One time, quite some years ago, we were invited to a meeting of mostly telephone workers and their families. An official was announcing some promotions and our son-in-law, Ray Raczkowski, was one of them. He said, "You know, there are a lot of Polish jokes around, but Ray isn't one of them." He went on with some complimentary remarks and said that Ray was being transferred to the Elmira office.

Ray used to tell a story about his grandfather who came from Poland and lived with Ray's father, Stanley, and family for a while in northern Pennsylvania. Stanley had a Harley Davidson motor bike and later had a chance to get a secondhand sidecar. After they had attached the side car, Stanley said to his father, "Jump in, Dad, and we'll give her a trial."

The older man climbed in the sidecar and away they went up the dirt road. When they came back, there was a left turn just as they neared the home place. Stanley and the motor bike made the turn all right, but the sidecar continued on straight ahead through a ditch, up a steep bank, through a barbed wire fence, and came to rest up against a hay stack. Stanley went on down to the barn, whipped the bike around and hurried back up to where the accident happened, imagining all sorts of things about his father. When he got there, he leaned the bike against the bank and hurried over to where his father was.

The old man rolled his own cigarettes and that's what he was doing, leaning up against the sidecar with a sheepish grin on his face. When his son got near him, he said, "Pretty, damn good trek, Stanley."

Year later, when Ray was married and had five kids of his own, his second son, Ron, got a brand new Suzuki road bike that he rode in competition. Ray's mother, Stella, thought motorcycles were no good instruments of the Devil and didn't want her grandchildren to have anything to do with them. But she was truly loyal to anything Polish.

One day, at their cottage on Skanateles Lake, Ron had just come in on his new bike. He saw a car stop up on the street and his grandmother get out. He said to his father, "Here comes grandma. What shall I say?" Ray said, "I'll handle it." So, when his mother got near the cottage, Ray stepped around the corner and said, "Hey, Mom, come here and see Ronnie's new Polish bike!" She admired it for a bit, and then she said, "What a beautiful machine!"