After a decade, South Dakota's Amish are moving on

https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/south-dakota/after-a-decade-south-dakotas-amish-are-moving-on

by nkurz • 3 years ago

106 182 3 years ago

mitchellrepublic.com

alex_young• 3 years ago

https://archive.is/W7Ek3

ilamont• 3 years ago

If you are using Safari, you can switch to reader view to get past the paywall.

Last summer we were preparing to demolish a family property in a rural part of New York and invited some local Amish to take some furniture and other things we no longer needed.

Two of the middle sons (aged 18 and 19; they have 5 brothers and 7 sisters) came with a giant wagon pulled by huge dray horses ((https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh...)) and took it all away. They said the wagon is usually used for harvesting hay and corn, and sometimes for long distance moves of up to 40 miles. It's basically a hay wain used for other tasks as needed.

They took all of the old furniture including a sofa and a large table and box springs. They put the sofa on the front so they could sit on it on the way back to the farm, which they said is a bumpy ride because the wagon wheels are ringed with iron and most of the journey is on pavement. They also took the doors off the hinges which they said their father was going to use for a workshop as well as an old woodburning stove which must have weighed 200 pounds 90kg) and had a nonstandard exhaust. They managed to heft it out of the old cabin and onto the wagon, and said they would be able to do some metalwork to make the pipe fit in the workshop ceiling, as well as the doors which were narrower.

After the wagon was loaded they pulled out tobacco pipes and lit them and started smoking while we chatted. My dad said "I used to have a pipe like that" and the young one chuckled, and replied "Don't see English smoking pipes. Except some old fellows. Maybe like you." We all had a laugh.

The Amish moved to the area about 40 years ago. The winters up there are brutal and they live a tough life starting at a very young age, but this community has revitalized family farms and helped to stem the population decline in that part of New York.

bmer• 3 years ago

Amish in general do not usually smoke tobacco (they are more on the teetotal side of things). So those kids were probably being a bit rebellious, which is usual for their age.

Some church districts are okay with it though (both for smoking and/or agriculture), so it's possible they came from such a district too. Most in such districts smoke cigarettes.

So, it's not that the Amish smoke pipes just to be old-timey.

LorenDB• 3 years ago

Or maybe they are practicing rumspringa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa

burlesona• 3 years ago

While I don’t think the rest of society needs to go to the degree the Amish have, I think there’s a lot we can learn from their thoughtful consideration of technology and whether it makes their life better. Among the HN crowd, I feel we get excited about tech for the sake of tech, but finding an appropriate and healthy skepticism about the effects of our inventions is probably the next level of maturity we need to develop.

Swizec• 3 years ago

Among the HN crowd, I feel we get excited about tech for the sake of tech

I feel like HN has a healthy skepticism about IoT at least. We seem to generally agree that fewer devices should have internet access.

xwolfi2• 3 years ago

And crypto thank God...

alwayslikethis• 3 years ago

Yeah, HN is ironically the most tech-skeptical crowd I've frequented. Maybe it's a part of the libertarianism inherent in hacker culture, which is less diluted in HN compared to other platforms due to a lesser influx of new non-techy users.

chaostheory2• 3 years ago

finding an appropriate and healthy skepticism about the effects of our inventions is probably the next level of maturity we need to develop

This happens automatically with age. The HN crowd is older now. Just look at the skepticism around AR and VR. The problem is there’s no actual exploration and experimentation paired with the skepticism.

PaulDavisThe1st12• 3 years ago

Job of the young: discover and be blinded by the new

Job of the old: remind the young that there's little new under the sun, and a cost to everything.

lockhouse3• 3 years ago

I'd be ok with an "Amish" inspired web development movement. Traditional HTML backed by CGI-BIN served by Apache on a Linux or BSD server would be great.

whatshisface4• 3 years ago

You will never get two people to agree on when web technological progress should have been frozen.

Here is an essay that essentially address this: http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html

begriffs• 3 years ago

https://learnbchs.org/index.html

balthigor• 3 years ago

Those were the days. Slackware in a box of floppy disks. Now where the heck is 6 of 14?

tcmart14• 3 years ago

I don't know why, but I could see this as a youtube comedy sketch.

nine_k• 3 years ago

whether it makes their life better

It depends on the definition of "better". The Amish idea of better is serving God, avoiding or repenting sin, and thus attaining salvation.

