Fun stuff

The latest photo in need of a caption. Amanda Cohen, who took this last summer in Lancaster County, ended up with a little surprise while uploading it to her computer. Thanks to Emma for sending it along!

Continue reading Back atcha

As promised, I wanted to get in some recognition for the great captions sent in on yesterday’s buggy photo. You had me chuckling through the day as I checked the comments for new entries. So I though it would be fun to do a little vote. After much deliberation I whittled the top five captions [...]

Continue reading Top 5 Carriage Captions

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).  [...]

Continue reading Groundhog Day’s PA German connection

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 [...]

Continue reading Escaping Old Man Winter

This will be our last post of 2011, with a little break from new posting until the New Year. But in the meantime I wanted to put out an invitation for Amish-related questions–anything from questions about Amish beliefs to settlements to cultural practices and so on. I can’t promise I’ll be able to answer everything, [...]

Continue reading Submit your Amish questions

I felt a wave of nostalgia when I came across the View-Master this summer in an Amish shop. Remember this classic toy?  As a child of the 80s the View-Master was still kicking in my youth, and I remember being fascinated by the 3-D effect created by the simple stereogram technology. Today’s kids, of course, [...]

Continue reading Remember the View-Master?

How about another edition of “Name that Amish community“. Can you tell where these 3 photos were taken? (UPDATE note: each is from a different settlement) Photo 1:   Photo 2:   Photo 3:

Continue reading Name that Amish community (#2)

I went trick-or-treating as a kid, as did pretty much all my friends.  It was seen as a harmless chance to dress up as your favorite superhero or ghost or whatever, and bring home a huge haul of sweets.   I rememember how my brother and I would come home at the end of the [...]

Continue reading Halloween Questions

Do you know where these 3 photos were taken? (UPDATE: see “Clues” in the comments section) Photo 1: Photo 2: Photo 3:

Continue reading Name that Amish community

If you’re near Hicksville, Ohio, tomorrow, you might want to drop in on the Defiance County fair for one of America’s rarest sporting events: I picked this flyer up at the Topeka auction house here in Indiana.  I found the terms of the race pretty interesting–”a limit of five horses per race”;  ”all drivers must [...]

Continue reading Amish races in Ohio