Curious about Amish and Rumspringa

[CortlandGirl79]

You're welcome.............glad you like it.

[firefightermom]

I go to an Amish salvage grocery store in Newburg, PA. Skylights in the ceiling provide the majority of light, but they do have lanterns to use. Their freezer is powered by a generator, as is the cash register. I don't recall seeing a phone. There are always horses and buggys around.

There are a lot of Mennonites near where I live--some have a type of German accent to their English, plus they speak an entirely different language which doesn't sound like German to me. Others have no accent at all. They drive and have cell phones too, but dress as the Amish do. Their children wear regular clothes like my kids. When people around here have garage sales, tons of Mennonites come out and they are very nice and buy tons of things, which is great!

[BevoInPA]

Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch in family situations and High German during services.

[firefightermom]

Thanks for the info...my interest is piqued so now I'll have to do some reading!

[mcorrales]

Rumspringa is a time of freedom for teens. I never heard where they leave and live among the English. However, it is a time for them to reflect on their decision to commit forever to the Amish way of life. Normally, they have gatherings of the youths in the Amish homes where they meet and kind of hook-up. They usually are allowed to stay out past dark and if a young man takes a young woman home in his buggy a number of times, it usually ends in marriage. From what I understand, marriage occur only in November, after the harvest. There are some very good books in your local library, some novels, some documentaries that explain the Amish way of living.

[BevoInPA]

I took at class at Penn State in State College called Pennsylvania German History because the class fit my schedule well and fulfilled my undergraduate core requirement for a humanities class. It turned out to be very interesting and I still look at the text books occassionally 15 years later.

I recall one text said the average family has 8 children and one chooses to no get baptized. I believe Anne Byler, owner of Auntie Annie's Soft Pretzels, was raised Amish and did not get baptized. The young are sort of trapped into the religion since the Amish only educate to 8th grade and only in their own school houses.

[ricksr]

mcorrales is correct and, at least in Lancaster County, most youngsters don't go completely crazy (in our eyes anyway, their parents may think differently). They still work and attend family happenings but are given leaway on their own time, mostly weekend nights. They will change clothes and go to English areas (movies, bowling, malls, etc) but you can't miss them with their unique mannerisms and hair cuts. Some do have cars hidden away in a corn field somewhere. When the boys do hook up for a date you can tell by the uncoverd buggy or a girl's legs hanging out of a covered one. And if you live near an amish farm, around midnight you'll hear the buggy racing home to beat curfew. Hope this helps.