Good morning!

(After about a month of being away from blogging, I will begin - again - recounting our wonderful 50th anniversary trip to the Amish country in beautiful Pennsylvania.  Due to the unexpected illness and subsequent death of my sister, Bea Miller, I spent the month of July in Texas.  Later I will publish my tribute to Bea.  I miss her terribly.)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

After a restful night in our RV, we were awakened by a brilliant sunrise.  The sun was up very early, long before 6 a.m.  We raised our blinds to reveal the most tranquil scenery imaginable!  Perfectly manicured farm fields with silos and barns and residences greeted us.  The beauty surrounding us was punctuated with an occasional clickety-clack of an Amish farmer's buggy and his horse, loping along the road, a short distance from our RV.  We were parked in a prime spot for enjoying the unimaginable scenery and traffic of the locals going about their daily activities. Talk about a room with a view!

Excited is much too bland a word to describe the anticipation of all that awaited us as we set out on our first day to explore and enjoy this part of God's beautiful world.  Our first stop was at the Visitor's Center near downtown Lancaster and there we received an abundance of literature about the area attractions and sights to see and enjoy.  We decided on a bus tour, and since we were the only guests on the bus, we received all the attention and soaked up the guide's talking points.  She was very, very good, and totally knowledgeable of the area and its people.  As a native of that part of the country, she was well-versed in its history and culture and patiently answered our many questions.

Along the way, our guide pointed out a one-room school house, noting its outdoor toilet facilities, one each for the boys and girls.  She mentioned that all children are educated only through the 8^th grade.  Even the teachers only attend 8 years and are mentored by an older person before they begin teaching.  She stopped at a covered bridge and let us walk through, viewing the serene Conestoga River below.  We viewed many homes of the Amish farmers, homes which were easily identified by their typically dark window treatments which provided both privacy and a certain degree of cooling from the outside sun.  We saw cisterns (or holding tanks) which are used to supply water to the homes.  A windmill powers the tanks and gravity causes the water to flow into the homes.

Almost every home had one or more clotheslines, proudly show-casing their washed garments, flying high in the air at an angle.  The Amish are very predictable and disciplined in all that they do.  Even the clothes were hung in an orderly fashion.  Dark work clothes dominated the wash, but there were clothing representative of the young children all the way to the grown men.  Even intimate feminine apparel was blowing in the wind!  The lines were anchored to the house or other nearby structure and then to some taller building - perhaps a barn or tree - and the clothes were raised and lowered by a pulley mechanism.  This allowed the clothes to be hoisted very high in the air, permitting horses and tractors or other farm equipment to pass underneath them without soiling the freshly washed clothes.  With an average family of seven, every day but Sunday is wash day!  Interestingly, clothes washers are powered by gasoline - which is legal - but no electricity is permitted in the home, lest potential for evil influences enter inside!  Telephones or other electrical devices are permitted in outside buildings, so there seems to be a bit of legalism to the outsiders trying to grasp an understanding of the practices of the Amish.  And, not all clotheslines were hoisted; many lined the front porches or yards, but these were not adjacent to the areas where the farm animals were kept.

Our guide explained the practice of "shunning" in the Amish Church.  This is a form of discipline when a member commits a sin or transgression, if you will, against the church.  If someone does commit an offense against the church's disciplinary rules, that person is "shunned", even in their own home, to the point of taking meals alone.  They are even forbidden to transact business among other Amish folks until they repent and are restored to fellowship.  Church gatherings are held in Amish homes on a rotating basis.  Benches to accommodate the worshippers are hauled by a "bench trailer", and extra dishes are also transported from home to home for serving the meals.  No paper products are permitted, ladies!  I'm sure there are enough hands to wash, dry, and store the dishes and utensils before the next gathering.

There is a deep respect and reverence for the Amish folks, and all visitors are encouraged to honor their beliefs, practices, and customs.  No photos which show their faces are to be taken except in unusual circumstances where permission is first granted (as in a documentary, for instance).  There were still many wonderful photo opportunities, however, which we took advantage of without dishonoring their requests.

Day 3 was fun, informative, relaxing, and just what we needed to get off to a wonderful start in our exploring of Lancaster, Pennsylvania!


Hard at work!


The contrasting stages of the plantings and harvests were eye-catching.




Love that orange triangle!  This is a very common sight on all the roads within and without the city. 

Doesn't this give you a feeling of contentment?



This particular clothesline was not "hoisted", as you can see.



Love the layers of color!  Such great care in tilling the earth.



Flowers alongside the corn!




Can you find the darling little boy in the garden among the onions?


We watched each other!

All in a day's work!