Amish America

Inside an Amish Bulk Foods Store

Erik/Amish America — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:58:45 +0000

Tom shares some photos today from an Amish bulk foods store in the Jasper, New York Amish community.

Horses go here.

Tom observes: “It is interesting when I go to Kauffman’s there are more English folks than Amish shopping. Jasper is a rural area in Steuben County and most English and Amish folks live on little and have to make the most with what they have.”

Amish bulk foods stores repackage large lots of food and cooking ingredients into smaller portions.

Mason (or Ball) jars are a must-have when canning time comes around.

Tom shares: “Kauffman has rolled oats in 50 lb bags and breaks this all items down into smaller sizes. When I drive my Amish friends to Kauffman’s they will buy 400 lb of flour and 200 lb of white and brown sugar at a time.”

We’ve been discussing Amish heating lately. Here’s a little coal power.

Tom adds: “I have also liked the hand stamped Amish greeting cards. Many Amish girls and women will make very colorful cards. Some of the colors look over the top to me, but if you live a rather sober world color wish I guess this is a chance to enjoy color. I will try to get some pictures of cards together in the future, you and your readers may enjoy them.”

Keeping things cool.

Amish lighting in homes and stores can vary.

Checkout time! Non-electric registers and adding machines are common in more conservative Amish shops.

Do you know a good Amish bulk food store? Let us know in the comments!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like these:

Inside an Amish bookstore

Would you buy food from an Amish bent-n-dent?

To read this post in full, click the blue title link above. Question on the Amish? Try the Amish Online Encyclopedia. Or visit the Amish State Guide to learn more about Amish communities across North America.

My New Book: Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive © Amish America, 2012. |

Groundhog Day’s PA German connection

Erik/Amish America — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:17:16 +0000

Happy Groundhog Day. Punxsutawney Phil apparently saw his shadow this morning, so batten down the hatches for another 6 weeks of chilly weather.

This annual tradition has a couple of connections to the Penn. Dutch. First, there happens to be a sizable Amish settlement in Clearfield County in the vicinity of Punxsutawney, PA (1,000+ people). I don’t know of any groundhog-related customs associated with this settlement (but maybe there’s a Baked Amish Groundhog ‘n’ Butter Noodles recipe I haven’t heard about?) so I think that is basically geographical coincidence.

Groundhog Day does have an interesting back story connected with Pennsylvania German society though:

Groundhog Day has origins in 18th-century Pennsylvania German culture. The custom’s roots supposedly reach even further to Europe, where there was a tradition of making weather predictions based on animal behavior, that of the badger in particular. A later development was the Groundhog (Grundsow) Lodge…

Read more about Grundsow Lodges and groundhogs.

Photo credit: groundhog.org

My New Book: Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive © Amish America, 2012. |

Why I Left the Amish winner (and excerpt)

Erik/Amish America — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:06:48 +0000

Today we have a winner and excerpt of Saloma Miller Furlong’s memoir, Why I Left the Amish. Thanks to all who participated and a special thanks to Saloma for taking the time to respond to everyone’s comments. There were some very interesting discussions. If you missed the original interview you can read it here: Saloma Miller Furlong interview.

I’ve added in the extra Facebook share entries, and used random.org to generate the winning entry (if you left more than one comment, that is perfectly fine, but for contest purposes we just count the first one). The winner:

#35 Christine Slaughter

Congrats, Christine. Please send a physical address where you’d like your book sent to amishamerica@gmail.com, and Saloma will get that out to you.

We’ve also got a short excerpt from the book:

Why I Left the Amish – excerpt

I couldn’t sleep all night. I tried not to toss and turn or wake Sarah, who was sleeping in the same bed. I kept thinking about the little suitcase only a few feet away, behind the closet door. I played the scene in my mind over and over. I’d wait in my room, in my gray dress, coat, white scarf, and boots until Mr. Pell drove into the lane. Mem would certainly announce when he came. Then by the sound of her voice, I would know whether she was in the living room or the kitchen. If she was in the living room, I would go quickly through the kitchen and out the door before she discovered I had a suitcase in my hand. If she was in the kitchen, I would tell her I was babysitting overnight at the place where I worked. This would also give me the extra day I needed to get out of town before anyone found out that I was gone.

I got up earlier than usual, but not so early that anyone would suspect. The yellow car drove in. Mem announced it from the kitchen. I went quickly down the stairs and came face to face with her. She was sweeping around the table, but she stopped and looked pointedly at the suitcase in my hand.

