Polonaise (1999)

Anthony Bukoski's collection, published by Southern Methodist University Press in 1999, gathers twelve stories of the Polish American East End of Superior, Wisconsin, a port where churches and businesses are closing. In "The World at War", Eddie Dabrowski, a watch repairman and Vietnam veteran, looks back on his father, Antek, who served five dangerous years as a merchant seaman in the Second World War, came home to ten-hour days at the flour mill, and looked for himself every week in Victory at Sea. (Open Library)

Watches

Elgin watch: In 1973 Antek's lungs force him to retire from Fredericka Flour, and in the photograph the company takes he holds his retirement present, a Lord Elgin wristwatch. Eddie, who has been through watch repair technician's school and spent years bent over other people's wristwatches, quotes the instruction card's promise of a Shock Resistant Guarantee and adds that it offers no protection against the shocks he brings his father by drinking, marrying the wrong women and losing job after job. The maker and its Lord Elgin line are named; no model or reference is.

Source text: In a photo the company takes, he holds a retirement present, a Lord Elgin wristwatch. Now finally he has time on his hands. The instruction card that comes with the watch reads, “You can be confident your new Lord Elgin will stand up under the stress of normal wear. It has a Shock Resistant Guarantee.” (Anthony Bukoski, Polonaise, scan cataloged as Southern Methodist University Press, 1999, p. 109, in "The World at War", which the contents page lists from p. 103; Eddie's watch repair training is on p. 108; Internet Archive scan OCR)