What a Small World – Parts 2 and 3

Part 2: In August of last year I was staying at the Radisson SAS in Krakow. One morning while leaving breakfast I saw 4 high school aged men speaking English. Since my mother tongue is a minority here I stopped to ask if they were from New York. One replied “yes”. So I said “Long Island?” and he replied “Mineola”. So I said Chaminade High School?” and they all said “yes”. It seems that my Alma Mata had their yearly trip through Europe and they just happened to be staying at my hotel. All 142 of them from Chaminade and Bishop Kellenberg high schools. They were on their way to the World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany and were staying in Krakow for 3 nights. I told them that I had graduated in 1978 and they were astounded to be hearing that so many miles away from Long Island. We parted company and I went off to work. When I returned that evening more of them were milling about so I went looking for Father James Williams, S.M., the president of Chaminade. It seems that he was aware of my encounter earlier that morning and was interested in meeting me. He invited me to dinner but I declined for a previous engagement. (I regret not rearranging my schedule.) After speaking w/ Father James I took the elevator up to my floor where I ran into Father Keenan, who was at Chaminade when I was. After some talking I went to my room to call my sister Bettianne to tell her the story. I also spoke to her husband Peter Carioscia, Jr. This is where it gets better. He told me that he had spent one week that summer w/ a Chaminade student who was on the trip. So I went back down to find Andrew L. and learned that he was in his room. I then called him to introduce myself. He must have thought I was a stalker or something as he was tongue-tied. After a minute of conversation we hung up and went our separate ways. Once again, if this doesn’t prove that the world is getting smaller………

Part 3: In March I was sitting in the Rynek Glowny (the main market square) writing post cards. It was a bright, sunny day and many people were out and about. I noticed one person looking for a place to sit down and realized that he had been at Mass w/ me earlier that day. I offered him the seat next to me and moved to make some room. I told him that I recognized him from church and we started talking. He introduced himself as Charles Ranado working for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He was working in Warsaw for 2 weeks and came to Krakow for the weekend. We exchanged stories for a bit then I told him why I was here. He smiled as I said International Paper so I knew something was up. He went on to tell me that he had worked four summers in the Hudson River Mill in Corinth, New York. He also had a grandfather who was a member of the papermakers' union and another who was in management at the mill. We talked a while longer about the papermaking industry and then we parted ways. Yet one more small world story.













(The Cloth Hall in the Rynek Glowny.)

















(The old City Hall tower in the Rynek Glowny.)