The "The Amish Way of Life" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My wife and I drive the back roads of Lancaster just about every week to reach a few of the food stores that my wife and I love to frequent.  Some of the stores offer food goods that are raised on these back roads by the local Amish men and women of Lancaster County.  I recently read that a Works Progress Administration study conducted during the latter years of the Great Depression found that Lancaster County's Old Order Amish comprised the most economically and culturally stable farming community in the nation.  And...my guess is that it hasn't changed much since then. That finding is no surprise to those of us living amongst the Amish in Lancaster County.  The Old Order Amish of Lancaster County are also extremely thrifty in all they do.  One reason is based on the fact that all Amish family members participate in tasks on the farm, rather than hiring help or employing expensive machines.  They make their own clothing and grow their own food.  They spend nothing on recreation.  And...the list goes on and on.  And, the women of the family contribute as much as the men in the family farming operations.  One of the most significant observations is that Amish help each other "harmoniously."  That means that men, women, boys, and girls all work together toward a common goal.  The Amish notion of a rigid patriarchal labor system in which men alone performed cash-making outdoor duties isn't at all true, since everyone in the family pulls their load.  That refers to adults as well as children in the family.  The labor is distributed among all family members according to the task being done and what the family member is capable of doing.  This mutuality of effort is often masked by designation of Amish men as "farmers," but the government study of the 1930s found Amish women often did more than their share of work on the farm.  A new book, "Amish Women and the Great Depression" has a quotation from Lydia Stoltzfus, telling that "Amish woman struggled some during the Depression, but we worked hard, on the farm, and did whatever needed to be done."  One woman said she stripped tobacco, mixed donuts and papered the house.  What Amish take for granted, the authors of the book concluded, was what Amish history and religious beliefs had prepared the Amish for, for generations.  "To embrace the practices and mindset necessary to farm succesfully when confronted with harsh economic conditions" is the Amish way of life.  Always has been and forever will be!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.