Saturday, December 08, 2007

Contact with the Amish

The next township southwest of me has a large group of Amish. I enjoy driving through the countryside, seeing their simpler processes for farming. Many of the roads in that township are dirt, which is good for horse-farming.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a sign that pointed to an Amish Gift Shop. I had to stop. I only looked that day, but came back this morning for some purchases, including a child-size rocker for the great-nephew and niece to use. The store is interesting. They do have a phone, as they need a line to do bankcard transactions. The lighting is via skylights. Many of the "gift" items are not made locally, and some are not even Amish-made. The pricing is extremely fair. Mark-ups must be much different in their culture.

Hat sizes for men appeared to stop at about 7 3/8. I wonder if large-headed men can special order the dark dress hats? There was an aisle of material for clothes-making, all plain colors with a lot of black. There were some hand-made baby items on consignment in that area, all adornment free, and nursing blankets that were very interesting looking.

The mother-daughter duo who waited on me were very cordial. I asked a few questions about the Amish and their Christmas customs (they do celebrate with gift-giving and a few simple decorations, no trees) and the mom was kind about answering them.

Cultures meet with commerce.

5 comments:

Julie said...

I'm surprised that they have non-Amish stuff for sale. There's no reason why they shouldn't have, of course.

Shirl said...

no, there really isn't, but it surprised me. commerce, you know.

Anonymous said...

I bet it was wonderful to step back in time visiting the Amish area and step out of the rush, rush of our busy world for a little bit.

Shirl said...

it was! I think I bought six presents there, and it was FUN!

Julie said...

shopping - fun. Now ther are two words that don't often go together.