The Social Porcupine

First read: Part I Part II Current Richards family photo. Back row, left to right: JJ, Tammy, Caleb, Brandon. Front row: Gideon, Iris, Hope, and Faith.  Did you have many friends among the Amish? Rebekah:  I found that most all the ladies were friendly. A couple in particular I really felt like were friends. One was Freida. Another was Annie. I remember driving by her place and recognizing it from my childhood, getting out and saying,  "Do you know me?!" Tammy :  I had a couple Amish I considered friends, and I still exchange letters with them. Erin :  Oh yes! So close that to me we feel as if we are one of their family members. I just went to an Amish funeral for the woman that was like my Amish mother. The men don't hug women, but her husband hugged me five minutes, bawling his eyes out. Every time I return I feel tempted to live like the Amish again– my husband calls it Amish-meningitis. But he doesn't want to return—he likes me looking pretty, ...

Part I Part III Harrison children: Amish days.  Describe where you lived — the land, house, and some of your “conveniences”. Rebekah:  I remember when I first came to look at the house. The kids and I bought milk and got directions. An old white farmhouse with windows that had been boarded up because kids had vandalized the place and broken the windows. On the border of their community, the Amish wanted someone in this house I think to keep it from being vandalized. Its location also helped to keep us separate from them.There were a couple of skeletons of birds that were in the closet. Dusty . . . It needed cleaned . . . But all we saw was potential. When we moved in it was winter. It took hours for our little wood stoves to heat themselves up and get the house toasty . . . Although at first we had doors and rooms shut off so we were just heating the living room and kitchen. We covered the broken windows with blankets and tucked the little ones in blankets on stack...

Many people are obsessed with the Amish. I know at one time I was as well, and to a degree I still am. But my perception  has changed with experience. It started a long time ago when my family went to an Amish-held auction (no, it's not a place where you can buy Amish children, but a place where you can buy things from the Amish). I was eleven years old and enthralled to be surrounded by so many Amish. I loved the cockscomb flowers they sold everywhere. I bought a whole box for $2 and dried them for seeds so I could plant my own. But then I experienced my first reality shock concerning the Amish. I had assumed since they lived a simpler life everything about them was completely old-fashioned and natural. Imagine my horror when I saw Amish walking around with soda cans and store-bought ice cream. " Mom ," I said. "He's drinking soda!"  Left to right, back row: Jonny, Jonathan (Dad). Front row: Jacob, Keturah, Rebekah (Mom), Jonah (on Mom's...