An Amish Paradox

by Charles E. Hurst

  Leisure, Consumerism, and Signs of Economic Inequalities

  For nearly two centuries, the Amish have been defined by their distinctive style of “production” and by the corresponding absence of a “leisure class,” the emergence of which is usually considered one of the hallmarks of modernity. Hostetler believed that the values of frugality and thrift ran so deep for the Amish that recreation and leisure were “not entered into as pursuits in themselves.”65 As noted earlier, however, the changing Amish occupational structure has increased two of the key ingredients for leisure activities: time and money. As a result, the Amish are increasingly defined by their styles of consumption and their purchasing patterns. In the Holmes County Settlement, it is no longer a stretch to speak of a consumer revolution among the Amish.

  But not all consumer revolutions are alike, nor do they converge toward the same endpoint. The Amish, of course, have long been wary of the self-serving individualism and the potential for social inequality that is inherent in rampant consumerism. Consequently, they exhibit the kind of ambivalence toward consumer culture that “often surfaces when people believe that consumption has become ‘excessive’—that is, when it threatens a culturally understood ‘balance’ with morality, citizenship, production, saving, or the environment.”66 How, then, have the Amish balanced the cultural imperatives of frugality and service to others with their increased access to leisure time and cash?

  Transportation provides a good example of the “middle ground” occupied by most Amish. The common reference to the Amish as a “horse and buggy culture” overlooks the complex mixing of modes of transportation used by Amish families. At one end of the spectrum, some Amish families rely almost exclusively on the “Amish haulers” or “Amish taxis” whose advertisements litter public phone booths and community bulletin boards all over the settlement. “I put 100,000 miles on his vehicle last year,” quipped one Old Order man in the roofing business when referring to his driver. So lucrative a business has “driving the Amish” become for retirees, ex-Amish, and others that the State of Ohio recently moved to tighten tax regulations on this self-employed group. Some well-to-do Amish businessmen employ as many as three drivers—one for the man’s wife, one for him at work, and one for weekends and evenings—and use the horse and buggy only for church services once every two weeks. Concerned about this state of affairs, a December 2007 letter to the editor of Family Life complained, “More and more we see where drivers are hired without a second thought, to take us places where our horse and buggy easily takes us.”67 One Old Order man we interviewed predicted, “The horse and buggy will disappear in the next generation.” Probably an overstatement given the symbolic importance of this mode of transportation for Amish identity, his comments nonetheless reflect the compression of time and space that has occurred in the shift to market-oriented businesses.

  On the other end of the spectrum are the Swartzentrubers, whose Ordnung restricts them from riding in cars except in emergencies. Most of the Amish buggies that ply the towns of Wooster and Orrville en route to shopping or health care facilities are owned by Swartzentrubers. Members of other affiliations prefer to travel to town by hired van. But even the Swartzentrubers are changing, albeit slowly. For example, when they move to another settlement, they now hire a semitruck instead of going by train. The Swartzentrubers in the Holmes County Settlement were also greatly affected when Greyhound Lines Inc. suspended its services in Wooster; the result was that some Swartzentrubers now rely on a county van service. Even the prohibition on riding in a vehicle other than in an emergency is flexible. A knowledgeable insider explained that although “Swartzentrubers can’t get a ride just for the sake of getting a ride, … [they] don’t want to offend someone who offers [them] a ride.” Consequently, Swartzentruber Amish will ride in cars if their destination is “on someone’s way to somewhere.”

