Amish Acres (Part 2)

The tour continued to a one-room schoolhouse where Amish children attend school from around the age of 7 until 8th grade. Amish do not feel a need for education beyond 8th grade. They learn the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, plus a little history and geography. They don't want the children to know much about the world outside of their community, they don't want them to become "worldly". And they learn from their parents all they will need to know about farming, cooking, washing, sewing, etc.

At about the age of 16, the Amish send their children out into the "real world" so they can see and experience it for themselves, and then decide on their own if they want to remain in the "real world" or return to the Amish community. During that time (typically a year or two), if the child chooses, they can earn their GED degree. About 90% of the children return to the Amish way of life. Typically, Amish girls marry around the age of 18, boys around the age of 21. The marriages are NOT arranged, they are free to choose their own partners. But they are expected to immediately start a family and to have as many children as possible - typically around 7 or 8 children. Big families are needed because they do everything the hard way!

The Amish do not baptise their children - they want each child to make that decision for themselves. Once the child decides to be baptised into the Amish religion, if they do not adhere to the Amish policies, they are shunned. But until they make the decision to become Amish, they are given a lot of liberties - the parents don't put a lot of pressure on them because they want them to WANT to be Amish.

While Amish do not make use of any public utilities - no elecricity, no natural gas, etc., they sometimes do use bottled gas (I'm guessing propane) to provide some power inside their houses - for lights, for washing to power the agitator (they might have a wringer-washer similar to the one my mom had back in the day), for refrigeration, and to run a pump for water for showers, indoor toilets, things like that. They do willingly pay taxes and obey all the laws. But they don't take advantage of Social Security, unemployment, or any type of insurance (including medical). They consider insurance to be gambling. They don't own or operate automobiles, but they will accept rides in cars and, in inclement weather, they might pay someone to drive them somewhere. They do work for other people, in factories, stores, or on other farms. So as time goes on, it appears they are getting a little bit modern.

OK, OK, Sorry. I'll stop going on and on now and show you some more photos . . .

One-Room Amish Schoolhouse -

Note the little extra room on the right!

Amish School bus - horse drawn of course.

Most of the children prefer to ride bicycles or walk to school.

But Flat Merary wanted to ride the bus.

Inside the School - These are the authentic desks -

Two children per desk, with a chalkboard and chalk provide

The school is heated by a wood-burning stove

Homework is rarely assigned because the children

have many chores to do at home - helping with the washing,

cooking, and farming - and the parents don't want their time used for homework.

Besides the school house, they have a blacksmith shop, an apple cider mill, a maple sugar camp, an ice house, and . . .

A broom shop. Ralph showed us how to make a broom.

After our tour, we had a delicious "Thresher Dinner" served family style in a huge, converted barn. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it - it was so interesting. At one time there was a hay-loft above the barn floor, and you can see the ax marks all along the sides of the huge beams that support the loft.

There was so much food - and it was so good. The all-you-can-eat meal was a typical dinner that was served to the threshers who made the circuit at harvest time, and consisted of:

Iron kettle of thick ham & bean soup

Basket of freshly-baked bread

Fresh yellow butter

Crock of home-made apple butter

Relish (pickled cauliflower and pickles)

Sweet & sour cabbage salad

Corn

Beef & Noodles

Mashed Potatoes

Sage Dressing & Giblet Gravy

Broasted Chicken AND

your choice of either

Honey-baked hickory-smoked ham

or

Tender roast beef

And as if that wasn't enough, when we were so stuffed we could hardly move, they brought out this huge tray with slices of every kind of pie you can think of. John had a strawberry pie that he said was yummy. I opted for Shoo-fly pie because I had never tasted it before. It was pretty sweet (made from molasses, brown sugar and something else I can't remember), sort of like the filling for pecan pie without the pecans. It was good.

There are also a lot of shops there, which of course we had to walk through. There were some things that were locally made - some quilts, placemats, potholders, and Amish dolls - so I finally got to see some of their handiwork. It's really expensive and I managed to get out without buying anything - much to John's relief I think!

After we were "Amished-out", we drove south down the center of Indiana and are now in Kokomo, which is maybe 50 miles or so north of Indianapolis, where we will be tomorrow.