Saturday, April 16, 2016

Polka Party

I don't particularly like polka music, to be fair, I'm not really that big on dance music.  My father loved it, an Irish guy who grew up in the working class suburbs of Philadelphia, he knew lots of people from central-Europe and he loved polkas and kielbasa and such stuff.  He used to listen to a Polka Party radio show after the late mass on Sunday mornings.   The smell of kielbasa scrambled eggs and ketchup  made me want to throw up - he'd make that while he listened, maybe that accounts for why I couldn't take polka music. To be fair, I can't say that I can take Irish dance music by the hour, either.

But time passed, I became a vegetarian when I was a teenager and maybe I eventually lost my revulsion for polka music.  And another Polka Party program came to prominence on the University of New Hampshire student radio station, it made its DJ, Gary Sredzienski, a god to Poles around the world.  I listen to it sometimes because it's not just about the music - which I find hard to take - it's about the spirit.  Once after listening to it a Polish guy from Chicago happened to come by, I asked him if he was familiar with it, he couldn't believe anyone couldn't be.  We agreed that four hundred years from now, on Saturday mornings Poles in the future would still be listening to Polka Party shows.  You can listen to it live here, I'm listening to it right now or on Saturday mornings 9-11 Eastern Time or, I think, archived.  I listen to it because it's fun, I like to think of people having harmless fun.

Update:  Gary Sredzienski has an international following and last I heard was constantly in demand,  something you aren't, never were and never will be.   

Well, I can imagine people demanding you go away, but nothing else. 

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