**Note: I'm recycling some of my old blog posts. I was part of Author Sarah Price's Amish Fiction Authors blog for a few years, so if some of my posts are familiar to you, that's why. But to many, I hope this will be the first time you've read them and that you'll find them enjoyable! :)
“That’s not Amish!”
Okay, admit it. We’ve all done it, right?
I know I have. There I was, reading an Amish novel by a popular author and I get to this scene and laugh out loud. Why? Because it’s funny? No. Because I can’t see an Amish person doing what these characters did.
But maybe I was wrong. Maybe this particular author had done more research, or knew an Amish family who’d done this, or…?
Or maybe not.
The funny thing is, the more I study and learn about the Amish, the less far-fetched some of the things I read or hear seem.
For example, in Danika’s Journey, book two in the Amish Girls Series, mischievous Jonathan Fisher talks his friends into going trick-or-treating with him. At the time, I thought the idea was a little out there and probably non-Amish behavior. But that fit Jonathan’s character perfectly, so we went with it.
Fast forward a year and a half, give or take. Hubby and I are driving around Indiana, scouting out the land in search of a new home. A couple of the homes we were looking at, to possibly purchase, were Amish homes.
We just so happened to visit an Amish family, who’d invited us back for dinner (yes, I love the Amish culture!) and it was October 31. When we arrived, we passed the man of the house walking along the road with his two young sons. We pulled up to the driveway and the wife informs us that Henry (okay, not his real name) took the boys out – you guessed it – trick-or-treating!
My former-Amish friend informed me that they used to hunt Easter eggs, while his wife said her district would have never done anything like that. This same friend (who’d been Amish) had never heard of a mud sale. Imagine that!
I was recently reading a post on Facebook, which featured a photograph of Amish women holding rifles and shooting at targets. The photo said something about getting ready for hunting season. A person (who I’m quite certain was former-Amish) insisted the photo was fake because “Amish women don’t hunt.” I thought to myself, maybe she should tell that to some of the Amish in my neighborhood – who are female and happen to hunt right alongside their brothers. J She learned that day, by the several commenters who claimed otherwise, that some Amish women do, in fact, hunt.
And by the way, what were they doing in a photograph? The Amish don’t allow photos, right? ;)
So, I’ve challenged myself to not simply dismiss something because I’ve never seen or heard of it before. Because I may be wrong!
What about you? Have you read or heard something about the Amish that you were sure was wrong, then found out down the line that it could have been right?
(By the way, if you’d like an ‘I Love Jonathan Fisher’ sticker, email your snail mail address to me at jebspredemann (at) gmail dot com.)
Blessings,
Jennifer Spredemann
Heart-Touching Amish Fiction