Most people's idea of good life is pretty different, given the basic axioms it's built upon.

This is why attempts to build a life by imitating various highly admirable spiritual movements mostly fail. To reap the benefits of the lofty ideas and commendable ways of life one needs to consciously* adopt most of the spiritual teachings which have lead to the development of these ideas and ways of life. You either convert to them, or admit that it's too hard to follow the way.

* Amish only accept adult, conscious baptism.

emodendroket13• 3 years ago

In practice I am not sure it is so easy to say "no thanks" to your adult baptism and abandon everyone and everything you've known up to that point.

PaulDavisThe1st12• 3 years ago

I strongly disagree with this assessment.

First, one can look to the mid-Atlantic Quakers, whose own book of daily guidance is titled "Faith & Practice", which stresses the distinction between how one might behave in the world and what one believes about spiritual and religious matters. For (that branch of the) Quakers, you can live a "good life" without necessarily subscribing to any of their spiritual/religious beliefs.

Secondly, most people's idea of their good life is woefully lacking in self-reflection and self-knowledge. What really makes people happy? Civilizations and cultures across time and space all stress that what really makes people happy rarely involves material well being (although obviously a certain level is required to avoid that being the dominant shaper of the experience of life). Yes, we can admit that various gadgets and access to services brings us some level of joy in life, but that doesn't really negate the fundamental truth that what makes us happy tends to be purpose, not products, tends to be who we have in life, not what we have.

msla4• 3 years ago

https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/child-sexual-abuse-amish

Child Sexual Abuse in the Amish Community: A Hidden Epidemic

Turns out, a closed-off, hierarchical community isn't something to emulate.

Doesn't help that a lot of them only get an eighth grade education:

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2012/03/professor-william-fi...

The Amish community’s adherence to a lifestyle more typical of the 19th century, which includes driving horse-drawn buggies and living in homes with no electricity, is driven by religious beliefs. But the Amish’s adherence to educating their children in one-room schoolhouses, and then only through the eighth grade, is largely the result of a 1972 Supreme Court decision, Yoder v. Wisconsin. This 40-year-old ruling has “frozen them in place” and threatens the younger generation’s ability to earn a living in an increasingly complex society, argues Professor of Economics William A. Fischel in a recent paper.

https://www.amishheritage.org/services/education/

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court decided in Wisconsin v. Yoder that Amish children do not have the right to any future other than one inside the Amish Church.

https://lancasteronline.com/features/former-amish-want-to-ov...

So it seems their "thorough consideration of technology" is in the context of a culture that's not going to change because it would threaten the established hierarchy. That's the threat, here: Something like this might start out well-intentioned, but once the institution is in place, well, any excuse will serve a tyrant, eh? Any excuse will serve the organization.

scns• 3 years ago

Turns out, a closed-off, hierarchical community isn't something to emulate.

Very true. There is a quote, often misattributed, about how power corrupts. To lazy to google it, sorry.

Doesn't help that a lot of them only get an eighth grade education:

That is 5 years more than some ultraorthodox jews get, check out link [1] here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35336142

nemo44x3• 3 years ago

All that says is there’s no such thing as utopia. They have problems like anyone else. Our society is full of sexual abuse, violence in the home, murder, suicide, drug addicts in the streets, valueless people, money obsession, loneliness, ignorance and stupidity, etc. Our institutions are corrupt in many ways, wealth is power, and we are just as hierarchal as any other organization because it’s unavoidable.

So I think it’s unfair to dismiss them because they have sexual abuse in their communities and have values other than education. They don’t want to change much but it’s not a conspiracy to maintain the hierarchy. It’s to maintain their way of life that they’ve found creates meaningful, stable, happy lives with authentic connections to each other. We lack this as a society so much that we have multi-billion dollar industries trying to bottle it up and sell it to our desperate people.

They don’t do everything right but they get a lot right.

carabiner4• 3 years ago

This ex-Amish TikToker is incredible: https://www.tiktok.com/@yodertoter40?_t=8abRVLmk1ra&_r=1 Some of his content is benign, but he also discusses the epidemic of child abuse (including sexual), rampant sexism, and the general cruelty of Amish culture. They have been regularly desecrating his father's grave, who committed suicide due to Amish abuse.

nonethewiser• 3 years ago

They have been regularly desecrating his father's grave, who committed suicide due to Amish abuse.