“I’m babysitting tonight at the place where I work.”

Mem looked at me hard, then at the suitcase, and realized she had no choice in this one. “Well, just don’t let it happen too often.”

“I won’t,” I said. I went quickly down the steps and out the door before she could call me back.

As Mr. Pell drove out the driveway past the kitchen window, I saw Mem looking out at me. Without thinking about it, my hand went up and I gave her a wave. I wondered if I would ever see her again. I knew it would be really hard for her when she found out that I had left. I also knew that if I started feeling sorry for Mem, I would not be able to leave. The car kept going. I was not running away blindly, I told myself. I had made plans and had money. I would be all right.

—–

You can purchase Why I Left the Amish from a variety of sources, including Amazon and Saloma’s site.

My New Book: Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive © Amish America, 2012. |

What does “being Amish” mean?

Erik/Amish America — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:58:59 +0000

I found myself thinking about this after reading an article about an Idaho family.

Originally running in the Lewiston Tribune under the title “Amish family in Winchester finds its way” (and elsewhere as “N. Idaho Amish family embraces modern ways”), the article contains the following description:

In many ways the Miller family is as Amish as the people they left back home in Wisconsin 10 years ago, carrying on the traditional ways.

Father Harley, 40, is a master carpenter who has constructed the sprawling, ski-lodge-style house the family now lives in. Mother JoAnna, 40, with the help of her nine children, ages 8 through 21, cooks, sews, tends a garden and the family’s large flock of goats and teaches the younger children their school work.

But in so many other ways the Miller family is helping to define a new generation of Amish people who dress in regular clothes, work outside the home, use computers, cellphones and DVDs and drive cars.

For practical purposes, when we say “Amish”, we’re talking about Old Order Amish (“Old Order” meaning horse and buggy driving Amish, including New Order, Swartzentruber, and all other such groups).

There are other churches that use the word “Amish” in their official names, such as the Beachy Amish or Amish Mennonite congregations. But if you asked an Old Order Amish person whether the Harley Miller family was Amish, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone to use that term to describe them.

What if the family thinks of themselves as “Amish” though? People who were once horse-and-buggy Amish may still self-identify as Amish. Don’t they have a right to call themselves “Amish”? I suppose so, but that doesn’t mean that Old Order or any other people have to acknowledge them as such. But I do think the desire of former Amish to identify in some way as Amish is not uncommon.

On that point I found this recent comment by Saloma quite interesting:

I still retain many Amish ways. Many people tell me I do not dress “in style” which is probably true… I just don’t pay attention to the latest fashions. I mostly wear solid, bright colors and I wear what’s comfortable. I am told my home looks “Amish.” I am a decent cook and I was a professional baker for 10 years, which grew out of my Amish background. I still practice many of the homespun arts I learned from my mother. I believe my strong work ethic comes from my upbringing. I don’t buy the latest technologies to have them, but rather I think about what might simplify my life instead of complicate it. So, I’m essentially what the Amish claim you cannot be… partly Amish. They claim you are either Amish or not — there is nothing in between.

I’ve heard people who were formerly Amish describe themselves in similar terms. Osiah Horst adds:

Saloma, you are so right about remaining “partly Amish”. The first twenty years of your life are remembered. My older brother left the OO Mennonites, went to the modern Mennonites for close to ten years and then went out altogether. He claims not to believe, but he still remembers what he was taught from the Bible. He rarely speaks the German dialect anymore, but he has not forgotten it. The work ethic he learned even though he left home at sixteen, still works. There are good things that are not forgotten.

I may be wrong, but it seems that most people who leave behind an Amish upbringing–even those with a painful history, and who may be critical of Amish practices–don’t want to fully disown their heritage.

On a basic level I imagine it would be hard to fully shed the identity and culture you were raised in (“you can take the lion out of the jungle…”). I do wonder if there is anything specific to an Old Order upbringing that makes it stick. Thanks again to Saloma and Osiah for sharing on this point and giving us some food for thought.

My New Book: Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive © Amish America, 2012. |

Escaping Old Man Winter

Erik/Amish America — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:09:33 +0000

I’m traveling from Poland to NC today, and from the feel of things I’m getting out of town right in the nick of time. After what was an unusually mild start to the season, winter arrived with a vengeance this past week, with the mercury hitting -17 Celsius at one point (and not budging much since).

