Have you ever been to Amish country?

Country? Like USA?

Been there, done that.

My parents took me on a bus tour through Lancaster, PA when I was a kid. We were instructed not to photograph the Amish who happily sold cookies, cakes, etc. They were all lovely. A few of the men had bearded gay face.

I drove to Lancaster to see a play once. I got off the highway to stop at a McDonalds and saw a horse-drawn buggy heading into the parking lot amidst cars and trucks. It was a bit surreal. The family parked in a special buggy zone which had a post to tie the horse to. As I was getting ready to leave, I saw the family walking out with ice cream cones.

Indeed. I live in Lancaster County. It's overrated.

No, but when I lived in Germantown, MD, Amish country came to me every Friday and Saturday.

There was an enclosed Amish market across the street from where I lived. They would come in on Thursday, set up, do business Fri and Sat then leave Sat evening.

Good stuff. Fresh meat, dairy items, baked goods, produce etc. They did quite well.

I live near Amish and the damn assholes won't wear masks, well they wear masks but on their chin or neck.

I live in Ohio which has a big Amish population. I guess I take seeing Amish buggies for granted.

If you live near Amish they tend to hire people with large vans to take them shopping since they don't drive. Normally the van will be pulling a trailer to pack their purchases in. Each van will be hauling around about 10 women, they will all go in the same store at the same time and spread out buying everything in sight.

I am sure store owners love them because they almost always pay in cash but I will leave a store if they come in. I doubt any of them shoplift but they smell and talk loud in some form of Dutch/German, while giving anyone "English" the evil eye. English is what they call anyone not Amish.

I live in Ohio which has a big Amish population. I guess I take seeing Amish buggies for granted.

Do you live in Holmes county? Those amish are some hard core Trumpers

True fact: there is a very high rate of incest and sexual molestation in the amish community; women and girls are treated like beasts of burden by the menfolk. I grew up in Knox County and the amish population has increased significantly because it's so cheap. Cookies & breads notwithstanding, amish are often unpopular with the locals because they vote against school levies.

Overall, the amish mind their own business & keep their property nice, but "closed" societies definitely have their downsides

You run into them in the Finger Lakes area of New York and in parts of southern Ohio, as well as PA and some other states. You'll be driving through the countryside and turn a corner into a small town and suddenly there's a long clothes line filled with about twenty identical pairs of black pants. And the buggies.

[quote]I doubt any of them shoplift but they smell and talk loud in some form of Dutch/German

What do they smell of exactly? - if you don't mind me asking.

I live in central Pennsylvania / Pennsyltucky. My town is nearly half Amish. There's actually many different sects of Amish, with different rules and ways of living within each congregation. Around me, there are three types of Amish, most easily recognized by the style of buggy they drive: The "black toppers" (shown in OP's photo) are the most liberal. The black toppers above are not the same congregation as in Lancaster. The "yellow toppers" (similar buggy, but with a yellow fiberglass body instead of black) are in the middle. And then "white toppers" are the most austere and most plentiful near me. They believe bonnets are too vain so their women wear black kerchiefs, purple dresses and black aprons. The men wear white coarse shirts, one suspender (two is vain), brown denim pants and jackets, straw hats, shoulder length hair, and very broad-brimmed hats. The bank just up the road has a hitching post next to the drive-thru. We also have the full spectrum of Mennonite congregations too, from basically-Amish to normal-dress, car-driving normals.

The Amish keep to themselves to some degree, but aren't shy about taking advantage of modern conveniences that their neighbors own. They regularly mooch or barter for rides to town. Rules about technology are more flexible than you might think; some Amish keep cell phones in the barn or have gas-powered equipment (depending on the sect). Many run sawmills with power equipment. Bikes are verboten, but scooters are ok. The rules don't make sense to outsiders. The unbreakable rule is usually: Not in the house.

There's all types in any community, but they're not universally the angelic people some think they are. Alcoholism is rampant (you sometimes hear about the horse steering the buggy home at night with the driver passed out). I heard of an Amish girl offering an "English" (what they call non-Amish) a blowjob for a meal from McDonalds once. I'm sure it gets even cringier than that.

Traditionally, less than 10% of the Amish vote. Also, people think of the Amish as a dying way of life when in fact their numbers are exploding.

R12...they spend a lot of time with horses, so.....they smell of road apples.

[quote] What do they smell of exactly? - if you don't mind me asking.

They're farmers and sawyers and roofers and laborers, they sweat all day. They smell like BO, like they work hard. And the lamp oil or kerosene they use to light their houses.

R10 - my ancestors lived in Holmes Co., OH, so we went and visited. Like the others said, it was kind of surreal to see the buggies parked at Pizza Hut. I walked past an Amish lady in the street, but she put her head down so she wouldn't have to say hello.

My partner and I were at Union Station in Chicago a few years ago on December 23rd. It was surreal because there were at least a hundred Amish waiting on the benches in the Great Hall. I grew up around Amish and never would have guessed that they would be traveling by train for Christmas, and especially in such large groups.

I had the opposite experience, R17, in far western New York once. I stopped for gas in a small town and as I was pumping an Amish girl walked past and said "hi" to me. Very jarring; saying hi to a strange outsider is probably the Amish equivalent of flashing her boobs.

The Lancaster County community seems like a human zoo/tourist trap. I grew-up near the Middlefield in Ohio near Cleveland which is small enough that it's more integrated into the local community, although land costs have made it difficult for some people to stay.

The Amish have been moving into places other people have left---Kentucky now has more Amish than Ohio or Pennsylvania and they've moved into difficult areas like far northern NY State. Their large families and communal ways of life make it possible for them to make a living out of substance farming in a way that others can't anymore. It probably helped that they are sought after as carpenters.

Anyone else remember this mess?

Fun Fact: Brazil has an amish (or Mennonite, to be exact) population; I believe these sects left (or got run out of) German & Russia before WWI. I saw a bunch in the airport & I have to say as Amish go, they were a stylish & attractive bunch.

Belize has a sizable Mennonite popoulation.

As someone said posted above, alcoholism is rampant...especially among the teenagers. DUI buggy crashes are common on the roads.

Several years ago I drove from Maryland to southeast Tennessee to do some genealogy research. I was meandering near the border of Bledsoe and Van Buren counties, in the back roads, and I noticed the roads became less finished and then then were unpaved, and then when I crested one little hill I suddenly came upon two Amish young women walking along the road pushing a bicycle. I was confused and then it dawned on me that there was an Amish community there, since I saw lots of barns and the roads were rough. I finally figured out how to exit the area, and later on when I asked some relatives, they told me that there has been an Amish community there for some time. It was quite a surprise.

I was on an Amtrak training Wisconsin years ago back when you could smoke in the lounge car. A younger man unmarried ( no beard ) asked me to buy him a beer as he didn’t have any ID. He assured me he was 21. I bought him a beer and offered a cigarette. We made intense eye contact and ended up playing footsie under the table. I bought a round of beers. They called the next stop and he said he was off. When he got up to leave he was obviously hard and obviously hung. One last longing glance and he was gone.

They make amazing pies. In out part of the country, they are all have last names Miller or Yoder.

Their clothes are tragic.