When we first moved here my kids had Casimer Pulaski Day off, WHO THE HECK IS CASIMER PULASKI? I asked my neighbors and I got a different answer from each one. "I think he was a civil war veteran?" or "Oh I think he was a WWI hero" and "I have no clue" So I finally looked him up and here's the story. Pulaski was a count in Poland who had just lost a war so headed to France and met up with Ben Franklin who said, "Hey we're having a war in America, come help us" So off Casimer came to help Washington with the horses, so he's known as the "Father of the American Calvary" He was killed in the war a couple of years later. So I was wondering why is this guy celebrated and I've never heard of him before? So here's the real scoop.
Chicago has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw and several years ago when Martin Luther King got a holiday, the Polish community wanted a holiday and they had some civil war hero but his birthday was around Columbus day and you just don't mess with the Italians in Chicago so their next best hero was Casimer and that is why only in the Chicago area do we celebrate Casimer Pulaski day even though they don't teach anything about him in school. I ask you have you ever heard of Casimer?
thought so...
So how do you celebrate Pulaski Day? I think we'll go eat at "Tommy's" They have the best polish dogs in town.
i love random holidays. Nova (where we went to school) had a ton of them. Comes with going to a private university i guess. It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you looked that up, I had no idea and that was super cool and I LOL at the Chicagan Italians LMBO
ReplyDeleteHey, we didn't get Pulaski day off! Shhaa!
ReplyDeleteI love that you looked it up, though, because people that have lived here their entire lives don't even know about him! How very type A of you.