Author Description

There comes a time in life when one begins to look backward instead of forward. When personal history rises uninvited to define itself not only in the presence of success or failure but in a multicolored display of life's passing parade. When precocious occurrences dictated by neighborhood influences become stalwarts of childhood antics and adolescent uncertainty. When corner candy store rituals begin to be rounded off by the corners of life because of ethnic family boundaries and Catholic school discipline. When the question of: "Whatta ya wanna do -- I don't know, whatta ya wanna do?" becomes what you are commanded to do in Uncle Sam's Army. This is followed by serving in a war torn Korea, then returning home to a much more appreciated America and a lost love. All this and the unscrabbling of My Wagging Tail in the first twenty-two years of life. Stan Bednarczyk is an 81 year old Depression baby who traded his army uniform ages ago for that of a Camden, New Jersey postal letter carrier. What was to be a temporary position turned into 32 years of serving mail in this dear city of his youth. He and his beloved wife of 56 years have been blessed with two loving daughters and three beautiful grandchildren. To this must be added the desire to record what it was like to grow up in a Polish American neighborhood of a city that at the time was one of the leading industrial forces in the nation.