Pepper Mill is watching the show “In Plain Sight” right now. When the show started, there was an Amish woman wearing purple and an Amish man wearing teal green. Pepper immediately called error on the purple dress (Amish wouldn’t wear as flashy a color as that). I asked her about the man’s shirt, and she said that was wrong, too. (Pepper is part Pennsylvania Dutch. She knows whereof she speaks).
Then a murder got committed in view of Purple Amish Woman, and it was pretty clear we were duplicating the film “Witness”, so I left.
Just now I heard them playing “Simple Gifts”. For those of you who don’t know, "Simple Gifts’ is a Shaker song. Shakers, a religious group pf British origin, don’t really have much in common with the Amish, who are of German origin. Shakers had no problem with technological advances (they encouraged them, in fact), and were celibate. Amish are the ones without zippers and electricity, and they’re not celibate. Amish wouldn’t be playing “Simple Gifts”, even if it might seem more appropriate for them. My guess is that the producers couldn’t find any Amish music, figured another bucolic religion that had been widespread in America 9and which had a familiar and catchy tune) was just as good, and figured nobody would notice the switch.
Pepper confirms that the group really was supposed to be Amish, so they can’t weasel out by saying they created a fictional bunch who just happened to be living in Lancaster, PA.
Frankly, I’d have been surprised if they’d gotten “Amish” right. Hollywood rarely does. And there’s never the variations and gradations on TV or movies…there are different sects and groups and Amish shades into Mennonite and blah blah blah.
I heard what purported to be Amish music in the documentary “The Amish - A People of Preservation.” It sounded nothing remotely like the Shakers or like any traditional ‘American’ hymns I have heard.
It was in German, of course, all a cappella, most of it in a minor key - almost a wailing, plaintive sound - and the timing was variable, slowing down and speeding up with some irregularity such as one might find in Gregorian chant.
Depends on a couple things - Indiana/Ohio/other Amish have slightly different rules than the Pennsylvania Dutch. Actually, each Amish community has slightly different rules. It also depends on the shade of purple. What it comes down to is that some Amish communities might well allow a subdued/dark type of purple in clothing and others wouldn’t. It’s not like they dress in monochrome. Teal would seem to be a bit flashy. For sure, nothing red or orange.
Amish music is a capella hymn singing in German. I don’t think it would appeal to most folks outside their community, and probably wouldn’t be in line with the sort of background music such a program would look for.
Right. And the code is more complicated and apparently (to outsiders) arbitrary than simply a rejection of all newer technologies. For example, Amish are not without electricity; typical Ordnungs prohibit utility line power but permit generators and batteries (but not in homes).
Broomstick is right. It depends. I’ve seen Amish women in both purple and teal. I’d expect a sort of lavendar purple and a dark, smoky, teal, but neither would surprise me. Neither would a dark teal shirt on a man.
And spark240 is right, too. The Ordnungs often seem incomprehensible to outsiders. One of my husband’s friends, for instance, was forbidden to wear a watch, as it was considered adornment. So he just checked the time on his cell phone.
Yes, “our” Amish here in Holmes, Wayne, and Geauga counties wear purple and green a lot. Many of the colors you see in Amish quilts will be seen in clothing. Probably not the bright pinks, but the darker colors.
I live in York PA, near Lancaster. There are many Amish in PA.
I bought a shirt off of the web that was billed as “ocean blue”. It is not the color I thought it would be, and looking at *teal *online, teal describes it well enough.
When I wear it, it is very common for people to make a remark about me looking Amish in it.
Here in central WI, Amish men and women in our local community wear solid fabrics in dark purple, lavender, teal, forest green, sky blue, burgundy . . . I don’t recall seeing red or orange.
Each year the local Amish hold a consignment auction on an Amish farm, and it’s a good opportunity to (discreetly) observe a lot of Amish all at once. Perception may be colored (heh) by the fact that it’s a big event and a special occasion, but some of the colors of their dresses and shirts can be intense, and yet still “plain.” (I can’t imagine having to be pinned into my clothing with straight pins, for example. Ouch!)
I saw the show, and the whole Amish thing was really the background of a joke – as in “who are the least likely people in America to be able to go into the Witness Protection Program and start life over again in some anonymous suburb?” I don’t think they cared a whole lot about details.
I DID like how Mary bitched about Amish country having super crappy cell phone coverage.
[QUOTE=CalMeacham;13908753Then a murder got committed in view of Purple Amish Woman, and it was pretty clear we were duplicating the film “Witness”, so I left.[/QUOTE]
You may be right about the rest, but the story actually took a very different direction. This show’s never discussed on the Boards here, but I like it (though Mary drives me nuts sometimes).
