From: Karen.Keil@p0.f809.n104.z1.fidonet.org (Karen Keil)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: SHHH report 12 of 13
Date: 12 Aug 92 21:34:05 GMT
Reply-To: Karen.Keil@p0.f809.n104.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:104/809.0 - Fantasy Mountain, Golden CO
X-Fidonet: Silent Talk Conference

Index Number: 23918

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Part 12 of the SHHH convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

June 30, 1992

Now that the convention was over, most everyone was leaving,
including Jack and Ret O'Keeffe.  They beckoned me over to have
breakfast with them and a friend of theirs at McDonald's when I
came into to get a quick breakfast. They were driving back in
their car home in Pennsylvania.

After that was the Kalona Amish tour at 9:00 a.m. About 2,000
Amish people live in the Kalona area.  Among the different groups
of Amish people are the Beachy Amish, which allow automobiles,
electricity, photography and the like but no TV, stereos, VCRs
and the like.  The Old Order Amish use horse and buggy
transportation and ascrew electricity, photography and the like,
but use battery power where necessary.

The Amish send their children to the one-room schoolhouses
instead of to the public schools, one of which we saw in the
countryside.

We saw the Old Order Amish driving by the side of the highway in
their buggys.  I saw a young man and woman in Amish dress walking
down the street in Kalona; they had parked their horse and buggy
in one of the parking spaces in front of a store.   We had a
wonderful Amish dinner at a Beachy Amish woman's house out in the
country.  The woman's name was Mrs. Ropp.

On our way to the dinner, our tour bus went by a farm house which
at that very moment, a young Amish woman and her baby came out
and she waved at us.

The dinner was very much like the ones my German grandmother used
to make---mashed potatoes, roast chicken, apple pie, etc.  Guess
there isn't much difference between the two cultures in some
ways--just good down-home farm cooking from visits to Minnesota
and my grandparents.

The tables were set in the living room, the hallway to the front
door, and the dining room. The whole house was full of tables! I
sat at the table leading to the front door so I had a view
outside of the country road.  It was peaceful and quiet out
there.  The Amish hostess wore a traditional Amish style dress
except it was white.  Her helpers wore light yellow and other
colors.

Her house was just like any other modern house except it had no
TV.  There were photographs hanging on the walls and bookshelves,
including a high school graduation photo of a granddaughter in
traditional Amish dress.  Even though stereos and VCRs are
supposed to be disallowed, we saw what looked like speakers in
the living room.  Evidence of the Amish religion clearly showed
on the walls and on the bookshelves (plaques, books, Bibles,
etc.), not much different from the many farm homes seen in my
personal experience in Minnesota.

Our tour guide told us our hostess had lost her husband 'two
weeks ago' and yet she went ahead with plans to put on a dinner
for us!  She was very gracious and answered all our questions.

There was more to the tour but won't mention any more here.

That evening, I talked to a conventioner from Nantucket,
Massachusetts, at McDonald's about the convention itself and
other things.  He said that he was the only one of his siblings
hearing impaired and that he was the 'black sheep', being
different from everyone else.  He liked some things and didn't
like some things about the convention and SHHH in general.

To be continued....

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