What do you mean by "they?" Amish people in general? Or some specific people or group (that you have not identified)?

Consider how you'd feel about saying "they" to refer to some individual transgression by other groups.

softsound• 3 years ago

I think any extremist and isolating culture will bring with it extremist behavior and thinking. People want to believe they have the right answer. Often this leads them to becoming very self-righteous and prideful and also very shame focused. I don't think this is something one would just limit to just this culture or belief system. And as that guy states, that is this just his own personal experience. I too dealt with someone ruining my father's funeral and would probably their grave if he had one and let me tell you, they weren't amish but they were self righteous and crazy. That said, I think the Amish can have quality work, are useful in preserving history but I personally would not want that life. I remember reading Running Out of Time as a child and always somehow associated it with life like the Amish. I know things are different of course but that's what I think of first. A bad association.

chr1• 3 years ago

It is good that different groups in society behave differently. People not using technology like hunter-gatherers and Amish provide safety net, and people jumping to everything new are the explorers. Both extremes are needed, and HN crowd becoming skeptical of technology, or Amish using new rechnology would make them the same as average, and be less useful for the society.

AdamN• 3 years ago

They're not necessarily against tech - but all the tech they have must be self-maintainable without outside engagement. So you could imagine a contemporary Amish-like culture around right-to-repair but it would still be very low-tech.

ChatGTP• 3 years ago

I completely agree. I don't really understand the hurry?

4dayworkweek4u2• 3 years ago

The Amish are also very wise to separate peacefully/voluntarily from others based on values... decreasing conflict/trouble/tensions.

ren_engineer• 3 years ago

I'm curious on HN's thoughts about why it is that Amish(and similar groups)have succeeded where hippie type communes failed? They've been going strong for centuries while most of the non-religious equivalents fell apart quickly. The stated goals seem to be similar to me in terms of them being mostly self-sufficient communities that look out for each other

paulryanrogers• 3 years ago

Indoctrination to a rigid set of beliefs (often from birth), backed by threats of shaming or shunning, are more difficult to leave behind.

subpixel2• 3 years ago

Also sex abuse and the normalization of controlling behavior are more common in these self-isolating communities, and even more impactful on a person who has little to no contact with the outside world.

xwolfi2• 3 years ago

They didnt make the girls do everything while the guys just smoked their lives away.

The amish men actually do back breaking work, which instill a sense of sharing. They also organize in locked couples, smaller structures more efficient to avoid drama, and focus on reproduction: the hippies cant reproduce, they cant even focus on one child, let alone agree on who will have to be responsible for parenting.

The idea the hippies had was that all structure was stupid. The idea the Amish have is that there s only one old structure worth living by. Ofc the Amish will survive and the hippies dillute in chaos: the first preserve entropy to a minimum, the second pushes it to a maximum.

There's an even simpler way to describe it: the goal of the hippies didnt seem to be self preservation of their structure, while the Amish have an absurd obsession with it.

BurningFrog• 3 years ago

I think most "culture startups" fail.

Only after it has worked for a few generations can you know one is sustainable.

stcroixx• 3 years ago

Hard work. The Amish are willing to do it.

hindsightbias• 3 years ago

Sheep vs cat herding. Not in any disparaging sense. One is historically collectivist, the other thinks they can or want to be - but usually end up like a Kundera novel.

A_D_E_P_T• 3 years ago

You said it yourself: Religion.

People absolutely require a system of metaphysics. It is one of the most basic and natural needs of mankind; it is how all men come to account for the world and their existence in the world. People in general have little time for philosophy, so a folk metaphysics must be simple and easy to understand, and must be connected to a straightforward system of moral principles.

Communal hippie living is a lifestyle that one typically grows out of.

The Amish -- like the Hasidic Jews, and like various other religious movements -- are an essentially metaphysical community. The metaphysical principle comes first, and the rest follows. The way they live life is wholly on account of how they interpret their religion's moral principles and strictures.

It's easy to leave one lifestyle for another. Not so easy to leave a religion that you were raised in, and which you have built your entire world-view around. There's a certain IQ threshold for that, as it requires the de novo construction of a new metaphysics.

whatshisface4• 3 years ago

There's a certain IQ threshold for that, as it requires the de novo construction of a new metaphysics.

