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    Not My Amish Father’S Wishes
    Not My Amish Father’S Wishes
    Not My Amish Father’S Wishes
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    Not My Amish Father’S Wishes

    By Marie Black

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    About this ebook

    She grew up near Kokomo, Indiana in a small Amish community. At a young age she knew she wanted to go to college because she saw how her dad struggled to make ends met and feeding a family of six on a sixty acre farm wasnt an easy task.
    Her first obstacle was the fact she knew no English when she started school. This was her fault, her grandmother knew no English, and therefore she felt this wasnt a necessity. She soon realized her mistake and two weeks into the school year she knew how to speak English. German is the language spoken in the Amish homes as well as all the church services.
    She never lost her ambition of some day graduating from college. When she reached her late teens she was finally on her way to reaching her dream.
    She moved to Arizona where she was introduced to a Jewish family and in exchange for room and board she worked as a maid. For school money she baby sat in the evening and on the weekends. However, when she wanted to start college she encountered another problem. She had no high school diploma. The admissions director told her no diploma no college. There is a way to beat this situation; she just had to think outside the box. Her plan worked and five years later she graduated with honors from Arizona State University. Her next goal was to obtain an MLS and work in the Library of Congress.
    Her situation is unique because no one has been able to explain how you can earn a BA degree without a high school diploma. This is her first book and she was encouraged by her former One Stop counselor.
    She rejected her religion, but this foundation has sustained her life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateAug 9, 2011
    ISBN9781463425432
    Not My Amish Father’S Wishes
    Author

    Marie Black

    The author was born and raised Amish in central Indiana. Life in the Amish community may be fascinating to the out side world, but in reality it’s a harsh life because there are not modern convinces such as electricity etc. There is no education beyond the eighth grade because if the youth were allowed to continue their education the church would lose control and they would leave the faith. As a child she saw how her dad struggled to make ends meet because his education stopped at the eighth grade. She also knew her fate would be the same if she remained Amish. The author moved to Arizona in her late teens and eventually went to college and graduate with honors without a high school diploma. How did she accomplish this? She had to think out side the box. She wouldn’t recommend this idea because it’s by no means an easy task when you don’t have the basic educational foundation needed for college. Her next goal was an MLS degree and work in the Library of Congress. This however, was beyond her reach she explains why in her book. She met a young man in church and was warned he’s not for you. Did she listen? Had she listened she could have saved herself a lot of heart ache in the future. She knows what it must have felt like for the Jewish mothers during World War II when their babies were ripped from their arms. The same thing happened to her on a busy highway when the police ripped her son away from her and informed her you fight and you will go to jail. The author is thankful for her strong religious back ground because otherwise she wouldn’t have survived the messy divorce or life’s other problems.

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      Book preview

      Not My Amish Father’S Wishes - Marie Black

      © 2011 by Marie Black. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      First published by AuthorHouse 08/04/2011

      ISBN: 978-1-4634-2542-5 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4634-2543-2 (ebk)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2011910253

      Printed in the United States of America

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1 

      The Early Years

      Chapter 2

      My Years In College

      Chapter 3

      Life in Chicago

      Chapter 4

      Moving Back to Arizona

      Chapter 5

      Living in New Mexico

      Chapter 6

      Moving to Washington

      Chapter 7

      New Start In PA

      Chapter 8

      Life In Ohio, A Mistake

      Chapter 9

      Conclusion

      Preface

      During my lifetime, I have been confronted on many occasions, when I mention the fact, that I was raised as a little Amish girl. The one area that has always been troubling to me is the fact that people feel that the Amish families have no problems. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Problems also existed within the family just like diese weldt, or the world, as everyone else was referred to who wasn’t Amish. In my book, I hope to set the record straight and hopefully give every reader a glimpse of what it’s like to be Amish in a world that is so totally different from what they believe.

      As a child, I always knew that I would not be allowed to go to high school. Even though I never got to graduate from high school, the class I would have graduated with always kept me informed when the class reunions were to be held. Since moving back east I haven’t missed one of them. The only problem is I can’t relate to any of the events that took place during the high school years. But after graduation, we all basically have the same experiences: marriage, kids, and some of us are divorced. I can’t explain why, but I have from the very beginning, always wanted to know what was going on in the world around me. I did, however; get the opportunity to go on to college and graduate with honors. But, little did I know what the future would hold for me on my life’s journey during my college years and beyond. I’m glad that I was raised Amish, even though I left the religion, because it gave me a strong backbone for all the trials that I have faced in my adult years.

