You may be aware of the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which treats children suffering from rare genetic illnesses, primarily within the Amish and Mennonite populations. The clinic was founded by Dr. Holmes Morton, a West Virginia native, in 1989. Each year the Lancaster community puts on an auction to benefit the clinic, which operates with much support from the Plain contingent. Certain…
Even though we forget how good we’ve got it in the US, in such a car-focused culture, the road is still something like sacred space. Â The Amish intersect with mainstream society, sometimes loudly, on this space. Â Lately the big issue has been road safety and the buggy SMV triangle in Kentucky. Â But a second problem has been percolating in the Bluegrass State, having to do…
Amish women have their babies in one of three places – at home, in the hospital, or at birthing centers. Some Amish prefer the at-home or birthing center options for reasons of cost and comfort. Midwives working in the community are both Amish and non-Amish, and may be licensed or unlicensed. Â Midwife-assisted birth is another in the list of issues involving Amish which have garnered…
Riding down Highway 30 east of Lancaster City I was struck as I usually am by the preponderance of Amish tourist destinations. Amish tourism has a long history dating back to the 1930s and 1940s in Lancaster County, with the Ohio and Indiana industries kicking into gear a couple of decades later. Today it would be hard to imagine these places without the plethora of…
A Lancaster friend has a bunch of growing boys, which means he’ll need barn space for more horses. The last week or so he’s had a local carpentry crew at his place putting an addition onto the barn (this is not to be confused with the “pole barn”, which is a different building where visitors from Poland sleep while in town). The work crew is…
Towards the end of the Kutztown University Old Order peoples talk, Ben Riehl made a remark–I’m paraphrasing here–that “the Amish and Mennonites are just a small piece of a much bigger Pennsylvania German story”. Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center director Dr. Rob Reynolds has shared a little bit of that story with us today. The Amish and Mennonites were in fact only a small segment…
The documentary film “The Amish” airs on American Experience on PBS tonight (8pm EST). I was able to preview the film at the Young Center while in PA last week. One big challenge for the filmmakers was creating a documentary featuring the Amish when no Amish appear face-to-face with the camera. However numerous Amish did agree to be interviewed for the documentary, and their voices…
I got back from Pennsylvania over the weekend and have been trying to get caught up here. Â Maybe I am getting old but I always feel like I need to sleep for 2 days after these trips! Apologies to anyone who came looking for Friday’s post, which didn’t make it up in the hurry. We’ll have some more from last week coming up. I also…
The Kutztown University talk was a very well attended event last night, with an overflow crowd of around 200 coming out to hear James Weaver and Ben Riehl discuss Old Order Mennonites and Amish. There was much humor and a warm rapport between James, Ben and moderator Dr. Rob Reyolds. The program lasted nealy two hours, with both pre-submitted and live audience questions covering a…
So far: Seeing the Christian Aid meatpacking operation in action. A mobile canning station in a converted tractor trailer travels across North America (13 states and 2 provinces, I was told) stopping in communities (often Plain) where volunteers contribute labor and supplies to prepare and can meat for humanitarian aid purposes. The program has heavy Amish involvement in places like Lancaster and Holmes Counties. Yesterday…