When the Young Folks Come to Help

Warm greetings from our Amish community here in the Heartland, and a happy Grandparents Day to you. The temperature dropped about ten welcome degrees this past week, and a little moisture found its way to us here and there, which was a blessing after the dry spell we had been having. The dust settled on the lanes, the gardens took a long drink, and everyone seemed to breathe a little easier. Most of us cannot build a dawdy haus in the back yard, but if you are lucky enough to still have your grandparents with you, we hope you find a way to honor them today. And if you have grandchildren of your own, our wish is that you bless them with all the love you can spare, and then a little more.

This week’s letter continues our series on the Amish way of working together, and this time the focus falls on the young people. Long before an Amish boy or girl is old enough to keep a household, they are already learning what it means to show up when someone needs a hand.

One woman remembered the first youth work group she ever joined. The young girls gathered for a quilting, and the quilt they finished that day was meant to be the first quilt a girl receives from her parents. She said what surprised her most was how quickly the work went. Many quilters make short work of a quilt, and they have a wonderful time doing it. The needles move, the talk goes around the frame, and before anyone expects it the last stitch is set.

Youth groups rarely go looking for projects. When a family has a job too big to manage alone, they simply invite the young folks to come, and the young folks come. The work is not always what an outsider might picture. The girls quilt and cook and clean, but the boys turn up at new houses to hang sheetrock and lay flooring, and they are good at it too. There is more skill in a group of Amish teenagers than most people would guess.

The hardest project this woman remembers was taping and mudding drywall in a new schoolhouse. It was also, she said, the most meaningful thing her youth group ever did. They taped and mudded and sanded and painted until the rooms were finished, and every child who has walked through that door since has walked into a building the young people of the district made ready. That is not a small thing to carry with you.

Work days like these have a way of turning funny. She still laughs about the afternoon one of the girls flung her spatula in her sister’s direction and a bit of joint compound landed square on the sister’s nose. Nobody got much taping done for the next few minutes.

Getting along comes easier than people expect. Usually there is a foreman or an owner directing the work, so there is less to argue about in the first place, and when a disagreement does come up it gets talked over until it is settled. Leadership sorts itself out the same way. Some jobs are assigned, and for the rest a natural leader steps forward and the others fall in behind. When a family is walking through a hardship, the youth simply help where help is needed, without much discussion about it.

Then there is the food, which no young person forgets. Supper is often provided at a work day, and if the group gathers after supper there will be brownies and popcorn and something cold to drink waiting when the tools are put away. The visiting afterward is half the reason they come.

Ask this woman what youth work taught her about being grown, and the answer is plain. Someone has to step up or the work does not get done. She learned it standing on a plank with a taping knife in her hand, surrounded by young people who had come because they were asked, and it has stayed with her ever since.

Stories from Our Amish Basket Weavers

Here are a few of the most notable moments from the families who weave the beautiful baskets featured on AmishBaskets.com , shared with us this week.

The Mast Family

The Mast boys spent a couple of long days in the hay fields this past week, and not only in their own. They pitched in for several English farmers nearby who needed hands to get their hay put up. With the abundance this year, the Masts have sold off part of their third and fourth cuttings simply because the barn would not hold it all, and the extra work has meant a temporary hay crew spot for just about any able bodied young man in the community. The girls have their own part in it, arriving at the fields with sandwiches, cold drinks, and side dishes, and leaving snacks behind for the long afternoons.

The Yoder Family

Another forty jars of pickles came out of the Yoder kitchen this week as the canning and drying carries on there and in every home in the community. Like a few of their neighbors, the Yoders are watching their ice house dwindle down to the last of it after the heat we had late this Summer. For now they are buying ice and keeping it in a large chest in the basement. Some families have begun renting freezer space from English neighbors or at the community freezer that runs on a diesel engine, and the Yoders plan to do the same soon, freezing gallon jugs of water to carry home. It stretches further than bags of ice.

"Very few burdens are heavy if everyone lifts."

- Amish Wisdom Overheard in the Community.