More Ashland County Amish

Shot through the windshield on the way to meet the family for lunch (I wasn't driving).
Notice that the buggy has no lanterns on the sides, nor a warning triangle on the back. Amish in Ashland County do not use such modern devices, making them more prone to accidents (but notice the bag of tortilla chips?).

We've not had a buggy/car crash in our area for many years, but when I was in grade school, a drunk driver hit the Miller family buggy on a dark night. I don't remember all of the details, but as I recall there were 11 children. Eight survived, at least two were paralyzed and confined to wheel chairs. The horse had to be put down and the English community (that would be all the non-Amish) were deeply affected and saddened.
Shortly after that, the sheriff asked that they begin using lanterns and orange triangles, but as you can see, that didn't happen.

Later in the day, we passed another buggy. It was a three-bench buggy, pulled by two beautiful black horses. A shelf had been built across the back seat and on that shelf was about 15 boxes of cereal. I've never seen anything quite like that. My dad and I are guessing they were on the way home from the grocery store and the shelf was built to haul all the kids and the groceries, kind of like a car trunk.....I mean if you've got a three bench buggy, you must have a mess of kids, right?

Amish in the City

This afternoon, we were up at the university to have a family portrait shot when this young man came up the street. I jumped out of the picture I was sitting for, grabbed my camera and snapped this picture (thinking only of my blog post, of course). This is a daily sight around town as the Amish use our hospital. They shop at our grocery and hardware stores. They're in and out of town frequently.
The Amish in Ashland County are Schwartzentruber Amish, the segment of the Amish most resistant to change and technology and they keep to themselves more so than New Order Amish or the Beachy. Given that, taking a picture is generally a no-no.......

......but it appears that I got busted making his image.

Amish School

Amish School, originally uploaded by mainelife240.

Another of my dad's photos, taken at the Amish school in our little Ohio county.

Ashland County Amish

My dad braved the Ohio portion of last week's blizzard to see what the neighbors were up to. They were up to a little manure spreading and some blacksmithing and they were heading off to school. The English kids had a snow day, but not the Amish kids.


























He wanted me to be sure to tell you that he was in a nice warm car, not in a buggy, so he really didn't feel that brave.
Especially after he shot this picture: