I 1 LOU ANN (JOOD iMiicasler Fanning Staff What’s it like growing up without electricity, without a car, and without television? Lots of fun is the answer for Lydia, Erma, and Ephraim. The three are the children of Mervin and Sylvia Allgyer. They are Amish who live in Christiana in Lancaster County. Lydia is 6, Erma is 5, and Ephraim is 3. If you go to their home, the children come running to ea gerly greet visitors. They call, “Hi! Hi!” Smiles spread across their faces and their eyes sparkle with delight. They enjoy having company. Surprisingly, “Hi!” is about the only word the two youngest children can speak in English. In their home, as in all Amish homes, the families speak Penn sylvania Dutch instead of Eng lish. When Lydia entered first grade this year, she didn’t know how to speak English. At the one-room Amish school she at tends, the lessons are taught in English. To learn a new lan guage while learning to write, add, and subtract sounds diffi cult. But Lydia, like many other Amish children, had no trouble learning English. Within a few months, Lydia could easily talk in English. However, during recess and lunchtime, the children are ex pected to talk in Pennsylvania Dutch. The government has a special agreement with the Amish that allows them to retain their culture as long as they are taught the same basic lessons in math, reading, and ge ography that children in the public school system receive. Although they do not have electricity, Amish homes are much like those of their English speaking neighbors. Their house, heated with a woodstove, is warm and cozy.. Registers in the upstairs bedrooms allow some of the heat from the down stairs to come up through the opening. That means it isn’t freezing upstairs but it is cooler than the bedrooms in most homes that are heated with oil, coal, and electricity. The beds have lots of blankets and comforters to keep the chil dren warm. Propane gas is used to operate the cookstove, refrigerator, and hot water heater. That means that Amish homes have running water and a bathroom. Because they live in an older farmhouse, the bathroom only has a small shower. The children take baths in a large Rubbermaid storage box used for a tub. Although the children do not have cars, they like to go away. In fact, almost every morning they awaken, they ask; “Where are we going today?” They travel by horse and buggy. The horses used to pull the buggy are like pets. The horses are so tame that the chil dren ride horseback on them around the fields. Sometimes the children walk underneath the horses bellies. The parents don’t want them to do that because some of the newer horses are not as trustworthy as the older horses, which sense they need to be very gentle around children. The children usually wake up about 6:30 in the morning and go to bed at 8:30 in the evening. During the day the girls like coloring and workbooks. Al though Erma doesn’t go to school, she writes her name and all the numbers. She taught her self numbers by copying them off the calendar. Although many Amish girls like to play with dolls, Erma never cared much for dolls. When she was 3-years-old, Erma broke her wrist. Her dad said that happen because Erma was “monkeyshining” on the couch. Erma likes helping her mother with chores around the house. She likes to help in the garden and she likes helping to cook. Amish schools only go to the eighth grade. After that, the □ 1 Potatoes grow under the ground To harvest them, farmers must first use a machine that digs them up Then a conveyor belt gently scoops them up & loads them into a truck Some cars actually run on potatoes Companies in Colorado & North Dakota, for example produce ethanol fuel using cull potatoes Brown Humor ■"v / • Why do POTATOES VACATION ON THE pRENch RIVIERA ? • WhAT kiNd of potatoes CATch tlheir own food? S' ■ Did you know you can qET ARRivEd (or qßowiNq too MANy potatoes? X • Why WOuldN T tIhE REPORTER leAVE TklE MAshEd POTATOES AIoNE? Making artwork with potatoes is great, inexpensive fun Potatoes can be used as stamps With the help of on adult, children can use a butter knife to cut a potato in half and make a stamp Draw a geometric shape in the center of the cut edge of the potato - a circle, square, triangle Then carefully cut the outside edge off, leaving the raised shape in the middle of the potato half Growing Up Amish children work at home and go to school for three hours a week until they are 15 years old. From eighth grade until they are 15 years old, the students need to keep a diary that records their daily activities. This is part of the agreement between the Amish and the government in making special exceptions for Amish schooling. Although the Amish do not go to a church building, they do have church. About 30 families take turns gathering in each other’s homes for a Sunday morning church service held every other Sunday. The parents of the Allgyers said that the Amish church keeps growing larger and larger. When it expands to about 40 to SO families, the group is divided to form another church. In 1960, the Allgyers said, there were only 30 church districts in the county. Today there are 160. No phones are allowed inside Amish homes. Instead they have what they call a community phone, which is shared by seven Amish families living in the area. The community phone is Tin inskJl sc oop on Amirica' s Favoritt VequAbk, rhf Potato Bitouqht to you by youß IIOMLTOWN POTATO QROWLRS IN NYS AN(I Hit NaTIONaI POTATO PROMOTION BOAR