A Day in Lancaster

Baseball teams usually get travel days when they go on the road. So do Alta and I, in this case between games in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. We could have made it in a day but schedules didn’t mesh. Besides, we wanted to see Lancaster, Pa., and Pennsylvania’s Amish country.

In Lancaster, Alta and I are called “the English.” That’s what Lois, who is Mennonite, told us. We went to the Mennonite and Amish Information Center, watching a movie on the two Anabaptist cultures (Anabaptist Christians formed in the 16th Century, so named because they believe baptism should be a choice made when someone has gained some maturity, not when you are born). We also arranged a tour with a guide, who turned out to be Lois.

Lois spent about two hours with us, taking us on the back roads of eastern Lancaster County. We knew we would see horse-drawn carriages driven by people in plain clothing. I didn’t know the Amish don’t use rubber tires, so their carriages and other vehicles (wagons, plows) use steel wheels. They also don’t believe in bicycles because they move too fast, but they permit small scooters pushed by one foot. The scooters use rubber tires.

For Alta and I, a travel days means getting to know the local culture. That’s why we enjoyed the tour with Lois. We saw several one-room schoolhouses (Lois told us they had all grades together and up to 150 students). The Amish only go to school until the 8th grade. We happened by during recess at a couple of schools. Appropriately, the kids were outside playing baseball. Girls and boys. We also went to an Amish store, which was filled with clothes-making equipment because the Amish make all their own.

Local culture also means food. We had Shoofly pie, Whoopie pie (they have a Whoopie pie celebration in September that features pie launchings), brown-butter noodles, cooked dried corn, mashed potato stuffing, and pickled eggs with Harvard beets. Lancaster must be known for its smorgasbord restaurants because they are all over the place, they’re large, and they’re filled with people. We ate at two of them and wouldn’t recommend either. Also, a big thumb’s down on Hershey, Pa., where the tour is an amusement park ride that isn’t amusing. You can buy any Hershey candy, but that’s the only reason to go. Hershey was an interesting man but the tourist trap isn't.

Of course, wine goes with food. We toured the Nissley Winery west of Lancaster, one of Pennsylvania’s oldest wineries (1978, so not that old). Nissley has won several awards at some well-known wine festivals. We tasted several and bought a few, which Alta will try to get in her suitcase.

So, why were we called the “English” in Lancaster? That’s because historically the Amish and Mennonites who came here came from Germany. The Amish still speak a dialect of German as their primary language. To them, anyone who speaks English is the “English.”