First let me start by saying that I am NOT any kind of authority on the Amish.  I am just a neighbor who has a rapport with a few of these nice folks and I learn what I can from them but always try not to be pushy or intrusive with my curious inquiries.  I apologize here and now for any misinterpretation or inaccuracy I might inadvertently post.  I suppose my ultimate excuse for any such instance will have to be "Well, that's the way I heard it" ;-)

The Amish live primarily in small rural communities and almost always engage in farming at least to some small extent if nothing more than having some laying hens for fresh eggs.  Some do have conventional jobs in local factories or are employed in craft making such as quality furniture or cabinet making as well as basket making.  Many of these are entreprenuers like the Amishman that owns the basket making business where I get my wares. 

The Amish lifestyle is much like rural life was in the mid-1800s with limited technology being used.  They live mostly without electricity and all the things that depend on it for use.  That means no refrigeration so you can see why those laying hens are handy things to have;-)  Food preservation is primarily by canning in mason jars.  Even meat is canned in this fashion.  They travel by horse and buggy as well as using horses to draw their plows and other farming equipment.    As was customary back on 1800s farms, the Amish have large families and everyone who is big enough pitches in with the chores. 

The Amish don't believe in having any "graven images" of people and this is why you do not see any pictures of Amish folk here or even any drawings.  If you ever have the opportunity to visit an Amish area please be polite and resist the urge to take pictures of them.  If you ask nicely they are usually more than happy to let you snap a few pics of their horse drawn buggies as long as you don't get any Amish people in the pics and especially not their children.

The Amish dress very plainly as vanity is something to be avoided.  Blue denim or other cloth of brown or gray are predominant and most of the clothing is hand made at home.  Depending on how strict the family is the men may have a minimal number of buttons on their shirts to be functional but I've never seen a woman with buttons on her dress.  Of course there is no velcro, snaps or zippers either.  When buttons are not used head pins (unsharp straight pins) are used to hold one's clothing together.  All the women wear a bonnets right down to the little girls and the little boys' clothing is exactly the same as adult men's garb but smaller.  The men wear wide brim hats of either dark felt or woven straw and the local Old Order Amish men I know wear a black band on their hat fastened with a straight pin.  The band is about an inch wide and an Amish friend told me it's considered inappropriate to have either too narrow or too wide a band on one's hat.

Some Amish customs are based in their religion, which as best as anyone can explain to me is a distant offshoot of Catholicism, while others seem to be more a matter of maintaining their community values and keeping separate from the rest of the world.  They generally reject "worldly" things and as a community they practice as much separatism from we "English" as possible and practical.  Note that if someone is not Amish then they are English.  The "English" title has nothing to do with having any British ancestry but refers only to the language most of us speak.  My neighbors speak a form of Pennsylvania Dutch although their Testament (Bible) is written in Old German. 

Children are raised speaking Dutch with a bit of English mixed in and attend small local Amish schools from grades 1 through 8 where they will also learn "book English" the same as kids in English schools.  Some Amish children will attend English schools if there are any within proximity to their homes.  Bear in mind that The Amish do not use cars and prefer not to used busses either so transportation to distant schools is impractical.  They may put up a one room schoolhouse every few miles to educate the children in that area or may even use one of the community members' homes as is feasible.  The Amish are definitely a practical group and even though they reject much English technology it is all tempered with reason in an emergency.  If you are chopping firewood and gash your leg with an axe no one is going to fault you for getting a ride to the hospital by car from an English neighbor.

Practical might be an understatement.  The Amish are downright geniuses when it comes to low tech machinery.  They will use "English" gas engines to power shop machinery that we would usually power electrically.  On fellow here runs a furniture and cabinet shop that is absolutely astounding.  He employs all modern woodworking machinery with the electric motors removed.  He powers them all from a large diesel engine on a pedestal behind the shop.  A large belt run under the foundation and using a series of axels, pulleys, more belts coming up through the floor with clutches he runs all the machinery from that single engine.  It reminds me of the things they built on the old TV show "Gilligan's Island".

-Otto