  For most Amish, however, daily life still involves a complex mix of buggy and car use. In our survey of Amish transportation patterns, 31 percent of respondents indicated that they rode in a car or a van 4–7 times per week, while 21 percent used their horse and buggy 4–7 times per week; 64 percent of respondents said they used their horse and buggy 1–3 times a week, compared with only 32 percent who ride in a car or a van 1–3 times a week. Since buggy types and accessories are partially regulated by church Ordnung, they are not as easily turned into status displays as are automobiles among the English. Nevertheless, a visit to any buggy shop in the settlement will reveal a surprising range of options. One buggy shop, for instance, markets the “Amish minivan,” so called because it comes with an extra seat in back that can be folded down for sleeping infants. The four-thousand-dollar sticker price includes a variety of accessories: velvet upholstery, hydraulic brakes, auto steer, mud flaps, dimmer switch, flashing turn signals, windshield wipers, mirrors, windows and curtains, and a cigarette lighter plug. In addition to the rate of taxi use, a fairly reliable measure of wealth in the Amish community is the quality of one’s horse and buggy, including how frequently old buggies and horses are traded in for new ones.68

  New Twists on Old Hobbies and Travel

  Another intriguing aspect of the Amish-style consumer revolution has been the increased centrality of hobbies in their lives. Fishing and hunting have long been integral to life on the farm, and Amish today still enjoy these endeavors as sources of food and as forms of recreation.69 Unlike their predecessors, however, twenty-first-century Amish hunters and fishermen are outfitted in style. An editor of the Outdoors Section of a local newspaper commented, “I’ve hunted and fished with the Amish, and the ones I’ve gone with all have top-notch equipment (other than camo). They don’t mind spending money on their boots, guns, fishing poles and lures. They read the magazines and keep up to date with the latest in tactics and equipment.” When a new Cabellas store opened in Dundee, Michigan, the Holmes County Amish community was abuzz with excitement, and vanloads of Amish shoppers regularly traveled between Millersburg and this store located north of Toledo. In February of 2007, nearly two thousand Amish attended the first annual Great Outdoor Sportsman’s Show at Keim Lumber Company in Charm, including Amishman Jon Schmucker, who harvested the famous Amish Lucky Buck.70 The Ohio Amish also book a lot of Lake Erie fishing charters and week-long fishing vacations in Canada, and they are frequent visitors to state parks in the summer months.

  Although life on the farm always included awareness of bird life, many Amish now engage in bird-watching as a serious hobby. Amish birders sport the latest optical equipment, such as Swarovski spotting scopes and binoculars. It is not uncommon for an Amish birder to carry upwards of twenty-five hundred dollars worth of optical equipment into the field. Some Amish are highly regarded in birding circles for their skills in identifying birds by sight and sound and check the local rare bird alerts on a regular basis. Somewhat surprisingly, Amish birders are avid “listers,” keeping life lists, state lists, and annual lists of species seen, which serve as the basis for friendly competition. In many cases, birding becomes a family affair, and everyone will contribute to a “yard list” of all species seen around the house. A visit to Crane Creek Wildlife Refuge on Lake Erie in May for the spring warbler migration reveals that dozens of Amish families have made the trek from Holmes County with children, binoculars, field guides, and lunch pails in tow. Perhaps the most passionate birders, however, are the roughly one hundred Amish men and teenage boys who annually brave biting cold and snow to spend thirteen or more hours in a day birding for the local Christmas Bird Count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society. The final tally of species for the Millersburg Count is virtually an all-Amish affair, with much low-key humor and suspense over the sighting of rare species. In 2006 the group tallied the highest number of species ever recorded on a Christmas Bird Count in Ohio.

  The main concern surrounding hunting, fishing, and birding has been the amount of time it may lead fathers to be away from their families. Another favorite recreational activity, softball, has raised a differ
ent set of issues and reveals the variety of Amish perspectives on organized sports. The enthusiasm for competitive softball among unbaptized Amish boys is hard to overstate. Dozens of Amish teams regularly compete in local leagues throughout the settlement, and the best teams have even competed in national tournaments. But competitive softball also runs counter to many Amish sensibilities such as simplicity, frugality, and meekness. Softball requires a considerable outlay of money and time for equipment and travel, and it calls for uniforms and even haircuts that do not sit well with church members. The custom of playing under the lights or even on Sundays also runs against Amish beliefs, and there is the fear that exposure to the argumentativeness and showmanship that characterize non-Amish sporting events will undermine the Amish emphasis on cooperation and humility. So concerned were bishops in Lancaster County about the growing competitiveness of softball that they forbade mothers to wash their sons’ softball uniforms, creating a storm of controversy!71

