I'm 100% pedigree Polish and also an ole' lady. I love both those Polish and ole' lady jokes but my mother hated them. (She came from the ole' country and was also an old lady!) Joe loves Polish jokes and took great pleasure telling my mother jokes and watching her face. Within a few minutes, after she would get over taking herself so seriously, she would laugh too because Joe was laughing. It was so funny to watch them interact when he had a good Polish joke to tell. She died two years ago and we miss her Polish ways plus she sure could cook good Polish food.
When we were newly married, at work Joe heard a Polish joke he couldn't hardly wait to get home to tell me. He said, "Do you know what a crying shame is? It's when a bus filled with Polish people goes over a cliff with two empty seats in it." Back then, newly married and a little sensitive to Polish jokes that I thought demeaned Poles, I replied, "And I suppose you would be happy if my mother and I were in those two seats?" He laughed until he had tears in his eyes and then I started to laugh with him. Every so often we remind ourselves of that story and have to laugh again. Polish jokes are all in good fun and so are Italian jokes and all other ethnic jokes. That's the way this Pole looks at it.
Barb