Today was the first time for me. I live in D.C. and have been to Pennsylvania many times. Driving through, I have often seen the Amish riding around in their horse and buggies. Today, I went with some family to buy a dog from an Amish farm in PA. The dog is AWESOME. It’s a Goldendoodle. The farm was Amish and the man lived there with his wife and 3 kids. It was a pretty big and nice place. He bread a few dogs on the side.
One thing I noticed about the Amish; they looked much healthier and normal (besides their clothing) than the average person in small town Pennsylvania. Some of those towns are pretty grim and the people look almost inbred.
Anyways, I talked to the Amish guy and told him I had never met an Amish person before. We made some small talk and talked about sports mostly. He was wearing a straw hat and had a long goatee. I asked him if he ever watched football and he said he only read about it in newspapers. I know the Amish can’t take pictures but he looked at the picture I took of the dog on my phone, so I guess that’s not banned.
I asked him if I could use his bathroom and he said sure. I went inside and took a wiz. The bathroom had candles in it and a Bible verse above the toilet. The house was nice and looked like a regular house, except there were no light switches on the wall. There were also no TV’s, dishwashers, microwaves or any electronic device.
After I came out, I talked to the guys wife for a few minutes in their kitchen. It was pretty surreal in a way. She was friendly, and normal except she was dressed like it was 1868. We talked about dogs mostly. The guy’s daughter was there and she was a teenager and wearing a bonnet. She was friendly enough too.
I’m going back in a month to pick up the dog. We got a good deal on it. It probably would have been double price if we bought it in my area.
Some interesting facts about the Amish:
-There are 240,000 Amish in the U.S. They are a sect of Christianity that believe in modesty and being detached from the “sinful” outside world.
-They are pacifists and won’t fight back if attacked.
-They don’t pay into social security and won’t take any government assistance.
-They believe electricity connects them to the outside world so it’s bad because it can lead to sin.
-They don’t try to convert people like some other religious sects; like Mormons and Jehova’s Witnesses.
-They don’t have a formal Church but are many Churches.
-Their main occupation is farming.
-They speak a German dialect with each other and English with outsiders.