One of the problems with being a tourist in Amish country is finding tourist attractions that are appropriately respectful of the Amish and their way of life. The Amish, of course, don't really appreciate being looked on as tourist attractions - they're just ordinary people, living their lives according to their beliefs. So I sort of felt like an American tourist in a foreign country - genuinely interested in learning about the locals and their culture, but not wanting to be rude and staring at them like they were animals in a zoo.
There's no shortage of websites advertising tourism in Amish country, and they advertised a variety of Things To See And Do - the good, the bad and the ugly. One particularly distasteful one that I saw (I won't give its name because I don't want to give them any free advertising) was for a comedy dinner theater. The website included a picture of a couple of guys dressed up in a caricature of Amish dress, complete with exaggerated versions of the beard but no mustache facial hair style favored by Amish men. I immediately and firmly struck that one off our list of potential activities. I suppose the people who run that show would tell me to lighten up, it's all in good fun. But I wonder if they've ever asked the Amish how they feel about it. End of editorial.
Anyway, we did find one that appeared to have the right attitude - Yoder's Amish Home. It was started by a man who was raised Amish, but broke away from the church as an adult, and his wife, who wasn't raised Amish, but grew up in the area. The site consisted of a tour of two Amish homes, conducted by a young woman who was not Amish herself, but her grandparents were. There was also a barn tour, a schoolhouse, and a buggy ride. The entire experience was quite informative, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area.
Before the tour started, I took a couple of pictures of the yard:
We met Andrea, our tour guide, who began with a brief history of the Amish, and how they came to America. She then showed us the garden:
...a dinner bell, which could also function as an alarm bell:
...Mason jars, used for canning fruits and vegetables, freshly washed and set out in the sun to dry:
...and a birdhouse (more like a bird condo), with a weathervane on top:
We also met one of the many cats in residence:
We then toured two Amish houses, each designed to give an idea of what a typical Amish house might look like. These were real houses, by the way, that had once been inhabited by real people.
A brief digression: There are several subgroups, or orders, of Amish, differing mainly in the degree to which they reject the conveniences of the modern world. The strictest order are the Swartzentruber, who use no electricity or indoor plumbing. Other orders include the Beachy, Troyer, Old Order, New Order and (I'm not making this up) the New New Order. This Wikipedia article (w) has more information.
The first house we toured was a Swartzentruber house:
Living Room
Notice the treadle-powered sewing machine
Bedroom
Kitchen
Very austere, as you can see. We next toured a New Order Amish house, and the differences were quite noticeable. Between houses, I took pictures of an apple tree:
...and a handmade wooden toy steamshovel:
The New Order Amish aren't as strict about electricity. They believe in being separate from "the world," so they won't connect to the local electric grid. But they have no objection to generators or batteries:
...and these ovens certainly look like they might be hooked up to the local utilities. But this kitchen is used to bake cookies and breads in large quantities, for sale to the public, so they might have made an exception here:
Yes, the young woman in the picture is Amish. I waited until her back was turned, because the Amish generally don't like to have their pictures taken.
I was intrigued by this rocking chair in the living room, made primarily of bent and twisted tree branches. Terry also found it quite comfortable:
This bedroom might look a lot like the Swartzentruber bedroom we saw earlier. But note the wallpaper, linoleum floor, and oil lamp on the table:
I also found these children's toys interesting - all hand made, of course:
I saw an open Bible on a table, and when I looked at it, I discovered it wasn't in English. And while I don't speak German, I'm familiar enough with the language to know that the Bible wasn't in German, either. I checked the title page and confirmed what I suspected - this was a Pennsylvania Dutch Bible:
In one of the bedrooms upstairs, Andrea showed us a display of typical Amish clothes:
...including a wedding dress:
We then walked over to the barn for the barn tour:
...and Bob appears to have made a friend:
In the barn, we saw:
Harnesses...
...horses...
...goats...
...rabbits...
...and pot bellied pigs
...in other words, the kinds of things you'd expect to find in a barn.
Out behind the barn, we found this buggy waiting for us:
...and met Abe, an elderly Amish gentleman who was to be our driver, and his horse, Katy. Abe was Old Order Amish, and had a very dry wit. He also had two very prominent front teeth - Bob said he looked like Bugs Bunny when he smiled.
Bob and Jean got in the back of the buggy, and Terry and Trooper got in the front:
I then started to climb in next to Terry, until Abe pointed out that he needed to sit there, so he could drive! So I wedged myself into the back seat with Bob and Jean, and away we went:
After the buggy ride, we went into the schoolroom:
...where I thought there was supposed to be another tour, but there was no one there. We looked at a display of schoolbooks laid out on the table:
...and looked out the back window at a pair of outhouses:
We made some purchases in the gift shop - Terry bought a cookbook, of course, and I bought a couple of Christmas presents for my family. We also bought a newspaper called The Budget - "Serving the Amish-Mennonite Communities Throughout The Americas." It's sort of the Amish Internet - most of the paper is taken up by notices from the various Amish and Mennonite communities all over the country (there are even a couple in California). What struck me as I looked over the paper was the mundane nature of the "news" reported - and I don't mean "mundane" in a derogatory way. What I mean is that the news is of ordinary, everyday matters - the sort of things that the rest of us would be putting in emails and text messages.
We drove off in search of an early dinner at another Amish restaurant, Mrs. Yoder's. Any relation to the Yoders of Yoder's Amish House? Possibly, although Yoder is a pretty common name among the Amish. Still, I understand that most of the Amish in America today are descended from a small number of original immigrant families.
The area where we were driving was in the heart of Ohio's Amish country. We saw many Amish riding in buggies, and some on bicycles. We saw houses which were evidently Amish (buggies parked in the garage), and occasionally saw someone working in the yard. We passed local schools, with groups of Amish boys and girls playing in the schoolyard. At one point, I stopped to ask directions, and spoke to a group of about half a dozen Amish women socializing outside a store.
We passed more than one place that sells and services buggies:
...and I was quite amused when I saw this bank. Now really, would you want to trust your money to a bank with a name like that?
Many Amish supplement their income by selling farm produce, or handmade crafts (more about that later). You can often see signs like this one by the side of the road:
The phrase "No Sunday" at the bottom of the sign is a clue that the sellers are Amish - they won't do business on the Sabbath.
One thing the Amish are well known for, at least in Ohio, is cheese. We went to an Amish cheese factory, with the somewhat unfortunate name of Heini's:
...where I browsed for a while, and bought a couple of packages of cheese.
We headed back toward Apple Valley, passing through the town of Berlin, which is sort of Ground Zero for the tourism industry in Ohio's Amish country. The main drag through town was your usual mix of tacky tourist shops.
After getting back to the resort, and seeing Bob and Jean safely on their way home, I headed out to pick up some sandwiches for a light supper - we had eaten heartily at Mrs. Yoder's. On the way, I passed this interesting looking church:
...which a sign identified as Quarry Rock Church. At the sandwich shop, I was quite amused to see this poster on the wall, consisting of a collage of Los Angeles street names:
Those are all well known, major streets in Los Angeles... except for the second one, Londonderry Place. I had to look that one up - it's a small residential street off of the Sunset Strip. I'm not sure how that street qualified for the poster, but... there it is.