To: Prodigal Daughter
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.
49 posted on
06/06/2002 2:53:23 PM PDT by
PJ-Comix
To: PJ-Comix
That's interesting: your #49. I'm sure these people were Amish. I went back to visit them maybe 7 years ago and like an idiot, I asked them if I could take their picture. (They don't believe in photography.).
This thread is incomplete. It needs some Amish recipes.
To: PJ-Comix
"Mennonites are similar to Amish but they can drive cars and wear regular clothes."Drive cars? Regular clothes!?!? BURN THE HERETICS!!
To: PJ-Comix
The Mennonites here wear plain clothing, colorful but very plain, and the white caps on their heads. They wear sneakers or running shoes on their feet much of the time. Good folks. Glad to see them buying up our dying farms around here and fixing them up. They also manufacture and install windows, make sheds for your home, run stores, etc.
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