yesterday

yesterday cropped
Originally uploaded by Aunt Owwee

Saturday was a bright cold day here in mid-Michigan, with rain predicted for Sunday. Aha, I thought to myself, I should visit Amish country in the winter, before the roads became mired in mud. Amazingly, the roads were much better than they were in Lansing, where I used to live. They were evenly plowed and well packed, without being icy.

There is a little Amish gift shop on one of the back roads. I stopped there and browsed for awhile. I ended up with a book and a bonnet for Marlene, my mother's childhood doll that lives with me now.

One of the books I perused as I shopped (okay, it's a very ingrained habit of mine) was about some of the Amish ways. One of the questions was about telephone usage. It turns out that while the Amish won't have phones in their homes, they will often band together to have one in the area, in a little phone shack that they all share.

Apparently, Amish dictates aren't decided by an "ask first" mentality. When phones first came in in the '20s, they were used by the Amish. However, according to lore, a woman heard other women gossiping about her on a party line, and brought the matter to the bishop. The bishops meet to decide where the line on modern conveniences should be drawn. They decided at that time that the phone was a detriment to family life, and that it threatened their way of meeting "face-to-face" and visiting with family. Hence, the ban for phones within homes.

Cell phones are now an issue. Howard Rheingold, gives us an interesting look into the structures and reasoning of this religious sect in this article.

Going to Market

There is a large Amish settlement in the township southwest of me. Saturday I was out driving, and I found an Amish farmer working a field with a team of six, but I got bashful about taking the horses' pictures. *sigh* So I had to settle for this horse. The intersection of M-43 and M-66 is a busy corner, and all through the summer and early fall there is an Amish baked-goods stand here. Yummy. I bought some molasses cookies. Old fashioned, soft, just right.

Country Church/School

Sunday Night Drive

About every six weeks I like to take a drive out into Amish country, over in the next township. I have a routine for these drives. I go west on Vermontville Highway, and stop at Jones Country Store (non-Amish). Here I buy a bag of "funyums" and a diet Vernors. I chat for a few minutes with the lady who owns the store. She is always dressed in layers, and looks just this side of bag ladydom, but she is quite interesting.

Last night I was wearing a tee-shirt with lighthouses on it. "I like that," the proprietess said. "Reminds me of that song at church, do you know it?"

"I'm not sure," I say.

She closes her eyes, clears her throat, and begins to sing the chorus of it. She has a lovely voice, and I tell her so. "If you wait a minute, I'll get the words and sing the whole thing for you."

Well, I had the time, and so I waited inside the door and sipped my pop. She came back into the store and commenced to sing. Another customer came in, returning bottles. He then got his beer and waited patiently at the counter while she finished.

It was a lovely song.



The evening was kind of gray and damp. There were plenty of horse tracks on the road. The little town of Chester has a blacksmith (non-Amish) and he was busy. As I came down Kinsel, I could see that the Sunday gathering must have been held at the place above. I turned to drive past the house. The menfolk were walking toward the barn. Several waved. I think they know folks are curious.