Minus 17 Celsius (right around 1 degree Fahrenheit) would be pretty unheard of in central NC. So I’m expecting to feel like I’m in the tropics when I touch down late this afternoon (don’t let me down Carolina!).

When I’m in Poland, I have electric heating, and also an old ceramic oven that burns coal or wood. I hadn’t had a great reason to use it this season, unfortunately, but it’s a treat to burn a few logs on frosty days.

The ceramic oven (called “piec kaflowy” in Polish, pronounced pyets kaff-loh-vih) is an old technology that was once very common in buildings in Poland (my building dates to 1930).

You don’t see them much nowadays, and many people tear them out when renovating, seeing them as space-eaters. Some are quite ornate, but mine is fairly plain, as you can notice by these photos.

Last month we had a brief look at the various ways Amish keep warm, which includes heating stoves, kerosene heaters, and propane and natural gas heat.

While thoughts are on the thermostat I also wanted to point your attention to “The Life of a Coal Stove“, an amusing article by Viola at the Amish Workshops site, written from the perspective of, well, a coal stove:

Sometimes though they forget to empty my ash pan and then I can hardly breathe, much less heat any amount of space. At other times they forget to adjust my so-called thermostat properly and boy do I get mad! All that air rushing into my head gets me riled! I release huge amounts of heat and all the human beings around me start shedding their layers of clothing and are busy opening windows.

Of the more conventional methods of heating, be it running a coal stove, kerosene heater, or central heating, every degree up on the thermometer means burning more $. So putting on an extra sweater and making a mug of something warm can be a good way of getting through cold shocks without shocking the pocketbook.

Come to think of it, I guess there are lots of ways to keep warm. We still haven’t mentioned treadmill running, eating habanero peppers, or moving to Florida, for that matter. Although I think I’d enjoy all three of those, I don’t know how practical they’d be over the long haul.

So how has your winter been? And how do you keep your toes from freezing?

My New Book: Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive © Amish America, 2012. |

The Ausbund

Erik/Amish America — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:13:02 +0000

An ancient Anabaptist hymnal

The Ausbund is a very important book for the Amish. This hymnal contains centuries-old songs originating with Anabaptist captives held at the Oberhaus castle prison in Passau, located in present-day southeastern Germany.

Amishman Benuel Blank wrote The Amazing Story of the Ausbund about this remarkable songbook. About the Ausbund Blank writes:

The Ausbund hymnbook, used by the early Anabaptist Swiss Brethren, is the oldest songbook in the world still in continuous use.

First printed in the year 1564, the Ausbund is used regularly in the Amish churches of today.

It has become an Anabaptist classic, and well over a hundred thousand have been printed here in America. It has gone through at least 60 known printings.

About ten thousand Ausbunds are printed every year, most of them going into use in the plain churches. In an Amish church district, except for the church benches, there is very little property owned jointly by all the church members, except the hymnbooks. Some small districts may own less than 30 books, while the larger ones may own over a hundred (Amazing Story of the Ausbund p. 1).

The songs of the Ausbund are an important reminder of the suffering and faith of Anabaptist ancestors, an example for Amish and other Anabaptist peoples who use the book today. Blank notes that the Ausbund is “not to be considered a holy book like the Bible”, but one which has nonetheless had an immense influence on Amish and other Anabaptists (p. 3).

Title page of the Ausbund

The Ausbund in Amish church

When you enter Amish church service, Ausbunds are already set out on the benches for congregants. Amish church begins with singing lasting from 25-30 minutes or longer (as in more conservative churches or during the period of pre-baptismal instruction when ministers will spend time with baptismal candidates at the beginning of church services). After church is over they are collected and travel to the next home via the Amish church wagon, which also carries church benches.

Ausbunds do not contain musical notes, and tunes are learned and passed down from one generation to the next. A song leader sings the opening notes of each line, after which the rest of the congregation joins in. Hymns are very slow with drawn-out notes.

As Blank explains, “the many generations of people singing from it over these hundreds of years have learned the tunes by ear. The tunes that are used have no answering chorus. It is “music for the soul, rather than music for the ear,” as our slow tunes have sometimes been described” (p. 50).

Creating the Ausbund

The early Anabaptists would have appreciated such music for the soul, as they were widely persecuted for their beliefs, a maltreatment which often included imprisonment, torture and execution. The core songs of the Ausbund were formulated by 53 Anabaptist prisoners held in the dungeon at the castle at Passau over the years 1535-1540. The hymns they created and sung were adapted from a number of sources, including the Lord’s Prayer, Old Testament Psalms, and the Sermon on the Mount, using already-existing tunes (pp. 31-32).

