The "Down On The Farm With P. Diddy" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Early 1950s and I'm sitting on the front porch with my mom and brother watching all the people walk past our home on N. Queen Street, which was a block from the train station.  Family after family walked past the porch toward parking spaces to the south of our home.  Many families, almost all white, were ushering new family members, mostly black, toward their cars and trucks.  Happened every year as soon as school ended.  Lancaster, Pennsylvania was, and still is, a safe haven for children from New York City to visit for a few weeks to months each summer and escape the heat and crime of the inner city.  Most stayed on farms which in Lancaster County meant predominantly Amish and Old Order Mennonites.  They traditionally opened their large family farms to help host children as part of what was known as the Fresh Air Fund.  In 1877 the fund was established to allow children living in disadvantaged communities a chance to get away from hot, noisy city streets and enjoy free summer experiences in the country.  Each year thousands of children visit volunteer families in 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada.  As far back as I can remember, Lancaster County has been a host community for the children.  I can still remember reading stories in the local newspaper all summer-long about the experiences these children had on the host farms they called home for a few months every summer.  

Sean Combs

A week or so ago I was watching "Jimmy Kimmel Live" when Sean Combs, known to most as "P. Diddy" told his story about living on an Amish farm during the summer when he was a child.  Sean was telling Jimmy that his daughter had recently attended summer camp and didn't enjoy it since she didn't have her own bed.  He went on to say that he told her that when he went to camp in the summer he didn't even have lights, electricity or a car.  Seems his summers were spent in Lancaster County on an Amish farm where he spent time helping the Amish family with work on the farm from milking cows to picking berries.  He told his daughter that he had to ride in a horse and buggy and remembered partaking in lavish meals after church on Sunday.  As Sean talked to Jimmy you could tell he loved every minute of it.  He said he wonders if his host family knows what has happened to him over the years.  Well, our local newspaper found who his host family was and sent a reporter to talk with them.  Being the family was Amish, they didn't want to be photographed or identified, but did tell the reporter that Comb's sister, Keisha, who had also visited with them, had contacted them and made a visit. They told the reporter that if Sean wanted to visit, he could get information from his sister.  At the end of Comb's interview on the Kimmel show, he told Jimmy that one of the things that helped make him what he is today was his visits to Lancaster County.  And, the children still arrive by train and probably still walk past my old home on N. Queen Street.  Oh, the memories!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.