Mark and I were in Muskogee for a couple of appointments this morning, which ended at lunch time. I have noticed a big bill board for an Amish restaurant in the area, so we decided to try it. The food was excellent, but the atmosphere was decidedly not Amish.
They had it set up with half being a country style store and the other half being the restaurant. The first person to greet us was a young woman in blue jeans, and our waitress was dressed pretty flashy with makeup and all. The tables were individual rather than being the long family style tables I remember eating at in Pennsylvania. There was old-timey memorabilia everywhere, including pictures of John Wayne. We both had a good lunch followed by dessert (pecan pie for Mark and peach cobbler for me), and then we went through the store. We bought some dark chocolate walnut fudge to take home with us and a book of home remedies. Considering I’ve had a bit of a migraine for the last several days, there are several home remedies I want to try.
About a week ago, we had a group of Yoders staying at Marval. They mostly wore the traditional Amish clothing: head coverings, long skirts, plain colors, suspenders for the men’s pants, barefooted children. I was a little surprised to see one Amish man wearing shorts and driving one of our golf carts. Mark commented on a teenager that was riding a skateboard. It also surprised us that they played in the Arcade, including on the electronic game machines. They didn’t spend any money on crafts but they came in fairly often to rent the golf clubs for mini-golf. One of my co-workers asked one of them how they milk their cows and he said they use a generator to operate their milking machine. I know they had a neighbor drive them to Marval because it was too far from their community for their horses to pull their buggies. Just the fact that they were taking a vacation at Marval seemed to shoot some holes in my pre-conceptions.
We once saw an Amish buggy driving through Gore. Then a week or two ago we saw a covered wagon being pulled by mules driving through town. I have no idea what that was about. Something tells me we aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto!