Amish Country, Page four

There was something so simple, so "Amish" about this laundry drying on a clothesline strung from the side of a barn. I had to get a picture of it. I often enhance. my photographs to give the look of a painting. This particular shot wanted to be a painting -- I could tell. People are often curious about what the original photo looked like. I suspect they think they might prefer the untouched shot. If you are interested, here is a link to the original shot .

Although Amish women are modest and dutiful, they do not stay in the kitchen or the vegetable garden all of the time. We saw a few driving buggies in town. You can tell two ways that these girls are unmarried, however, because they are wearing white bonnets and riding in an open buggy. Married women and families ride in enclosed buggies. Since the Old Order Amish do not use electricity in their homes, they don't have television, radio, or computers. They don't have phones in their homes, either. They keep up with the news, we were told, by reading the Budget newspaper, (The Budget was established in 1890 and is published every Wednesday. The paper serves the Sugarcreek area and the Amish/Mennonite communities throughout the Americas) and by visiting with one another. The Amish community comes together to help out when a family has problems of any kind. They take care of their own and no one has or needs insurance. Divorce is unheard of among the Amish.