Possibly not, there was a brouhaha a couple of years ago over an Amish coke ring. Amish youth are given a year, IIRC, out in the world to decide if they want to remain with the colony or be shunned and stay in the outside world. Kids need to let off steam no matter what culture they come from.
<cues up White Punks on Dope by The Tubes>
http://www.cnn.com/US/9810/06/briefs.am/crime.amish/
There you go
The Toledo Blade? Yep, it’s a joke all right. Oh wait, you were talking about that specific article, not the newspaper itself.
Party on, Amos.
Yeah, it’s a big problem where I live.
I lost it at the Buggy Boom Box [sup]tm[/sup] part.
Be On the Lookout for a white male, age 17, dressed plainly, very plainly…
As the parent of a rebellious teen (who, my child?), it does me good to see others struggling as well…
This week, on World’s Mildest Police Videos…
I’m still chuckling over Suasponte’s “Party on, Amos.” That had me laughing all day yesterday.
I just want to see once, before I die, what a pimped out Buggy looks like.
I dunno, it seems funny. In truth it’s not though.
A car coming the other way over a hill with the horse buggy on the wrong side of the road wouldn’t be funny.
I’ve had to slam on the brakes, and almost crash when I’ve come up behind one of these things at night without its lights on.
I’ve had trouble with drinking on my property by trespassing Amish partyers as well as poaching.
Again, it seems funny, but where I live, south of Harrisburg, it’s a very real problem, and it stops being funny quick.
I think its alot funnier than a buggy going 70 miles per hour down the road:)
Yep, it’s true. It’s even been reported on CBS’s 60 Minutes, with hidden-camera videotapes of their parties.
I recall when I was about 13 and my father took me out to visit my Amish cousins on a farm. The first question they asked me when we got away from the adults was “do you city folk know about marijuana?”
Actually, 168 isn’t bad. It curves quite a bit and it doesn’t really go between any major points, so there is no through traffic and people are somewhat cautious. Now S.R. 528, a straight road connecting a freeway up north and a major highway to the south–and one of the few roads in Ohio with actual shoulders–can be lethal. Cars barrel through at 10 and 15 over the limit and people from outside the region don’t realize what the buggy road signs mean.
(I wonder if this was one of the neighbor babies? The road I lived on 15 years ago dead-ended onto 168.)
OTOH, why would you think the story was a joke, slortar? Middlefield used to be in the middle of nowhere. (Well, it still is, really.) But the whole county is becoming a bedroom community for greater Cleveland. Families who used to spend their whole lives on the farm no longer have the opportunity to buy more farm property (since it is all subdivided) and they turn to carpentry and masonry for a living. This brings them into contact with 20th/21st century America in a way that their parents and grandparents never imagined. In many ways it is a threat to their lifestyle.
(I agree that it would be amusing to see a rally tricked out buggy–I never have seen one.)
Oh sure, it’s all fun and games UNTIL SOMEONE LOSES AN EYE.
cough
Okay, yeah. I’ve occasionally been in danger of rear-ending buggies, the few times I’ve visited Indiana. Annoying.
My knee-jerk reaction to the article was amusement, though. Kinda like what you’d think if you saw nuns in full regalia playing volleyball at the beach.
and, I feel I must also post my most favorite Amish siting:
Years ago, my SO and I were on our way through Amish country (in Michigan) to the Vermontville Maplefest. Winding country roads, come around a corner, and there, on the left was an Amish roadside stand (selling baked goods etc.), parked in front of it was big yellow school bus, and exiting the school bus were… clowns in full regalia :eek: Funniest site I’ve ever personally seen.