Let me make one thing clear from the start. When Grumpy and I set out to discover more about the Amish and Mennonites, we were never intending to live like them. It’s just I always find it more fun to learn about things firsthand than to read about them in a book. So it was we found ourselves heading off to Northern Indiana for a weekend.
I admit I knew very little about the two religious groups, other than that they dress like the youngest volunteers at the Naper Settlement and have a furniture store on Route 59. I also knew they literally lived in the past — no electronics or even electricity for them.
The trip went well until we made a pit stop just over the Illinois/Indiana border.
“We’ve lost the signal. Now what are we going to do?” said Grumpy, banging the GPS. “See if you’ve got a signal on your phone.”
“Nope,” I said. “But luckily, I picked this up just now. It’s a leaflet for the place we’re heading to and there’s a map on the back.”
Grumpy squinted at the postage stamp-sized sketch.
“That’s not a map, it’s a logo,” he said.
“Well, I don’t have anything better, so I suggest we just continue on this road and follow the signs,” I said with all the confidence of someone who had no idea of the implications of what she’d just said. “We’ll be just like the Amish. They just go everywhere in their horse and buggy. No gadgets allowed.”
“Their horses probably have more of an idea of where they are going than my engine does,” Grumpy shot back. “Plus, I don’t see many of them galloping along the tollway. Do you?”
Fortunately, we’d only traveled a mile or so up the road before the GPS signal returned. Before we knew it, we were pulling into our home for the night, the quaintly-named Amish Acres in Nappanee.
“This looks cute,” I said. “Just like Naper Settlement but with Amish.”
“I’ve lost the signal again!” Grumpy moaned.
The girl who welcomed us at the inn seemed less than enthusiastic about our arrival. She had a grimace on her face that said, “Here’s another tourist complaining about his phone.”
“Are you on T-Mobile?” she said sweetly. We are. “You won’t get a signal here.”
Over at the farm, we learned not only could we live without our phones, but some people never use them at all. Yes, even in 2018. Shocking.
It turns out the Amish are a group of traditional Christian Church fellowships with Swiss German roots. Once they are married, Amish men wear beards without mustaches. This is because they’re a peace-loving people. Confused? Let me explain. Mustaches are forbidden because they are associated with the European military officers who oppressed them in the past. Beards are allowed because the officers were not allowed to wear them. The Amish speak their own dialect — Pennsylvania Dutch — to each other, but English to everyone else. Speaking of English, that’s what they call everyone who isn’t Amish, so it’s just a lucky coincidence I am from England.
Clothes are always plain, reflecting humility, modesty and a sense of pride in their religion. Women wear white head coverings, sometimes with black bonnets over the top when they go out. Their clothes are fastened with straight pins while the men are allowed to have hooks and eyes, but typically no buttons or zippers.
Mennonites have very similar practices, being a sect of the Amish. They’re a bit more liberal, embracing some mechanical devices, like cars and tractors, and the women wear colors and use elastic in their clothing.
Amish children are only educated until eighth grade. When they hit 16 or so, they leave the community. That time, called Rumspringa, ends when they decide to embrace their own community for the rest of their lives or choose to leave. In the typical two years it takes, they can live freely, doing pretty much whatever they want. When they return, they are baptized; in fact, they are part of the Anabaptist sect, which means they are only baptized when they are old enough to choose it for themselves.
The Amish live in farming communities in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Their lives are simple, riding in horse-drawn buggies, although they can be driven in vehicles by other people. They try to run their businesses without modern aids, which might explain why the grocery store we stopped at only accepted cash or personal checks. They don’t have phones in their houses but may have one in a box at the roadside of their home.
It’s not easy to get a photograph of an Amish person because it’s against their religion, perhaps in part because they don’t own the technology to take one themselves. I guess an Amish selfie would be a self-portrait done in oils, but, in fact, this would be impossible because they don’t use mirrors.
The Amish use the same skills as their ancestors to make money. Men are often carpenters while the women bake. If you’re looking for modern upscale hotels when visiting Amish country, you’re going to be out of luck. Both hotels and restaurants cater to tourists and the Amish, so they are very modest.
The Threshers Dinner at Amish Acres is a carb-only spread of things no one under 40 eats anymore. Thick ham-and-bean soup and bread straight out of the oven followed by country fried chicken actually fried in the country, beef stew, plump dressing, noodles, green beans and buttery mashed potatoes. If that isn’t enough, it is followed by a vast selection of sweet flaky pies and a four-poster bed in which to sleep it all off. To think I thought it was only alcohol that gave you a hangover!
On our second day, we drove 45 minutes to picturesque Shipshewana without the aid of a GPS or a phone. This time I had a map.
I always say Grumpy and I would still be driving around O’Hare International Airport 11 years after our arrival in this country without the aid of GPS, but it’s amazing what you can do when you have a snarling husband at your side and the right piece of paper in your hands. I was able to navigate without so much as a compass, just like our Amish neighbors.
In today’s world, where we are so connected all the time, the idea going back to live in the peace of a bygone era can seem like a welcome relief. That the Amish are a peace-loving religious group not out to hurt or convert anyone makes you want to embrace them even more. They’re part of America’s rich culture, and something we should all experience at least once if only to remind us that all of the things we surround ourselves with does not guarantee a fulfilling and happy life.
