Growing Up Amish

Growing up Amish 

 

Life has not been very easy in this community, where as many children my own age

have been accustomed to the daily grind of waking up before the rooster does.

Mom sets the days work to begin its 4 am, to me when I was younger life was

I guess ok but as I am older I see life in a different part of the world.

I left his life because of all the turmoil it gave to me. My life was not really my own, it belonged to

my parents. My dad was a hardworking farmer and my mom had 9 other children to feed.

Dad sold eggs, chickens and goats milk to make cheese. My mom baked breads and churned butter

and made home made jelly for the winter and then she baked pies for sale.


This has been the hardest part growing up in this tradition. I feel that the outside world

by young adults do not know what real work is like unless you have lived in my own families

home and did the things we did. This is the story of my life, when I was a baby till I left it

30 yrs ago.

 

All truths are told whether they are inconsistent they are the best of my ability.

It was 1960, it was raining out side and dad asked me, to get up, it was 4 am and to milk the cow. I placed on my bonnet pulling my long hair underneath it and pulled up  my trousers underneath the long black skirt we had to wear and placed my  muddy black shoes on. It was really cold outside, it is January and nearing spring as I loved the smell of spring with the flowers starting to bloom. Summer was another grueling time.

I took my heavy coat and went outside . Even the cows were annoyed to be milked so early in the day as well as the goats. I first fed them the straw and hay that my dad had laid out for them to eat. Then I went to get the brown  30 gallon bucket to catch the milk in. it was quite heavy but I was a thick skinned young girl. My grandpa used to tell me that I was the only one who was the “free spirit” that everyone had their own minds made up, but for me I still wanted to do what I felt was right. Grandpa knew that one day I would eventually leave.

 
I was only 10 then. I went to school in the afternoon for only 2 hours to learn English.. Our family was German/Dutch, it was readily spoken each day, so my English was very poor. We go to the 8^th grade in school, our congregation says that school ruins the brains of people that we all need to be productive without it. I think that he is totally wrong. But I was not allowed to backfire him he was the king of our community.  He was a rachard man, he would wipe us girls if he could, he I heard that he done something bad to one of the young teenagers when we were trying to find ourselves and they never made him pay for this crime.



to be continued