Why don’t they just build buggy lanes wherever Amish live? People often ask just this, especially when there is a bad buggy accident in the news. Realistically, it’s an idea constrained both by budgets and practicality. But in some limited cases, areas with larger Amish populations have done just that. And some Amish-heavy areas will be adding buggy lanes in the next several years. So…
Today a grab bag of eight Amish news stories from the past days and weeks. Let’s dive right in. 1. Amish Basketball Fans (Topeka, Indiana) – Do Amish follow sports? Some do, particularly youth in some places. Last month I was working on my laptop in a local gas station in Lancaster County, when several Amish teens came in to charge a battery…and as you can…
So another year wraps up. I hope yours was a blessed one. As the year winds down, the tradition here is to look back at favorite posts of the previous 12 months. I hope you enjoy these if you missed them the first time around. Wishing you and yours a fantastic 2019, and thanks to everyone who visited, commented, and shared what we do here…
A kerosene lamp explosion caused a fire which burned down the home of two families in the Path Valley settlement (Pennsylvania). Here’s how it happened and the fire team’s response, via the Chambersburg Public Opinion: One of the people in the house was handling a kerosene lamp when it exploded, Hall said. Flames spread. It took a while for someone to reach a neighbor’s house…
Last week I shared 5 unexplained photos from my latest Amish trip, each with a story behind it. Today we have the answer key. You had some good guesses. Going through all the comments, you gave the correct answer, or were close, on nearly everything. Nice job! Here are the photos and questions again, and the explanations: 1. There’s something unusual about the bicycle this…
I’m on my way to NC today after a week on the road, having visited four Amish settlements – plus one – let’s call it for now “future Amish settlement” – with a stop at a Virginia community still to go. Usually when I am traveling and staying with Amish friends, I post a bit less here – not because there are not things to…
One Amish family in Geauga County, Ohio is facing great tragedy this Thanksgiving. From Newsweek: One child died and 10 people were injured when a fire tore through the home of an Amish family Wednesday evening in Middlefield, Ohio. The two-year-old was declared dead on arrival at nearby UH Geauga Medical Center, according to NBC-affiliate WKYC. The first fire crews arrived at the two-story, wood-framed house at 6.21…
What does it feel like to auction off your loved ones’ possessions? Those special things that have accumulated over a lifetime and hold stores of precious memories? For the Amish, this is the way things work when the aged pass on. Amish Cook Gloria Yoder writes this week about auctioning off her grandparents’ estate, following her grandmother’s recent passing: Ever since Grandma’s death, I knew…
Do Amish parents have celebrations for new babies? Who is present at the birth? What does it take to be a good midwife? What if you get to the birth late? Do Amish have children out of wedlock? Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for A Midwife in Amish Country author Kim Osterholzer. I chose a selection of these which Kim has answered, plus a…
Amish pop up in the news all the time, but we can’t always do full posts on every story. So today we’ll briefly cover 5 of them. I’ve also shared some of my favorite recent reader comments at the end of this post. So here’s a new type of post to get you caught up. Hope you enjoy, and if you like this, we’ll keep doing…