  In the Holmes County Settlement, the acceptance of competitive softball varies according to one’s baptismal and marital status. Many unbaptized boys still play their hearts out in competitive leagues. Some parents and church leaders want to clamp down further on this activity, but they are opposed by those who see softball as far preferable to other worldly activities that tempt Amish boys in such a large settlement. Once a player is baptized, the pressure grows against playing in organized leagues, though some individuals keep playing until they get married. Even for married men, however, opportunities abound to join teams that play in a wide variety of benefit tournaments, such as an annual tournament “to raise money for a guy who was paralyzed.” Teams often carry the name of a bishop or a place of work, such as Ben’s Ballpark Team. Reflected one married Old Order third-baseman, “It’s not supposed to be competitive, but it’s still pretty competitive.”72

  In recent years, softball competition between an Amish and an English team has been an exciting part of the Kidron Community Fun Day. The Amish and English teams split the three-inning affairs in 2005 and 2006, but the 2007 four-inning tie-breaker was a lopsided affair, won 14-2 by the Amish team in front of five hundred fans.73 And a new wrinkle suggests that the mind-set encouraged by Title IX—that girls should have the same opportunities as boys—may be spilling over into the Amish community. The majority of rosters of the Wayne-Holmes Women’s Softball League in 2009 were made up of Amish girls.

  Another change that has affected Amish women, “eating out” or “ordering in,” has become more common in recent years. Amish families can be seen not only at fast-food restaurants and the Amish theme restaurants, but also at mainstream restaurants such as Bob Evans, Applebee’s, or Panera Bread. For more than a few Amish, pizza delivery has become a family custom on Saturday nights. Home-cooked meals with fresh, local ingredients are still the norm, but store-bought and convenience foods are slowly replacing locally grown items. Similarly, “goodwilling,” or shopping for clothes at Goodwill or other thrift stores, has become a regular pastime for Amish women. Many scour the Bargain Hunter and other local newspapers for the latest yard sales. Commented a Holmes County employee, “They’ll use the Bargain Hunter to plan their whole week. They’ll call shops that stock it and ask when it’s in and then send someone to get it.” Although most Amish girls still learn how to sew, sewing has “become an option” as more Amish women go to work in family businesses and have less time to sew.74 Even Amish dresses, which have always been sewn by hand so as to control the color, fabric, and fit, can now be bought off the rack in some Amish-owned stores.

  If access to time and money has re-shaped traditional pastimes for adults, it has also given rise to new ways of spending time for young people. Rollerblading and bicycling have become common summer activities, and some youth enjoy waterskiing and wakeboarding (a combination of waterskiing, snowboarding, and surfing). Snowboarding and skiing trips are not unheard of in the winter months. The one outdoor recreational activity that has remained relatively popular and unchanged is volleyball. Since boys and girls of differing abilities can play volleyball together, it is still the main activity at most singings and youth group meetings. Some Amish businesses have even erected volleyball courts for their employees to use at lunchtime or during other break periods. For indoor recreation, “scrapbooking” is an activity that seems to be growing in popularity, but jigsaw puzzles, card games (those that do not use playing cards), and board games such as Monopoly and Scrabble are still mainstays of Amish family life. And in spite of the changes in traditional pastimes, it is worth noting that 74 percent of respondents in our survey about leisure activities ranked “reading” as one of the top three leisure activities in their lives, far outpacing fishing (31%), hunting (25%), volleyball or softball (25% each), sewing or quilting (20%), and bird-watching (9%).

