Hello, thank you for your reply, sorry for the slow reply, I was away for awhile dealing with other matters
(and unfortunately I will again be away for the next few weeks dealing with some surgical issues).
My mother always thought Australia would have been better since the climate was definitely nicer
but obviously there were other problems for Poles in Australia.
However it still looks good to me, the employment situation is much better in "Oz" than here in Toronto
which is a place I am really learning to dislike intensely after spending my life here.
I think the reason that so many Polish war vets (1st and 2nd Corps) came to Toronto
was because it was closer than anywhere else (except Britain which also did not want us)
(and also "Ameryka" which also did not want us until at least 1949).
One advantage we had here was that although our community was quite marginalized
at least it was big enough that we could shelter inside of it so I got to grow up inside a "Little Poland"
and although I could not really understand my parents and their friends for a long time
I realize now in my old age how very special that really was.
Btw, when I was a child we all got sent to summer camp at "Kaszuby" (which was near Barry's Bay in Ontario)
and there we would meet some Polish children who got sent there all the way from Australia:-
it was odd hearing them speak their Australian-flavored English which contrasted quite a bit with our "Near-Midwestern" (ie like Chicago) English
but when everyone switched to Polish it all came out with the same Polish accents we acquired from our parents at birth
and our parents all came from the same places in Poland:-
it's so strange to meet someone visiting from faraway "Oz" whose parents grew up in a village close to our parents
and perhaps even next door.
I got the same experience at a "Kresy" reunion in Toronto several years ago.
At least here the police constables were often on our side too at least informally
since so many of them were also war-vets who had served with Polish soldiers in Italy and France
so that certainly helped a bit.
Thank you.
ps:- The weather here can be so unpleasant at times:- as in -25dC with a wind-chill of -40dC (and me in a dress at the bus-stop!):-brrr!!!.
Of course we certainly have more water than Australia does (and in certain seasons we also have a lot more mosquitoes and blackflies!)
and let's not talk about the snow (which needs endless shoveling from your sidewalk and driveway!).
