[TheForge] Amish YAK This reply has NOTHING TO DO WITH BLACKSMITHING YAK

[theforge@mailman.qth.net]

   My father actually studied and lived with the Amish in the 50's and 60's and produced a good amount of research on the Amish in Pennsylvania. (He even slept in a bed bag in the oldest daughters room during his stays) It was easier for him because he was a local and also a "Deutchy" or a local of German descent. He has told my alot about his stays which were also to help bring their schools to the then modern levels. He loved them and is still today friends with the family and is accepted freely among them.

"Historically, they have exercised their
freedom to choose, whether or not the
government has recognized that freedom.
This has resulted in persecution,
expulsion, and death. They share with
the Jews the distinction of having been
burned at the stake, or otherwise
dispatched during the 1500's by
Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists
alike."

  This is true and the Amish who first moved into Pennsylvania came form a very hard area to live in in Europe. The farms were small and hard to scratch out a living on. Not to mention all of the persecution and owing to more or less feudal lords that still amde life miserable. When they moved to the new world they basically thought that they had been blessed by God. Thus thier close and deeply felt ties to thier land.


        Ted Jones
       Connecticut