Evelyn grew up as an Amish girl in Iowa. She was born in Indiana, her family moved to Iowa when she was one. She started working for a neighbor family babysitting their two children. This opened up a world Evelyn had never seen. She watched TV with...
The Buggy and Bonnet is iconic in the Amish family. The buggy is transportation pulled by a horse. The horse is usually tall strong and skinny because he needs to be able to pull the buggy easily and run for miles at a time. The Amish feed the horses well and they are put in stalls in the barn overnight or in cold weather. In pretty weather they are let out of their stalls to run and eat grass. We fed our horses alfalfa hay, it is better quality & makes their coats shiny. We would feed them morning and evening, they eat corn and oats with supplements to keep them strong and robust for the work!
The buggy is made with a wooden structure usually in a square narrowing down in triangle shape at the bottom. The wheels are large & slim with spokes around the hub. The wheels are also made of wood. The rim is either rubber attached to the wooden rim, or in the case of the Amish community where I grew up the rim is steel. The single buggy is one seat with a small box bottom and has a small compartment at the back for carrying groceries and other items.
The front of the buggy has a rectangle window that folds up the the ceiling of the buggy inside. This allows for fresh air, but if it's cold you leave the window down. Where the window fastens to the frame of the buggy there are two small openings for the lines to drive the horse. The outside cover & doors are made of a black tarp-like fabric that keeps the rain out. The doors have snaps that fasten to the sides of the buggy in order for them to be closed for cold or rain. The doors roll up like a curtain and fasten to the ceiling, for fresh air.
On the back of the buggy they have an orange triangle and reflectors to show it is a slow moving vehicle. The buggies in Iowa where I grew up had a lantern on each side toward the back of the buggy. These lanterns were kerosene and would be lit after dark. The front of the lantern had white reflector and the back red. The lantern did very little as far as lighting the way, it was more for the cars coming down the road. We had no idea how dangerous this actually is, now that I drive a car I realize the precariousness of the buggy lights or lack thereof!
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The bonnet: The classic look of the Amish women is the dress and bonnet. The Amish make their dresses, caps and bonnets & the mens pants and shirts. The girls learn to sew at a very early age. In my family I learned to sew when I was around 10 years old. I remember one of the hardest things was sewing a straight line!
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This picture was taken today April 12 2023. In 2010 I visited my brothers home in Iowa and my sister-in-law was throwing this bonnet away so I asked if I could have it! Memories as I put this on today! WOW!
We would sew handkerchiefs or quilt blocks, some easy things to start with. We would then start to help as mom and our older sisters sewed dresses and aprons. The cap and bonnet was one of the last things we learned to sew it is delicate work and takes practice! Much of this tedious sewing on bonnets is done by hand. So our first couple of tries were to be used at home as they weren't very perfect! There are Amish ladies who are very good seamstresses, and they sew for others who may have their hands full with small children or aren't that good at sewing. Your talents in sewing baking cooking and gardening were key to your success as an Amish wife!
The Amish ladies love getting together at quiltings and sewings where they get to get out of the house and be together visiting with friends! Here they had time to share stories of their children, husbands, gardens & life in general! They also were able to enjoy a meal together!
Meals around the table are one of my favorite memories and I'll go into that more in the next chapter!
Dear Lord, I thank you as I remember my childhood the fun times and the hard times. I know you love me and you were using these things to grow me into the person I am today! I pray you would use my memoir to help someone who may have grown up Amish to be encouraged today! I thank you for giving me repentance that has led salvation in Christ Jesus my Lord. Thank you for giving me security, acceptance and significance of knowing who I am in Christ! in JESUS Name, Amen.
