June 11, 2003 - St. Clair, MI - 5  (Amish Acres, continued)

Do you have any idea how big a blood blister you can get when you're 10 or so and you're learning to use this drill press?  Particularly without your Uncle Will's permission?  And then we're going for a ride.  We felt a little (but not much) cheated that it wasn't a horse-drawn wagon.  But a ride is a ride, and we've been walking a while.

Through the woods to grandmother's house?  Not hardly, but it was a good contrast with the cleared fields of the farm.  And look at the way the timbers are hewn to make a decent two-story house.  Chinked with cement today, no telling what was used originally.  This building had been taken down somewhere else and rebuilt here, like several of the buildings on the property.  The goal was to let us see as much of the old styles as possible, much of which is in use today as well.

Off to school we go.  And just inside the door to the left, are the girls bonnets and cloaks.

And on the right are the boys hats and jackets.  And the neat-as-a-pin classroom.  Grades 1 through 8 are taught, and then it's off to work they go.  At some late teen age, Barb and I can't remember when, the kids are allowed to leave the community and live among the English.  They're allowed to choose between their traditional ways or to live like we do.  There's a time limit to this probationary period, but neither of us can remember what it is.  About 75%  (Barb remembers that it was only 1/3) return to the traditional ways.  Apparently there's no great trauma when a child chooses to leave the traditional ways, and they're welcome to visit the family and everything.

The school bus, and the "necessary" room.  Only looky there!  It's been modernized, and it's now fiberglass and all nice and shiny clean, and gets pumped out on a regular basis!  How boring.

Barb's sticking her head into the driver's door of the bus, and I'm at the rear where the stairs for the kids are.  Wonder if the girls have to sit on one side and the boys on the other.  Is there any doubt?  And then there was a house of the English community on the grounds, and we poked around with it.  All the modern conveniences were here.  Like closets and electric lights.

These looms were in the living room, and I had to marvel at their complexity and yet simplicity.  I'd have to admit, it would take me a very long time to learn to use either of them, however.

Couple of things to notice.  First is the mirror, rather than a towel rack on the dresser, and the quilts are just as nice as the Amish ones.

Still pretty spartan by today's standards, but sure got the job done.  We're all here, aren't we?  And then it was off to the broom maker.

George had retired from some rather traditonal job (can't remember just what it was) and then he learned how to make brooms and is on staff here.  That machine he's using is older than he is, and he admitted to being 85.  It winds the wire around the straws, holding them to the handle.  We'd never seen corn straw in its natural state before.

Then the broom is held in this vice, and stitched.  And finally, it's given a haircut.

And there's the finished product.  The broom, that is.

The round barn was moved in, and today houses a theater.  The white building is the visitor information center, the red barn behind that is the gift shop, and the red barn to the left of that is a large restaurant.  And across the street is a gift shop full of Christmas things.

How 'bout that for the stodgy old Post Office, eh?  The tree must have died, and then who knows how much red tape had to be cut for this magnificent eagle to be carved, eh?  Beautiful work, and horray for Nappanee!