The Ausbund has been added to and expanded over the years, and consists of three distinct parts (p. 62). As one might expect, tunes have become altered over the course of passing them down over many years and among many different groups:

The slow tunes of the Ausbund songs have most certainly been changed somewhat over the 450 years since the Passau prisoners sang them to the poems they composed. They do vary from one plain church group to another, and as different plain-people settlements become established, it can be expected that the song tunes will soon begin to develop slight variations. Throughout the course of many generations, the tunes have slowly evolved into an almost infinite number of slight changes (p. 50).

Das Loblied

The best known hymn is Das Loblied, or “Hymn of Praise”. The Loblied is the second song sung in all Amish church services. It is hymn # 131 in the Ausbund. Here is an English translation (source):

1. O Lord Father, we bless thy name,

Thy love and thy goodness praise;

That thou, O Lord, so graciously

Have been to us always.

Thou hast brought us together, O Lord,

To be admonished through thy word.

Bestow on us thy grace.

2. O may thy servant be endowed

With wisdom from on high,

To preach thy word with truth and power,

Thy name to glorify.

Which needful is to they own praise,

Give hunger for thy word always,

This should be our desire.

Loblied

3. Put wisdom in our hearts while here

On earth thy will be known,

They word through grace to understand

What thou would have us to do.

To live in righteousness, O Lord,

Submissive to thy word,

That all our vows prove true.

4. Thine only be the glory, O Lord,

Likeness all might and power.

That we praise thee in our assembly

And feel grateful every hour.

With all our hearts we pray,

Wilt thou be with us every day

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Amish churches can differ in many ways, but the Loblied‘s position as the second song sung in every church service is one unifying aspect which stretches over all of North America’s 1,900+ Amish congregations. Writing of the Lancaster County Amish, Donald Kraybill notes that “on a given Sunday morning, all the congregations holding services across the settlement are singing the same song at roughly the same time, an experience one member described as giving a beautiful feeling of unity among the churches” (The Riddle of Amish Culture p. 123).

A heritage of song

If you’d like to learn more about this important songbook, The Amazing Story of the Ausbund is a good place to start. Benuel Blank writes in the concluding pages of his book:

Let us thank God for our heritage of song. Today’s descendants in faith of the Anabaptists of the 1500s are singing songs in settings unbelievably different from the dire surroundings in which many of the songs were composed.

Even though their singing voices were often stifled by martyrs’ deaths, congregational singing has always been a traditional part of Anabaptist worship. Although there have been some denominations of the Christian church who objected to hymnbooks and prayer books on the grounds that all singing and praying should always come from the heart and not from a book, the Anabaptists became a people of song.

The conservative part of Anabaptism still believes in worshiping God in simplicity, with human voices blending together in sounds of praise, rather than listening to a well-trained choir or to the organ music in a large and costly church cathedral; quite a contrast for worshiping the Savior of the world born in a lowly manger. Their sanctuaries of worship are their homes, barns, sheds and shops (p. 119).

My New Book: Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive © Amish America, 2012. |

Preview: PBS/American Experience special ‘The Amish’

Erik/Amish America — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:10:43 +0000

In yesterday’s interview, Saloma mentioned an upcoming PBS special on the Amish, part of the American Experience series. American Experience has a good reputation for in-depth documentary films, mainly of a historical nature.

“The Amish” is a 2-hour film described as “an extraordinarily intimate portrait of contemporary Amish faith and life”. Quite a few Amish participated as well as numerous experts on the Amish.

You can view a preview below (this segment focuses on Nickel Mines). What do you think?

Watch Amish Preview Clip on PBS. See more from American Experience.

“The Amish” will air Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 8pm on PBS.

Saloma Miller Furlong on Why I Left the Amish

Erik/Amish America — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:12:46 +0000

Saloma Miller Furlong was raised Amish in Ohio. Why I Left the Amish is the story of her childhood and adolescence, and eventual departure from Amish society.

I enjoyed meeting Saloma for the first time this summer while in PA, and have always appreciated her comments here on the blog. I just recently had a chance to read Why I Left the Amish and found her story to be filled with tough moments but quite a page-turner (maybe for that very reason).

Saloma’s story is not a rose-colored version of Amish life but a real look at one person’s experience growing up in difficult circumstances. Saloma has kindly answered a few questions today about her Amish experience and book.

