As you have friends in the area, do you have any take on my question about potential for many of these girls becoming pregnant. Personally, I don't see them running out to "unPlanned Parenthood" for the pill, nor do I think they would undergo abortions in the event they become pregnant..
There's a lot of variation in how far the majority of couples go. In the community where I grew up, it was rare for a girl to get pregnant before she was married. In the community where I live now, it's common and it's sometimes the result of recreational sex not just engaged couples getting an early start. In either case, the couple quickly gets married. Abortion sometimes occurs although I've never heard of it in Amish outside of Indiana.
I build furniture parts for many Amish shops throughout MD,PA,OH,IN and MI so I am familiar with most of the main groups of Amish.
Interseting. There really ought to be an ahmishanswers.com, but then I guess it wouldn't be up on the web?
We live in Taylorsville, MD, probably (about 40 minutes south of Gettysburg) and we had a 100 year old barn on our property when I moved out here. It was built by Ahmish (no nails). The foundation was washed out, so the thing had to come down. It broke my heart.
The branch of my family that took to the Ahmish/Mennonite/Society of Friends lifestyle (post 74) live out in Indiana and Ohio. I gather from my cousin's e-mails that they have a sort of communal situation.
While this branch of the family, did latch on with the "quiet folk", I believe they still practice some aspect of Catholic tradition, which would probably scandalize the more orthodox.
If I asked my cousin Tom whether they worshipped in a Catholic or an Ahmish church. He would probably say. "Yeah,..it's all good!"
Part Quaker, part Franciscan, part hippie and part communist, this last item, which to them, is not a perjorative.
Anyway, as a whole I believe the folks are excellent craftsman. The stuff they produce is an excellent quality! I'm betting they make good neighbors.
My husband is from PA and moved to CA in 2001. While there, we bought furniture and had to have it ordered from a place in either Indiana or Ohio. It's beautiful. We moved back to PA, bought a new house and needed new furniture so again, had it ordered. I'll find out the name and ask you if you heard of it.
What kind of furniture parts do you make?