I am sure that a lot of atheists are flattered hearing this, but come on, they heard about it online, or even from the community's conniptions about outsiders. For that matter "what if what I see with my eyes is what is real" does not take a big I.Q. to think of.

User23• 3 years ago

There's a certain IQ threshold for that, as it requires the de novo construction of a new metaphysics.

That IQ threshold isn’t very high as witnessed by the proliferation of supposedly novel midwit metaphysics propounded on the Internet.

“It’s all random and emergent man” isn’t any kind of impressive intellectual construct.

ars2• 3 years ago

There's a certain IQ threshold for that

Um, you might want to check the average IQ for Ashkenazi Jews, Hassidic Jews are primarily Ashkenazi.

People in general have little time for philosophy, so a folk metaphysics must be simple and easy to understand

Yah, it's quite clear you know basically nothing of Judaism if you think their metaphysics are "simple and easy to understand".

nyokodo• 3 years ago

why it is that Amish(and similar groups)have succeeded where hippie type communes failed?

They manifest characteristics that enable stable communities. Sex within marriage, no divorce, marriage and sex for procreation, reliance on extended family and local community, no industrialization/urbanization, social isolation, religion as unifying principle. Hippy communities on the other hand tended to be built around sexual promiscuity or at least lack boundaries around sex and marriage, and subsequently suffer commensurate relationship/family breakdown. Not to mention that hippy communes are converts to agrarian life and when the going gets tough there’s no millennia of continuity to rely on but there is the memory of the city and the supermarket.

Covzire• 3 years ago

The Christian living aspect is definitely the major part of it. There are also over 100 Hutterite colonies, many that have survived for over a hundred years with new ones getting planted all the time all over SD, ND, some in MN and many in Alberta and nearby provinces each with roughly 100 people or so. Hutterites are essentially Amish who embrace technology for farming, manufacturing, etc. Their origin story is a bit different but they are both Anabaptist Christian sects with Germanic-language roots.

lotsofpulp• 3 years ago

Sex within marriage, no divorce, marriage and sex for procreation, reliance on extended family and local community, no industrialization/urbanization, social isolation, religion as unifying principle.

Do Amish women have the ability to attain financial independence? If not, I would add that to the list.

smt884• 3 years ago

Your whole comment ignores seemingly the entirety of human history other than the (sanitized) history of Western Europe and the US.

Sex within marriage, no divorce, marriage and sex for procreation, reliance on extended family and local community, no industrialization/urbanization, social isolation, religion as unifying principle.

All of these things have been present in the most war-torn and unstable societies (ex: much of the Middle East, some of the areas around present-day China and Russia).

Hippy communities on the other hand tended to be built around sexual promiscuity or at least lack boundaries around sex and marriage, and subsequently suffer commensurate relationship/family breakdown.

There are cultures that existed for hundreds of years without the concept of monogamous marriage. Monogamy doesn't guarantee familial stability, nor does promiscuity. Domestic partnership (what we would call marriage) was a familial and economic relationship, not always a guarantee of sexual exclusivity.

The second-largest empire in history, the Mongol Empire, had an enormous amount of polygamy and sexual promiscuity.

The Ottoman Empire, Ethiopian Empire, and many other large (and long-lasting) empires practiced polygamy.

Even ignoring all of that, in the US, most people cheat on their significant others[1]. There's no reason to think that's a modern phenomenon, either.

1. https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/202...

teachrdan• 3 years ago

Ha. The reason so many stay is because it is more difficult than ever to leave.

Think about it. Technology has left these people a literal century-plus behind. The longer the Amish exist, the higher the rate of retention will be.

Furthermore, once you leave the Amish community, you are forever renounced by your family and friends. So you're left adrift without any support in a world that has left you behind.

This leads to the question you seem to have ignored. Is longevity itself a positive trait? If an abusive cult existed for hundreds of years, would you call it a success? Hacker News readers should place a higher value on innovation and less on blind faith in tradition, in my opinion.

https://abcnews.go.com/2020/amish-teens-tempted-drop/story?i...

PaulDavisThe1st12• 3 years ago

Most of the (many) histories of hippy communes that I've read suggest a very different reason for their (typical) breakdown.

Most/many of them were founded by 1 (sometimes 2) relatively wealthy individuals who had the means (often familial) to acquire land and do the initial capital purchases necessary to get things off the ground. When/if these individuals lose interest in the commune, let alone leave, the implicit agreement that bound the community together starts to fall apart.