Why I Left the Amish book giveaway

Saloma has also offered a copy of Why I Left the Amish for a lucky winner. To enter this book giveaway contest, just leave a comment or question in the comments section.

For an extra entry, share this interview on Facebook (just email amishamerica@gmail.com letting know you did). We’ll draw and announce the winner next Thursday, Feb. 2.

Saloma Miller Furlong interview

Amish America: Can you share a bit about yourself and your Amish background, and also how this book came about?

Saloma Miller Furlong: I grew up in Geauga County, Ohio, in a family of seven children. My family was a dysfunctional one (mentally ill father, a mother who did not protect us, and an abusive older brother). I often felt that my life was unbearable, and yet I thought there was no help for my family because the people in the community were not inclined (nor were they equipped) to deal with our family problems.

Then I found out that there was indeed help for our family, but we had to reach into the outside world to get it. My mother refused to allow an intervention, which is when I escaped at twenty years old. My book concludes with the first time I left.

The first time I thought about writing a book about my life experiences was the second time I was leaving. The Amish had hired a van driver to bring the bishop and his wife, my uncle, who was also a minister, and his wife, my brother, sister, and a friend to go to Vermont to escort me back to the community. I did not think I had a choice, so I returned and stayed nearly three more years before I left a second and final time. So when I was leaving the second time, an “English” friend urged me to write my story and soon, so that I would remember the details. She was the first, but she was not the last to say, “You need to write your story.”

What I didn’t know when I left the second time is that I could not just turn my back and walk away from my past. There came a time when I had to reckon with the abuse from my past, which led me to therapy. During this healing process, journaling became important. When I finally felt I had come through the hardest part of my healing, I had the urge to write for others. I began that process 17 years before my book made it into print.

How typical or atypical was your experience growing up Amish?

Saloma: I have often been asked this question at my book talks, and I always say, I simply do not know. Wherever there is abuse, there is also a cloak of secrecy. I believe the first step in breaking the cycle of abuse is to break the silence that shrouds it. Because of the insular nature of the Amish community, that cloak is thicker and more impenetrable than ever, which makes it nearly impossible to find out how much abuse exists in their communities.

I believe there are well-adjusted Amish families, from what I saw while I was teaching school for two years. I just have no idea what percentage.

In your book you describe the abuse that you and your sisters experienced, the difficult relationships with your parents and older brother. But what are your happiest memories from your time at home?

Saloma Miller, age 20. Just before leaving the first time

Saloma: I loved what I call “homemade fun.” I remember we used to take a blanket and fold it in half. A small person would lay down on it, and then two bigger people would hold two corners each, making a swinging hammock. We’d swing the child back and forth, and then “land” him or her on the couch.

I loved jumping rope. And I used to love to swing on the rope swing hanging from a tall branch of an oak tree next to the woodshed. My sisters and I played “house” for many hours in the woodshed or the corncrib. In the fall we used to rake together freshly fallen leaves into a big pile, and bury one another. Sometimes our pile was big enough to bury three or four children at once. We also used to try to catch the falling leaves, which were as elusive as butterflies.

Your detail the tribulations of dating in an important section of the book. How does dating work in your community?

Saloma: Erik, you would have to ask me that. I’m always embarrassed to answer this question. My home community practiced “bed courtship.” It is believed that this practice derived from “bundling” in which a board was placed between the man and the woman during the time our ancestors were being persecuted back in Europe. This allowed young people to hide from the authorities in upstairs bedrooms, which were often cold.

Bundling allowed both people to stay warm under the bedcovers, while ‘visiting.’ Many generations ago, the board disappeared, leaving the bed courtship rituals. Even the Amish who still practice bed courtship (and most communities no longer do) are embarrassed to talk about this practice, because it is hard to explain to outsiders that they are not encouraging their young people to have sex, even though they allow them to go to bed together.

There’s much more about this in my book.

How many youth do you think join church the way you describe your own baptism–uncertain and reluctant?

Right after leaving. Also age 20

Saloma: I have no idea. Most people’s feelings were well-guarded, so I would not have been privy to how they felt about their baptism. These kinds of things were just not talked about. I sure could not share with anyone Amish how I felt about my own.

What are the good and bad sides of life as an Amish female?

