[Prodigal Daughter]

Oh. I didn't know that, these Amish neighbors were in rural Michigan. I was in Lancaster County once, but where I was at, I saw more Puerto Ricans than Amish.

[PJ-Comix]

Amish are in the Midwestern rural areas of a lot of states. Northeast Indiana has a big concration of Amish. Also East-Central Ohio. The strangest thing is when I ran across some Amish while visiting South Carolina. Somehow I couldn't get used to Amish alternately speaking with thick southern accents and then switching to their German dialect.

[PJ-Comix]

A lot of what looks like Amish are actually Mennonites. Mennonites are similar to Amish but they can drive cars and wear regular clothes. For a long time, Mennonites were happy to wear regular clothes but then they noticed a strange thing. Tourists wanted to see their Amish neighbors dressed in the simple clothes. Since tourism is good for the local economy, a lot of Mennonites started wearing Amish clothes again and passed themselves off as Amish. It was sort of like Disneyworld where they have people dressed up as Mickey or Donald. In the case of the Mennonites, they put on Amish costurmes. A good rule of thumb I learned in Shipshewana is that is the Amish person you are talking to is wearing a beeper on the belt (as an "Amish" waitress serving me some food was doing), then it is good bet it is really a Mennonite in disguise.

[Marysecretary]

We're getting a lot of Mennonites in our area. I guess PA's farmland is really expensive and here it's much more reasonable. They bring a stable life to any community in which they live.