Cultural differences

[t walgamuth]

Yesterday I drove over to Bremen Indiana to pick up a lawn mower for my friend who owns the automotive machine shop. Bremen is a small town in the middle of Indiana's Amish country. The shop is outside town in a wooded area. As I pulled up it was snowing fairly strongly. I noted a large pickup with a trailer on back similar to mine in front.

I went inside and talked to the young man about my mission. As I stood there a small white with carmel portions dog came up and started seeking my attention. The dog is smaller than my cockapoo with short hair and alert pointed ears. When I had the chance I stooped down and played with the dog and petted it. It was a small female and she rolled on her back for the obligatory tummy rub.

After some more conversations with the young counter man I looked around for the dog and it was next to me and there were two small children petting her. I leaned over and talked to the kids a bit about the dog. They smiled beautifully at me but said nothing. I noticed their father next to them had the whiskers under his chin as the German Baptists do around here, and assuming an Amish would not frequent a place selling mowers I concluded he was German Baptist or Mennonite.

I asked him if his kids speak English. He said "a little". I asked if they spoke German at home, he said "yes". He was not unfriendly but really did not seem to want to engage in any small talk.

I wondered if they did not speak much English or if they had been instructed not to speak to "the English".

When I walked to the truck I looked to the right as I walked through the front lot and noticed a van like vehicle made of wood with a black horse in harness, tied to a post in front of the shop. Amish.

As I drove away I pondered the simplicity of a life without a lot of the stuff we accumulate in our typical American lives.

My thoughts soon turned to driving to South Bend to pick up some new tires for the 82 240D then home in the fairly heavy snow falling down. Although the snow came down fairly fast there is still a lot of heat in the ground so it stayed slushy.

The first snow is always so beautiful and startling to drive in. The big Dodge is pretty good in snow because the tires are fairly narrow for the weight carried. I made it home by about 5 pm with the daylight waning.

As I came into Lafayette I noted that there was more snow sticking here than anywhere else I had been. It is forecast for cold weather today, well under freezing so I went out and ran my plow truck before snuggling in to watch a movie with the Mrs.