Sea of red and white greets Pulaski Day Parade revelers

Since 1956, there hasn't been a Pulaski Day Parade without Mieczyslaw Laba in attendance.

That didn't change today.

Laba sat in a lawn chair under the shade of a tree on Walden Avenue in Cheektowaga and watched as a sea of red and white - the colors of the Polish flag - passed in front of him for a little more than a half-hour.

"It's too short now," he said. "It used to be longer years ago."

Laba, 88, a Polish native who came to the United States in 1956, said more people used to attend when the parade celebrating local Polish heritage went down Broadway in Buffalo. He remembers the 1962 parade, when President John F. Kennedy served as an honorary grand marshal, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to the area.

He also said that it seems more of those attending parades in recent years aren't of Polish descent.

Event organizers estimate about half of the people attending the parade and Polish-American Arts Festival, held Thursday through Sunday in the Cheektowaga Town Park, are not Polish. Still, there are nearly 350,000 Americans of Polish descent in Western New York and about one-third of them attend the parade and festival, they said.

"I think people who even have one drop of Polish blood come here to enjoy the festival," said Jola Simon, the grand marshal of this year's parade. Simon, a Polish native who came to the United States when she was 14, has been the director of the General Pulaski Association of the Niagara Frontier for more than 30 years.

Mateusz Stasiek, vice consul in the Consulate General's Office for the Republic of Poland, arrived in the area about a month ago and took part in his first Pulaski Day Parade as one of eight honorary grand marshals.

"There are so many excellent, wise people here from Poland," he said.

The annual festivities are in honor of American Gen. Casimir Pulaski, a member of the Polish nobility who served with the Colonial forces during the Revolutionary War.

Gen. Pulaski is known as the father of the American cavalry, importing the European style of fighting on horseback to America. He funded the American war effort with $50,000 of his family's fortune, an amount that would equal $1.27 million today. Pulaski may have even saved the life of Gen. George Washington, as he covered Washington's rear flank during a retreat after the Battle of Brandywine.

The parade began at the Thruway Plaza about 1:30 p.m. and went down Walden Avenue to Harlem Road before finishing at the Cheektowaga Town Park shortly after 2:30 p.m. Although Walden Avenue had sparse amounts of people, thousands gathered on Harlem Road closer to the park. And as the parade ended, people picked up their lawn chairs and descended upon the festival, which offered music and dance performances as well as an array of Polish food.

Frank and Stella Barnashuk, of Lackawanna, used to march in the Pulaski Day Parade and were "Mr. & Mrs. Dyngus" at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Buffalo up until about six years ago.

"Now, we watch," said Stella, who was holding a Polish flag in one hand and an American flag in the other.

Frank and Stella, who each had parents born in Poland, have been attending the parade for about 25 years and have noticed more people of other backgrounds have joined people of Polish descent during the parade and festival over the years.

Stella Barnashuk said it shows the peace and unity among those in Western New York.

"We accept everybody," said her husband, embracing the motto that everyone is Polish on Pulaski Day.

Source: http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article960261.ece

orange juice photos doomsday clock nate robinson sharia law sharia law new hampshire primary results