Not only does Elkhart have quite a few RV factories, parts suppliers, renovators, service facilities, but it is the home of large Amish and Mennonite communities and has a cool information center, Menno-Hof, explaining their history in America and their beliefs and differences. ‘It presents visitors with the history of the Anabaptist movement from its Zurich, Switzerland courtyard beginning in 1525; to persecution in dungeons by Catholic and Protestant authorities; to the 17th century streets of Holland; and lastly to their final journey to freedom in America, where they were the first church to call for separation of church and state in over 1,000 years. The original information center, a barn constructed in 1986 by the hands of volunteers, was replaced in 1998 by a new facility.’
I really don’t know much about the Amish nor Mennonite way of life but learned a lot here in this information center. I was particularly intrigued by this chart which compares the two different groups in several ways: Mission, Education, Business, Technology, Dress and Transportation. The Amish are in the top row and the Mennonites are in the bottom row. The first comparison is in the Amish way of building boundaries and keeping the world at bay: most Amish were children born in to the community. The Mennonites have chosen to encounter the world and many of their members come from all walks of life and from many different cultures. Secondly the Amish usually go as far as 8th grade while the Mennonites continue on and many go to college and get advanced degrees. The volunteer in the center when we go there actually taught English in a NC college. The third comparison is that the Amish stay with farming while the Mennonites often go into business and other professions. I think that you can probably figure out the last three.
The had a section on Mennonite jokes.
The building itself was quite amazing since they put the red barn up in a day
using wooden pegs and not nails. They had to make these pegs first.
And, here is the long view of how they fit in and hold the building together.
I liked this descriptive piece too. Buggies cost between $2,000 & $3,000 depending upon the style and community. They are usually made in some Amish-made shops> Interestingly, these same shops which produce the very plain buggies also make ornate carriages and sleigh for the rest of America and the world. Buggies are usually ’traded in’ for reasons other than wear - usually because a family is growing larger and needs a larger buggy or because the kids have left to form families of their own and the parents need to ‘downsize.’
The horses, costing between $300 and $1500 are usually trained in their gaits by professional trainers and then bought by the community. Seldom do the Amish or Mennonites train their own horses. Their horses average about 10 mph and a good horse can travel about 20 miles without stopping. The useful life of a horse is about 15 years. Interestingly, the Amish can also travel by train, boat, bus and other hired vehicles - they just cannot drive a motorized vehicle. We saw lots of bikes in the area also, sometimes whole families were out for a ride. And, others were out doing errands with baskets on their bikes which were full.
I love the sound of gaited horses clip-clopping along the roads. We learned at Menno-Hof that the Mennonites and Amish do not train their own horses but buy them already gaited from professional trainers. Watch those horses with their buggies in back, such high steps, such beautiful gaits. Wonderful. But, to use the public roads where there are trucks, cars, RV’s and semis, they must not only put an orange triangle on back of the buggy, they must also have rear lights and turning signals operated by a battery. And, note the license plate. Makes it much safer for all concerned. Most parking lots in the area, had lines for the motorized vehicles and a hitching rail for the horse-drawn vehicles.
When we returned to our campground we saw a bunch of older, extremely well-cared for RV’s. They were here for a ‘rally’ at the RV Museum on Saturday and Sunday. They all parked together and you could almost imagine this was a campground back in the 60’s - until your saw the Prevost’s and the Winnebago Tours.
We enjoyed our stay in Elkhart and actually had planned to stay for a week. However, we decided to divide this week between Elkhart and Fort Dodge, Iowa where my brother lives. We wanted to spend a little more time than ‘zip in and zip out’. So tomorrow we pack up for a short trip to Swisher, IA where one of Gary’s sisters lives for a night and then on to Fort Dodge.
‘The trouble with life in the fast lane is that you get to the end pretty fast.’
John Jensen
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