than she asked, then gave the little boy some coins also. We drove through a town named Widow, and then on a four lane divided highway to Warsaw.

We don’t want any problem getting gasoline during the weekend, so we stopped and had to wait a few minutes, because of the crowd. We now have enough gas to drive around Warsaw, and get to the border of Poland and East Germany, but we still have some gasoline coupons we will use before we leave the country.