Saloma: This is a very general question. I wouldn’t begin to try to answer this for anyone else. A positive for me was that I didn’t like doing farm work. Though I had to do some, if I had been a male, much more would have fallen on my shoulders. I enjoyed the women’s gatherings, such as quiltings or getting together for the day to take on some project. I think I’ve already mentioned the feeling of having no power, especially as a young girl. This was the down side for me — especially having so few directions that my life path could possibly take if I stayed Amish.

What ties do you still have to your home community?

Saloma: My ties to the community are dwindling. My parents are both deceased, and one family I used to visit when I went back to Ohio, moved to Kentucky. All my sisters have left the community. When my parents were still alive, we visited them regularly, and we attended both of their funerals.

Had you grown up in a healthier family situation, would you still be Amish today?

Saloma: I have often been asked this question at my talks and it’s one I cannot give a definitive answer to. For one thing, I’d have to have been endowed with a different nature — one that does not have fundamental questions boiling up from within. And that begs the “nature versus nurture” question — was it my circumstances that gave me that insatiable desire to ask questions, or was it inherent in me when I was born — who knows?

Age 23 in Vermont, before leaving the Amish the second and final time

But this I do know. Even if I’d had a good Amish childhood, I imagine that I’d still have yearned for more education. And that alone may have been enough for me to face the loss of community that comes of leaving the Amish. Maybe. This is a question I simply cannot answer.

Why I Left the Amish ends when you arrive in Burlington, Vermont, having finally taken the step of leaving home. Will you continue the story?

Saloma: Yes. I am co-writing the second book with my husband, David. He and I had met during my first stay in Vermont, which was only four months. We had been dating for about seven weeks when the Amish came to take me back. David had to watch this happen, knowing it was not my choice, and also knowing there was nothing he could do about it. He visited me in Ohio (the second time resulting in a thorough rejection) and he kept in touch with me via letters.

Finally, two years after I rejected him, I wrote to him, which started the four-month process of the two of us renewing our relationship. We married a year and a half after I left the second time. David’s voice is important in this story, because he has a perspective of many events that I don’t — I had no idea at the time that I had turned off all my feelings like a faucet at the kitchen sink turns off the flow of water when the Amish came to fetch me back to the community. He claims there was no light in my eyes and no feeling in my voice.

For an excerpt of our book (about our first date), you can visit my blog.

Where can readers buy your book, and find you online?

Saloma: The book can be bought at the following locations:

1. A signed copy directly from me online (Or come to one of my book talks: See my schedule of events.
2. Your local bookstore — most bookstores are happy to order the book if they don’t already carry it.
3. on Amazon
4. On Barnes and Noble

You can visit my blog and website. Also, I will be telling my story in a documentary called “The Amish” that will air on American Experience on February 28, 2012. After that, this documentary can be seen on their website. (They have chapter one of the film available now).

Photo credit: 1st Saloma Miller Furlong photo by Kerstin Martin

Is Amish clothing really “Plain”?

Erik/Amish America — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:27:36 +0000

Stephen B writes:

While I certainly understand the idea behind Plain-ness, of not calling undue attention to one’s self out of modesty and of not wanting to be too much of this world, it seems to me that as times and fashions change, the Amish haven’t really updated their fashions enough to actually *stay* plain.

That is, it was one thing, back when, to wear plain-looking pants, no zippers, shoes, and what have you, to stay plain, but it seems to me, the real way to stay plain in this day and age would be to wear some no-name jeans, a plain tee-shirt, solid-color, with no other printing or logo, and some plain boots or brand X sneakers.

THAT would truly make the Amish not stand out…if Amish folk really want to make a similar statement or want to make *no* statement at all, they should do better at updating how they define Plain.

Stephen’s comment gives food for thought. Is “Plain” a misnomer? Aren’t Amish clothes in fact rather exotic?

Should “Plain” mean “blending in”? Amish dress is highly noticeable in our society. Or could that be part of the point?

Photo credit: DaDaAce/flickr

Amish America

Inside an Amish Bulk Foods Store

Groundhog Day’s PA German connection

Why I Left the Amish winner (and excerpt)

Why I Left the Amish – excerpt

What does “being Amish” mean?

Escaping Old Man Winter

The Ausbund

An ancient Anabaptist hymnal

The Ausbund in Amish church

Creating the Ausbund

Das Loblied

A heritage of song

Preview: PBS/American Experience special ‘The Amish’

Saloma Miller Furlong on Why I Left the Amish

Why I Left the Amish book giveaway

Saloma Miller Furlong interview

More of your Amish questions answered

Is Amish clothing really “Plain”?