The communities that have survived for decades after being founded in the 68-75 period almost uniformly do not have this property. Twin Oaks (VA) is perhaps the prime example.

You could cite The Farm (TN) as a counter-example, but that would mostly be a diversion - The Farm survived because its founder (Steven Gaskin) never lost interest in or left the commune.

cmh89• 3 years ago

The Amish have rigid hierarchies. People who are drawn to communes frequently don't want to live with rigid hierarchies.

Amish culture is not all that different than general American culture structurally. Communes are.

The Amish aren't getting a lot of recruits, so the folks that are there were born, raised, and indoctrinated, which also helps with sticking.

waboremo• 3 years ago

Why do you consider them failed? Many are still around, and new ones start all the time.

ROTMetro• 3 years ago

We were in a hippie commune when I was a kid. My parents got tired of choosing to be poor. Getting down to eating canned zucchini and frozen catfish by the end of winter was not great.

tejohnso• 3 years ago

Damnit. Is it not possible to farm enough and preserve enough to eat happily through a north american (46ish latitude) winter? Maybe with a greenhouse to extend the season somewhat? You're killing my self sufficient, off-grid homestead dreams.

boomboomsubban3• 3 years ago

This is a religious based commune that fell apart in about a decade, something that has happened again and again. The difference is that religious communes started earlier, so we've forgotten most of the numerous failed attempts.

Comparatively we can meet people who lived in failed hippy communes, but the successful ones aren't likely to interact with you.

jrumbut• 3 years ago

Yeah, I would strongly challenge the premise of the question.

Is a temporary commune even a failure? Is a long lived one necessarily a success?

Are there 50 year old hippie communes we haven't heard of?

Natsu• 3 years ago

This is a religious based commune that fell apart in about a decade

They didn't fall apart, exactly. They're still living as Amish and they're moving to be closer to their families:

“We wanted there to be an Amish community here, but seems like everybody Amish is more from Ohio or Pennsylvania, where there are more trees,” Rudy Borntreger, the community’s bishop, or elder, explained. “I think it's so open, nobody wants to join us. Now more people decided to move back to Iowa and Minnesota, so kind of for unity's sake.”

wnevets• 3 years ago

They treat other humans as property rather than humans [1]

[1] https://medium.com/the-collector/10-rules-you-had-no-clue-am...

CatWChainsaw2• 3 years ago

Well, companies have "human resources" departments...

jxramos• 3 years ago

I guess what they say about knowing the tree by its fruits rings true. There’s something about the surviving of tradition and ways of living that if they did not work and were not fruitful would have faded away into obscurity. We can’t specify anything formulaic to them but the longevity of their way of life speaks something to its truth somehow. Having generations survive and multiply and retain unity and order is not some default random outcome but something intentional and directed. I’m starting to appreciate more and more the conditional improbability of order which speaks of something greater than any one individual can account for. Fascinating people I’d like to learn more about.

micro_cam• 3 years ago

There are tons of successful long term non religious cooperative living arrangements of various sorts but yeah most not fully isolated substance farming because that is hard.

Amish communities also aren't self sufficient though. They'll happily sell and buy goods with outsiders and even sell amish furniture via websites (not sure if they use an intermediate). A ton shop at the Costco near me.

akiselev• 3 years ago

I think that really depends on how you define religious and commune. There are lots of informal communes (hippy or otherwise) in the 5-20 person range all over the United States that have nothing to do with religion. More than enough people for a small homestead that shops mostly at a supermarket, but not nearly enough to have a few dozen men to spare to put up a barn which is kind of the bare minimum for sustenance communes like the Amish.

There's also a century of history of large kibbutzim in Israel that are somewhat religious but fundamentally organized around agriculture or industry.

Convolutional• 3 years ago

Twin Oaks in Virginia has been going for over half a century, and other such places exist all over the US.

Israel has religious and secular kibbutzim as well.

Some hippy communes failed, or just decided to break up, but religious communes fail as well.

anon291• 3 years ago

The Amish don't have communes. Community is not equivalent to communes. The amish believe in private property, yet have a strong community life.

saghm• 3 years ago

If there's a correlation between the religiousness of a commune and the longevity of it, I'd guess that it's due to the fact that it's harder to maintain cohesion with openly expressed dissent and doubt, and religious-based groups have an additional tool to combat that compared to secular ones (i.e. invoking divine fiat).

