We meant to leave today…but we are so taken with the country around here that we couldn’t go!
Toured an Amish house, as they are in these modern times. It was fascinating! The guide was a young Amish woman. She was excellent at making you understand the reasons why the Amish live as they do…and the peace, tranquillity and contentment they find in doing so.
There is nothing in the house that was not useful and necessary. For instance they have beautiful calendars (The kids sometimes have 5 or 6 to decorate their rooms ) but not a “print” which would have no ‘use’. Their washing machines, which are powered by a gasoline lawnmower engine, have rollers. And the washing is hung on the line. I’ve photographed several of these lines of washing…all the little black pants in a row. You can pretty much guess the age of the youngsters in the family!
In the little boy’s room…there was a kerosene lamp and a flashlight on the stand beside the bed. When I commented on it she said “Well, you don’t want young children fumbling around with matches in the middle of the night, if they have to get up!” That’s good common sense! There are no closets. The clothes hang on pegs.
The boys and the men’s trousers have no zippers…but they do have 12 buttons! I said “Boy that wouldn’t work if you were in a hurry” She laughed and said “Oh, if they are in a hurry this is what they do”…and she unfastened two top buttons and the whole front panel dropped down!” Everyone burst out laughing.
They don’t have any churches…all services are held at home. There are approximately 200 people in each individual congregation. And about once a year it is YOUR turn to have the service at your house. She said “Imagine fitting 200 people into your house…AND when the service is over…feeding them!” Says a lot of cleaning and polishing goes on the week before. Because, she said, “I don’t care who you are…people are people and “somebody” is going to say… Did you see the bla bla bla…at Mrs. Dieter’s house?” The food is always the same to prevent competition. Platters of meat, cheese, relishes and pickles. You will need to bake around 50 loves of bread and about the same number of pies.
The service is held in High German language. She played a recording…It starts with what sounds like a Gregorian Chant. It’s quite beautiful. Speaking of language. The kids speak only ‘Low German’ as small children, which is what is spoken at home. She said most tiny youngsters will not understand anything we would say to them…They learn English in school as well as High German. By the time they graduate the 8th grade…they are fluent in all 3 languages.
Each son, when he gets married, is given a house and a farm! And the bride’s family will buy the cows and furnish the house! I said “What if the family can’t afford it?” She just sputtered with laughter…. “ooooh, they can afford it! Almost all of these farms are worth well over a million dollars…paid for many years ago.” The bride will wear a new dress, that she has made herself…maybe royal blue with a white apron, the last time she will ever wear a apron and head covering in white…until death. And then she is buried in the same clothes she wore that day.. The day after the wedding she will wear the black apron and bonnet of the “married lady”.
There will be many guests, around 350 to 400…some coming from long distances by buggy…but no one will bring gifts. The bride will move in with the parents of her new husband for a year while the new farm is being searched for and bought. During that time the new couple will visit each of the people that came to the wedding. If it’s some distance they may stay several days…if it’s a close neighbor, it will, perhaps, just be dinner. At each house they visit…two wedding gifts will be waiting…one for the bride to use in the house and one for the groom to use in the barn.( Talk about getting set up for your future….no struggling for Amish children!) When the year is over…and after all the gifts are received…what ever is still needed will be provided by the husband’s parents.
The Amish never pay social security tax because they will never use or need the benefits. When the youngest son is ready to marry…the elder will retire and the house and farm will belong to the son. An addition is built on to the house which includes it’s own living room and kitchen and the “old folks” move in there and when they are no longer able to work…are lovingly cared for as long as it’s needed. If the original parents are still living when THEIR son is ready to retire, a third addition, with complete living quarters, is built on and the farm goes to that youngest son!
She explained about the reason they don’t believe in using ‘electricity’ which, she said “Seems to be the least understood thing about us”. Said she has a blender and food processor etc. powered by an air compressor. (though she irons with a heated flat iron!) so why not that ‘little’ step of running it on electricity? She said “The Amish work hard and when they finish the day and sit down to the table …they talk about that day. The little ones might talk about the butterflies they saw coming home from school…and everyone listens with great interest. And so on…Everyone laughs and talks and no one is left out…The kitchen is the largest room in the house and after dinner…mom might work on a quilt while the youngsters, in school, work on their homework at the big kitchen table…and the wee ones color.(No TV for father to go watch the game, no computer for the children in their room)….The entire family has this loving interaction….all their lives. They feel that electricity would bring changes that would interfere with the way the family functions. ” (Considering their life style…in makes perfect sense!)
I asked the guide about the photographing…if they were against photography per say, or just having their face in the picture? She “Oh, mostly their faces…get them from the back…or working in the fields at a distance where they can’t be recognized in the picture…and it is not a problem.”
The more I hear about the Amish…the more interesting I find them. They have gone from being ” something interesting” that I wanted to photograph…to individuals for which I have great respect and admiration.
To live your beliefs, work hard, love family, respect nature, care for your own…If we all did that what a different world this would be……