We were able to visit this farm in Shelby, Indiana, on the Kankakee river, where Rob Croese started his life in the US at age 18, in 1962.

We had an interesting ride through Amish country around Nappanee, Goshen and Mongo, Indiana. I made kind-of a mental list along the lines of: "How do you know when you are riding in Amish country?" Here is my list, to which you can probably add a few:

1. Horse figs on the road (our fearless leader got tired of pointing them out);
2. A 2-3 ft furrow on the side of the blacktop from the horse shoes;
3. Black-box buggies with reflective triangle on the back, completely closed, even on hot days (makes you wonder if they secretly have AC in there);
4. Clustered white-washed farm buildings and main house with no evident (above-ground) utility cables/wires leading to the buildings;
5. Neat barn yards close to the main road, bordered by colorful flowers, such as dahlias, zinnias, cannas, asters and petunias;
6. Multiple clothes lines facing the road, so that people driving by can see how early the women have the wash drying on the lines;
7. The wash consists of straight-cut frocks, black pants and dresses, towels and non-white bed linens - white being either too worldly or too refined (underwear must be hidden behind the big sheets);
8. The wash was out everywhere on Saturday, but nary on Sunday;
9. On Sunday you see the black boxes behind the barn of someone's meeting place (with horses out in the pasture) and the young boys in white shirts and black pants playing in the yard (see pictures);
10. Etc.

Afterwards I read that Northern Indiana has 19 groups/communities of Old Order Amish and two groups of Old Order Mennonites (the people driving cars and sending their kids to Goshen College are (liberal) Mennonite Brethren). All these groups vary slightly from one to the other, but they have some basic elements in common, such as: No schooling beyond grade school, pacifism, simple lifestyle, etc. Oh yes, we decided that from reading the mailboxes half of them must be called Miller and the other half Yoder.

Rob Croese