It’s Friday, and I think we’re due for another roundup post. Here we go: The Plain Side Loren Beachy writes a column for The Goshen News called “The Plain Side”. Loren is a school teacher and auctioneer living in the Elkhart-Lagrange Amish community. I’ve been reading some of Loren’s archives lately, including one on preserving the PA Dutch dialect and a funny tale about his…
Our contributor Ed shares some photos from last week in Lancaster County (note: these photos date to 2013), where local versions of the Winter Olympics are happening all around the community. Ice hockey is a popular winter activity among Lancaster County Amish. These first two shots were taken by the Strasburg Railroad Yards: Amish children, teens, and sometimes adults play ice hockey. Natural frozen surfaces…
If you’ve ever wondered how Amish circle letters work, Amish Heartland has a nice piece featuring input from an Amish man who writes them. And if you’re just wondering what a circle letter is, it is a low-tech way by which Amish people with common connections keep in touch. In a nutshell, each person in a circle letter group writes a letter, which is added…
Photographer of the Amish Bill Coleman passed away last week at the age of 88. From the Centre Daily Times: Bill Coleman, who died Tuesday at 88 of complications from a heart attack, went on to befriend Amish families who invited him into their lives, granting the local photographer rare access to scenes outsiders seldom glimpse. He became known internationally for his Amish images: buggies…
It’s been about 9 months since our last Amish words quiz, which tells me time flies. You’ve been consistently impressive in your previous answers, so I keep trying to make each new quiz slightly more difficult. Each of the 10 terms below has some connection or meaning related to the Amish. If you know the meaning of one, a few, or all, let us know…
Good morning! A Friday grab bag of news and other items of interest: Chemo case confusion An unexpected twist in the Ohio chemo case, summarized in this headline: “Guardian wants Ohio court ruling to stand in Amish chemo case even though she wants off case” (article no longer online). We got news about a month ago that the court-appointed guardian wished to drop the effort…
Winter Storm “Ion” (The Weather Channel gives big snowstorms names, apparently) has been plowing through the Midwest, bringing frozen precipitation and frigid temperatures. You know this is a real storm due to the many school cancellations and business closures in places where things don’t usually get canceled, including in the “toughest” of the winter states like Wisconsin and Minnesota. What do Amish do when the weather is this bad?…
Happy New Year to all. I hope your 2013 was filled with blessings and that 2014 will be happy, healthy and productive for you. Do you take stock of the previous year at this time? Set goals and make plans for the coming year? It’s really just the changing of dates on a calendar, but can be the right time for a brief pat on…
Have you cleared out that fridge yet? Or still plowing through holiday leftovers? I had to creatively re-arrange mine just to fit all the extra Christmas goodies in. When I moved into my current home, I went without a refrigerator for a few weeks. Fortunately it was the dead of winter, so the windowsill made a makeshift fridge for a while. That wouldn’t work anymore….
A few years back we shared a short clip of an Amish fellow skiing behind a buggy in Ohio. Skiing and other winter sports can be particularly popular with young Amish males. Today, photos of more winter fun, taken somewhere in Indiana. These youth snowboarders are carving up the “slopes” courtesy of a single-horsepower engine (there actually is something of a slope, or ridge, which…