This was taken at the 2012 Clinic for Special Children auction in Leola, Pennsylvania. Â The photographer recalls his first car, purchased for $2000 in the 1970s: “Even allowing for inflation, I got sticker shock from the sign on the buggy window!” I don’t monitor buggy prices, but my impression has been that the buggies in Lancaster are among the more expensive, or at least can…
While playing Amish taxi a few days ago, I found myself behind a buggy on one of Lancaster County’s countless curvy backroads, unsure whether it was safe to pass or not. Â Lancaster is hilly, and the roads go this way and that, with buggies everywhere, so you do this a good bit. I decided to wait, with a couple of vehicles behind me, until the…
We’ve had a good bit of discussion on Amish youth lately. Â Two weeks ago, a story on Amish youth on Facebook went viral across the internet. Â Amish adolescents were directly or indirectly a subject of numerous talks at the recent Amish conference. If you ask Amish people, youth issues are among the main concerns in many settlements–so much so that families may move halfway across…
Just back from Pennsylvania and the Elizabethtown College Amish conference. Lest you think I was on campus all week, I share a few photos here proving I ventured out. Â Early June is a beautiful time in Lancaster County, and though it rained the first two days of the conference, Saturday and Sunday the weather was just dandy. I spent some time with the youth over…
Amish use of technology often puzzles outsiders. Â This is exacerbated when observers see Amish using a piece of technology that doesn’t seem to fit their notion of what the Amish should be. Simply put, people are disappointed when they discover the Amish aren’t as “Amish” as they expected, due to the technologies they allow. Â Sometimes this leads to accusations that Amish have “betrayed their roots”…
A couple of things I wanted to bring to your attention: Gravatar Recently I was asked again about getting an image which will appear next to your name when you leave comments. Â You’ll notice some commenters have custom images and some have the grey silhouette figure (the default image). We use the widely-used “Gravatar” system (“globally-recognized avatar”). If you’d like one, go to gravatar.com and…
Below, the menu items for the Amish youth mystery supper, courtesy of Don Curtis. Some of these were pretty tough. How did you do? 1. Hygiene Essential – water 2. Colorful Downfall – mixed fruit salad 3. Healthy Rollups – dinner rolls 4. Variety Pack – broccoli and veggie salad 5. Point of Decision – fork 6. Pigs Disgrace – meatloaf 7. Foreign Fundraiser –…
Is cursive doomed to become a relic of history?  New national teaching standards, to be implemented by 45 states next year, are pointing away from cursive in favor of technology.  From the Goshen News (hat-tip to Linda): Those standards include proficiency in computer keyboarding by the fourth grade, but make no mention of the need for cursive writing ability, even though it has been integral to…
I think (or maybe just hope) this is the hardest quiz yet. The last one was solved pretty quickly. Â Hopefully this will stump you for a little longer. Â Either way I’d recommend making your guesses before you check the comments section. Special thanks to Linda for suggesting some of these terms. Â We did the best we could spelling the PA Dutch words. What do these…
In a previous post on Amish wall decor, reader Kate had this to say on visiting an Amish friend’s home: I realized that I could see six picture calendars from where I was sitting in the kitchen [featuring] horses, barns, lighthouses, bluebirds, and wildflowers. It’s true, as Kate’s example suggests, that Amish are partial to calendars. Â Amish generally don’t display art for its own sake….