Meeting the Amish

After spending the night in the lovely Lancaster Art House Hotel we drove out to the town of Intercourse which is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and is home to 32,000 Amish folk. Meeting them was a real eye opener. They welcomed us into their homes and were extremely happy to show us around their farms. No question was off limit. They were very keen for us to go away with a true understanding of their life style. Contrary to popular belief they do have telephones but these are in small what they call cabinets (out houses) in the backyard. They may be used for business and for emergencies although they did say, with a smile, that arranging a date can be viewed as business. Also contrary to popular belief they avail themselves of both medical and dental health care. They use many modern conveniences but whereas we use electricity to run those appliances, etc they use propane gas, coal burning and batteries in order to provide the power. The number of Amish in Pennsylvania is growing. In fact their population doubles ever 20 years. Because of this they have found it difficult to survive, so most of them have developed other ways to supplement the family income. Many of the daughters will work in local shops and businesses. A lot of the homes have shops attached to them from which they sell their magnificent handmade quilts. They also sell produce from their large gardens as well as baked goods and preserves. We visited one farms that had a bakery and a large shop. They sold the most delicious hand rolled soft pretzels. Stephen and I enjoyed them so much we had two. One of the most interesting facts is that 8 million tourists visit Intercourse each year......the same number that visit New York City. Amazing!!! The town is extremely quaint, the countryside lush and green and their cottage industries growing. We were told that 9% of the population are millionaires. Amish children attend school until they are in Grade 8, approximately 14/15 years of age. At age 16 they leave the family home for Rumspringa. At this time they are encouraged to investigate the world before deciding to enter the religion of the Amish. If they return home they are then, and only then baptised into the faith at age 20. It was fascinating to learn that 95% of the children do in fact return home and go on to be baptised.