Another Picture of our Farm

This is the other part of the farm I grew up on. The front building is the chicken coop and the back part the barn. They were connected. Dad built the little building in front of the chicken coop to sell the eggs and it had water in the back to cool the eggs (from a spring?) and to keep them cool until sold. Dad had a shop on the 2nd floor of the chicken coop too. In front of the chicken coop is what we called a skating pond. It had a drop of about 4 feet from the lane. We would sled down the lane from where dad had his saw mill and if we went fast enough we would fly over the drop off. Of course it was a challenge to go fast enough! I have many memories from this farm!

These buildings need paint. Saloma when she was still home painted all of our buildings. That's the only time I ever remember them being painted. That was the bad thing about living on a paved road that I felt shame, that our buildings weren't painted. All of my siblings and no one bothered painting!!!

The House I was Born in

This house is where I was born along with most of my siblings. This picture must have been talken years after my parents sold our farm.

What I remember . . . it was a one story house over a hundred years old, moved from somewhere else. When I was in school, maybe first grade? My dad put a 2nd story on our home. He had a frolic and when I got home from school, the 2nd story was on. I was impressed! Being very young it was so very exciting! Every day more would be done. Actually my dad never totally finished our home. The windows upstairs were never finished off. When we had snow it would snow onto our bed in the upstairs, south west bedroom.

I was always pretty happy because we lived on a paved road. St route 208. Many Amish live on dirt roads, but this was paved!

My Visit with author Beverly Lewis

Beverly Lewis writes books about Amish and Mennonites in the Lancaster County area. She grew up in that area and moved away during her high school years. Sam & Judy Walker (owners of our Bible Book Store in Sheboygan) talked to me last year about growing up Amish and mentioned that they met Beverly Lewis. So they booked her in Sheboygan area while on a book signing tour. They arranged with Beverly to meet me and I also had an hour private interview time with her. I was anxious about our time together and right out mentioned that I wasn't expecting anything from her.

At General Council last August I saw in an Evangel College ad that she had gratuated from Evangel in 1972. Since Brent & Holly both graduated from Evangel I mentioned this to her when I met her at the end of the book signing at Sonlight. Sam invited me to have lunch with their selected people. At first I didn't know how I would feel about this but after talking to Sam again the day before her arrival I had decided to attend the luncheon. I was glad that I attended this event. It helped me to relax and not be too excited for our time together. About 25 people were at the luncheon. Beverly asked everyone to introduce themselves and mention something about themselves. Very interesting.

I bought her latest book published "The Parting" where it was written during the 1960's. The Amish in Lancaster County were "getting saved" through reading the Bible. I had Beverly sign that book along with "The Shunning". This was one of the first ones I read from her writings. I have always tried to stay away from any TV shows about the Amish. I do however own 2 videos that were done and one was a comedy and the other pretty well written and acted out.

Anyway, our time together I gave her my families testimony. She told me a little about herself too, that she has Mennonite relatives. Some continue to live in Lancaster County where she continues to get up-to-date materials.

I felt privileged to have this time together and I sent Sam and Judy Walker a thank you note for arranging our time together.