      I’m still a Christian, and without my strong foundation, I honestly don’t think I would have been able to withstand the storms of life as well as I have. I hope readers can get some inspiration from my experiences as they go through life. I also want to thank my late father for allowing me to come home to visit when I was in the area, because in a lot of instances, I would have been disowned by the family for leaving the faith. However, I do belong to a church and attend regularly. That would not have changed some Amish family’s minds. For this, I thank God for a dad that understood and accepted me for what I believe.

      Chapter 1 

      The Early Years

      We lived on a sixty acre farm where we milked cows, raised chickens as well as hogs, but these were always sold on the market because our mom couldn’t eat pork for health reasons. My dad grew hay, corn, soy beans, wheat, oats and tomatoes. I was part of a family of four children. This may sound strange, but growing up I don’t remember ever having time to just play. It was always work, work and more work. It seemed like there was never an end. My Dad built a wood box for me to stand on, and as soon as I could reach the counter top, I had to start washing dishes and my sister would dry them. The laundry oh, I hated that in the winter time. It had to be hung outside on the clothes line even if it was 40 below zero. My sister pulled the wagon and I stood on the back with the clothes basket and hung them on the line. When my fingers were frozen, we switched places until the basket was empty. We had one of those old roller-type washing machines where the clothes were run through two rollers to wring out the water. Well, the Amish women didn’t wear bras, and my grandma was doing her laundry and I’m not sure what happened, but she leaned over too far and ouch, got something caught in the roller! This was one of the few times that I saw my Grandpa laugh, or smile, when something happened.

      It seemed our chores never ended. In the summer time, we had a garden and a truck patch. The garden was a lot smaller and the soil was turned with a shovel and rake. All the early vegetables were planted here, lettuce, scallions, early cabbage and peas. The truck patch was plowed with the tractor and then disked until the soil was fine enough to plant. We had a huge strawberry patch and all the later vegetables were planted here; more cabbage, sweet corn, green beans, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and popcorn. We always had five rows of potatoes, then the rest depended on what we had on reserve in the basement. I guess when you have a family of six to feed you need that much garden space, because nothing was ever bought in the store except cereal, flour and bread. It seemed like all we did during the growing season was hoe the rows of vegetables. By the time we got to the other side of the truck patch, we had to repeat the process over again and again.

      We canned all of the vegetables from the garden, except the carrots and the cabbage. We had an old rectangular milk cooler made out of concrete for the carrots. Dad would pour a layer of sand in the bottom, and then dampen it. We laid in a layer of carrots then more sand, all the way to the top. That kept the carrots nice and crisp and it kept them from freezing. The cabbage we spread a couple inches of sand on the cement floor, dampened it and set the cabbage heads on that and we had fresh cabbage until January. The green beans were an all-day process because our mom didn’t believe in a pressure canner. When she was a kid, her mom was cooking hard—boiled eggs and went outside for a while, then heard an explosion in the kitchen! When she returned, the lid had blown through the ceiling, and the eggs were all glued around the hole!! We had a big cast iron kettle that set in a jacket and dad would build a fire under that to process the vegetables. We could put three tiers of jars in this at one time. The fruit we canned was done in a water bath. This was a lot less of a hassle for us.

      We had our own milk, made our own butter and buttermilk. We had eggs and we also butchered and processed our own chickens for the winter. We raised our own beef. Some was canned, and the rest was processed and then frozen. Butchering our beef was a two day process. My dad always had a couple of neighbors help us. He would push all the farm equipment to the back of the building then hose down the floor before the heifer was brought in to slaughter. They placed two ropes around the heifer’s neck, and then one guy would pull to the right and the other to the left to prevent the animal from turning its head. The third guy would stand in front of the heifer with the gun and shoot it. The minute the heifer dropped, its throat was slit to drain all the blood as soon as possible. Then a hoist was placed between the hind legs and it was pulled upright to drain the rest of the blood.

      My Dad had a pallet that was placed under the carcass so when it was split open the whole inside could be rolled out on the pallet. We cut out the liver, heart, sweetbread, brain and tongue then the rest was dumped into the pig pen. The carcass was left hanging overnight. Then the following morning the processing began. We cut our own roasts, ground the hamburger, and did the steaks, ribs and whatever other cuts we wanted. Some of

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