typical words

I am writing a story in which an English born son is clearing out his POlish father's house after his death, when he finds a Polish dictionary with a few words underlined. These are words that the Polish father wanted to pass down to his (non-Polish speaking) son; Words that for him were uniquely Polish. Perhaps even clues to understanding the Polish people, I'm not sure.
(The deceased father was strong, stubborn, a resilient and somewhat reluctant refugee with sweet memories of a childhood in a mythological Poland.)
You can imagine my question! I speak only very basic Polish.. SO what might these words be? They could be anything really - I'm not fixed on any type of word. It could be anything from the word for a Polish invented type of engineering tool to the word for "dignity in suffering"..
If you have any ideas please send me them and include an English translation (or as close as possible) - I'd be really grateful.

Hi

Tough cuestion. speaking of engineering tools there is one which seems to be perfect: strug (plane - a tool used to smoother timber). Usually people use word hebel for that but it has German origin. That's why there was invented strug deriving from verb strugać, but it isn't really used so you need to love this language to know the story and the word (that would be a little bit anti-German though). Please give me some other directions like this, as you can see it would be much easier form me to find something.

Pozdrawiam.