Marcin Zmudzki--My Happy Childhood

I was born and raised in Warsaw.  I grew up in the city, but I spent many summers in the country.

My mother took this picture.  She had walked out of our summer cottage, looking for me.  She found me sitting on the bank of the Bugonarew River.

I watched the swirling water below me and looked at the line of trees on the opposite bank of the river.  I was wondering who lived across the river.  The other side of the river was a mystery for several years until, finally, I was old enough to borrow a boat from a villager and take it to the other side.  It turned out that there was nothing there except for more cows on pastures and some other people's summer cottages, but the expedition was exciting nevertheless.

Even though our summer cottage was built by Polish mountainmen (gorale), out of wood which they transported to central Poland from their Podhale region, we called our hut Ponderosa, probably after a ranch from the Bonanza movie series, which the Polish Television played at the time.

Those were the happiest times of my childhood.  In fact, I can say that I had a happy childhood in general.