After dropping our son off to his grandparents’ house, we headed to Lancaster County PA to Osceola Mill Bed and Breakfast. Ron welcomed us into his establishment, telling us that the place was 240 years old, and most of the people living on his street are Amish. There are only a few Englishers living on his street, and the few Englishers are the only ones using electricity since the Amish don’t use it. He told me he’d arranged for us to have dinner with Sally and her family (an Amish family) at 6:00 that evening.

He suggested we go to The Kettle Village for the remainder of the day, before dinner. So, as we headed in that direction, we stopped at one of the many farms in the area. The smell was pretty strong, kind of reminded me of the dairy farm I visited over a year ago. I took these pics of the horses grazing in the grass.

On the way, we passed a lot of buggies. I’d wanted to take some pics of the buggies, but I was not able to have my camera ready when we passed them, plus I was driving. When we arrived at The Kettle Village, we wandered through the different stores. I went into Lapp’s Coach Shop and admired the furniture. I thought it was reasonably priced and they had hope chests, stools, children’s furniture, dressers, and children’s games. We purchased a small wooden train with a caboose for our son. The pieces hook together and in between the train and the caboose is our son’s name, CJ (his name’s really Christopher, but we call him CJ). I didn’t feel like purchasing all of the letters to his name, plus, I thought he might lose them! I saw a cute little children’s game where a small wooden car set that’s linked together, runs down a four-layer ramp. I was tempted to get this for our son, but, again, was unsure if he’d be able to keep the cars and not lose them.

We then went to a quilt shop and then to an art store. In both the quilt shop and Coach shop, there were signs stating that no photos were allowed. We saw more buggies on the road, but, again, I was not able to get a picture.

By this time, it was time to head Sally’s for dinner. On the way, I saw an Amish boy riding on a scooter. I stopped the car and rolled my window down, and a fresh wave of manure/animal/farm smell swept into our car. My hubby said, “Will you shut that window! I don’t like that smell.”

Ignoring hubby (he didn’t realize what I was doing since he’s blind, and didn’t know there was a kid across the street that I wanted to talk to.) I asked the kid, “Hi, can I take your picture?”

The boy nodded.

I then said, “Your mommy won’t mind if I take it?”

He shook his head. I focused, aimed, and took the pic…just as a truck went roaring by! So, I said, “Hold on, let me get another one.” I took a second pic, and here it is!

I thought it turned out really good!

I said, “Thank you!”

He just shrugged and said, “You’re welcome,” before riding away on his scooter.

We showed up at Sally’s a short time later. I saw two other dinner guests waiting in the yard and discovered they were staying in the same bed and breakfast where we were staying. They’d walked down and I mentioned how Ron had said there aren’t any streetlights on the road at night, so it’s pretty dark. They said they’d brought their flashlight with them to light the way! I took a couple of pics of the flowers growing in front of Sally’s house. The other guests mentioned that the flowers had a lot of butterflies floating around them earlier, but, by the time I took these pics, the butterflies were gone for the most part.

Sally invited us inside, and there were about twenty people there. The guests consisted of: Me and my hubby
A foursome from Argentina
A married couple (can’t recall where they were from)
A couple from Massachusetts (they’re the ones staying in the same B&B as hubby and I)
Someone from Sweden (with wife and family, I think)
A couple of people from the UK, along with their families.

Sally and her older daughters (Sally has seven kids, the oldest is about 16 and the youngest is 2!) served us: bread, butter, water, canned fruit, applesauce, chicken pot pie, barbequed meatloaf, potatoes, corn, and pickles. There was chocolate cake and vanilla cream pie for dessert.

After dinner, Sally sat at the table and asked everybody to introduce themselves, tell where they were from and what they did for a living. She also invited us to ask questions about the Amish life. I asked about Rumspringa, do the Amish really act that wild during those years? She implied that the Englisher perspective of Rumspringa is exaggerated. Her sixteen year old is going through Rumspringa right now and all it is is youth group. She meets with a large youth group every Sunday and this is the period of time where the young people start looking for a mate. She said they don’t usually start dating until 18 and they don’t usually get married until their early twenties. She did say that Rumspringa is the time where SOME Amish stray from the faith – wearing English clothes and doing other things, like driving cars.

I also asked about the educational requirements. Why do the Amish only go to school until the eighth grade? She said that they don’t need an education higher than the eighth grade since most of them are farmers, so they don’t really need the higher education for that profession. Sally’s family owns a dairy farm. Two of her children were outside milking the cows while we ate dinner. She also said that because of state laws, the children are required to attend a weekly three-hour school session until they are fifteen. After fifteen, they don’t have to go to school anymore.

Someone else asked about the power in the house for the refrigerator and the lights. She said they get the power from propane. A few others asked questions and it’s hard for me to remember them all, but one person asked how Sally came to host dinner for so many people in her home. She said it was a tradition started by her mother. Her mother-in-law did it for awhile, but when she couldn’t do it anymore, Sally continued the tradition.

After questions, Sally sang a few songs to us with her daughters, some songs were in German and English. She ended the dinner by singing Amazing Grace, inviting us to sing along.

We then headed back to the B&B. We saw a few buggies along the way and my hubby asked, “Do the buggies have lights on them since it’s dark?”

I responded, “Yes, I saw some lights on the buggy.”

Tomorrow we plan on going to The Plain and Fancy Farm. It’s one of the few establishments around here that’s open on Sunday. I’ll blog about that visit, too.

~Cecelia Dowdy~