  In rural Ohio, the phrase Amish tourism usually conjures up images of the multi-million-dollar industry in which nostalgic English descend on the tranquil, rolling hills of Holmes County to acquire Amish furniture or other products. But these days the phrase could just as well describe the thousands of Ohio Amish who travel all over the United States and Canada to see the sights, visit relatives, and seek out alternative health care. In our survey, nearly one-third of Amish had traveled to more than twenty-one states in their lifetimes, and two-thirds had traveled to more than eight states. One measure of the extent of Amish travel is that the Department of Homeland Security policy to require passports and driver’s licenses with photo identification for American citizens traveling to Canada in the aftermath of 9/11 quickly made it onto the agenda of the National Amish Steering Committee.75 The notion of an “Amish vacation” is no longer an oxymoron.

  As in the past, many Amish trips still revolve around visiting friends and relatives, but vacations purely for fun and sightseeing have become more common. Popular destinations for the Holmes County Amish include the Great Lakes, Niagara Falls, and the Great Smoky Mountains, but two-week trips out west are not uncommon. The Pinecraft area of Sarasota, Florida, about five hundred bungalows and trailers situated on 120 acres, has also become a winter destination for Amish families and youth. Pioneer Trails buses from Ohio to Pinecraft, called the “gumboot express” by locals, carry more than four thousand people each way during the peak months of January to March. Nearly 75 percent of the passengers are Amish. One New Order Amish bishop described Pinecraft as a “real mission program for the Amish,” because all different denominations come together. Another bishop notes, though, that those who frequent Pinecraft are “the more entrepreneurial segment of the Amish.” Our survey bore this out. Whereas only 13 percent of Old Order respondents had visited Pinecraft more than two times, 53 percent of the New Order had visited Pinecraft more than twice, with several indicating twelve to fifteen visits. The more conservative groups often associate Pinecraft with the New Order influence and are wary of the weak social controls and the temporary suspension of some church rules there.76 A young New Order woman, however, had a different take on Pinecraft: “Florida,” she quipped, “is for the newlyweds, half-deads and can’t-gets.”

  One dimension of Amish family life is conspicuous for its absence: participation in civic organizations. Amish adults cannot be found at Rotary Club or Kiwanis meetings or serving on school boards or in public office, nor will Amish children join the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, the 4-H clubs, or the Little League teams that are so popular in rural Ohio. An exception to this policy, worth noting, is that Old Order and New Order Amish men volunteer in local fire departments throughout the settlement. The Fourth of July parade in Fredericksburg, Ohio, which includes numerous fire trucks and even a few Amish participants, is witnessed by hundreds of Amish and English families, who line the route with folding chairs and then share a chicken barbecue dinner and softball game afterward.

  The Amish themselves have very mixed feelings about the changes in leisure activities among their people. They are concerned, for example, about the way time and money are being spent. One Old Order
man explained, “As far as vacations, I don’t have a problem with people taking vacations. But I have a problem with people spending a lot of money on leisure if families are really in need in the area. If you have a lot of extra money or have the chance to help other people, let’s do that.” A related concern is that the frequency and type of leisure activities are becoming markers of inequality. “Our differences can be seen in the amount of hunting land they have,” pointed out an elderly Old Order man. “[The disparity] is obvious.” Extended vacations also run counter to the Amish work ethic. “You know, nothing gets done if somebody takes a trip every summer,” commented an Andy Weaver woman. “You shouldn’t be spending six weeks out of the year just vacationing or whatever. It has to be something that’s done within reason. It’s like … use your common sense.” Attitudes such as these have somewhat tempered consumerism and the adoption of leisure activities among the Amish. Yet in a large and diverse settlement such as Holmes County, what is “common sense” to one family is increasingly viewed as extravagant to another. As long as the Amish “have more money than we need to exercise our lifestyle,” the challenges created by consumerism and leisure opportunities will not soon disappear.

  The popularity of softball among Amish boys and girls has forced parents and church leaders to engage in a spirited debate over the appropriate limits of competitive play. Photograph by Doyle Yoder.