Dig1t• 3 years ago

I would actually love to become Amish. Is it a community that outsiders can easily join? Or do you have to be born into it?

bmelton• 3 years ago

From https://lancasterpa.com/amish/amish-frequently-asked-questio...

  > “Can an outsider join the Amish church/community?”

  > “A local Amishman recently remarked, “You do not need to move here to adopt a lifestyle of simplicity and discipleship. You can begin wherever you are.”  Yes, it is possible for outsiders, through conversion and convincement, to join the Amish community, but we must quickly add that it seldom happens. First, the Amish do not evangelize and seek to add outsiders to their church. Second, outsiders would need to live among the Amish and demonstrate a genuine conversion experience and faith that results in a changed lifestyle. Third, it is extremely difficult for anyone who has not been raised without electricity, automobiles, and other modern conveniences to adjust to the austere lifestyle of the Amish. And to truly be a part of the Amish community one would need to learn the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect.”

emodendroket13• 3 years ago

Hey, if it's really something you would love so much learning Pennsylvania Dutch and giving up electricity are no big deal. Don't let your dreams be dreams.

smt884• 3 years ago

I would actually love to become Amish

I hope you're an adult male. They don't treat women and children well, and their justice system is designed to suppress crimes rather than prosecute them[1].

1. https://www.amishheritage.org/this-devastating-lawsuit-destr...

carabiner4• 3 years ago

Ask yourself: Would you like to be devout Christian? Because that's what the Amish are. If you oppose abortion and are generally a vaccine skeptic, you'll fit right in. This ex-Amish helps Amish escape the community: https://www.tiktok.com/@yodertoter40. He talks about trying to visit an Amish church, and how they forbid people with tattoos, to give you an idea of how ascetic they are.

I think what you really want is to live off grid in a homestead. You don't need to be Amish for that.

jameslk• 3 years ago

I think what you really want is to live off grid in a homestead.

What led you to believe this is the true desire of a total stranger on the internet?

shp0ngle• 3 years ago

I was thinking, "hm, why are there no Black Amish", then I was thinking "ah there are Rastafari", and now I am putting "Amish fighting a Rastafari" to midjourney.

littlelady• 3 years ago

I think a lot of people romanticize the Amish... they are pretty much an oppressive cult with quaint appearance to the outside that does not carry over to the inside. The Amish in my former area were infamous for puppy mills[1], but there were also talks of rampant sexual abuse and domestic abuse[2]. There are a lot of problems in closed-off communities and they can be rife with abuse. While working at the hospital I often interacted with Amish patients, many were there because of drunk driving (they were racing buggies).

If you want to embrace their ideas of simplicity, you can do so without needing to join them. Plant a garden and grow some of your own food. Choose minimal spartan furnishing for your home. Sew your own clothes. Learn woodworking.

[1] https://www.stoponlinepuppymills.org/amish-puppy-mills/ [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IUz0zCiVLI

mwbajor2• 3 years ago

"Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage"

Or in todays language:

"You aren't free if you are bound by your desires".

This is a quote by Emmanuel Kant and I think it applies well to the Amish.

emodendroket13• 3 years ago

Well, maybe, but then again how free are you when living in a highly restrictive community with a lot of rules on your personal conduct either.

mantas• 3 years ago

Are we still talking Amish or General population with cancel culture, overreaching codes-of-conduct, „positive“ discrimination etc?

NovaDudely• 3 years ago

For all the flaws that others have pointed out, I kind of like the idea of the entirety of industrial civilization crumbling to the ground in a dirty messy heap over decades - and the armish being none the wiser. Just continuing on as normal. Maybe only occasionally stopping to say "I don't see as many planes as I used too... oh well back to work."

boomboomsubban3• 3 years ago

The story mentions many of them worked for the local greenhouse, so that's not a very realistic fantasy.

RickJWagner• 3 years ago

I grew up in Mitchell, I know the area and the people.

Those are some tough, resilient folks. They work with their hands through hard winters. They love their family. They don't have many material goods, but they have good hot meals with family and friends and they all go through life together.

It's not an easy way of life, and it's not a common way. But it's not a bad way.

After a decade, South Dakota's Amish are moving on

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