My friend, Pat, and I were having lunch at a local restaurant in Yellow Springs - a small town in southern Ohio where I grew up but moved away from 40 years ago. Our table was near the front door and every time the door opened I looked to see if I recognized an old friend or a familiar face.

Halfway through our meal, I again glanced up as the door opened and watched as 5 men in round wide bimmed straw hats with black bands walked into the restaurant and took seats at two tables in close proximity to ours.  The matching straw hats drew my attention and then I noticed that 4 of the young men had on bright blue long sleeved, collared shirts.  The blues were not all the same but in the same general hue.  The 5th man was older and had a long brown beard and was wearing a long sleeved white shirt and suspenders.  All the men had on plain black pants and black sturdy shoes. 

"Amish?" I whispered to Pat.

"Oh yeah." she said with authority because she, unlike me, had never moved away from Ohio.

I noticed that the older man and 3 young men sat at one table and one of the young men sat at another table with a man dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt who had walked in with the group. 

"Do you think there's a horse and buggy outside?" I asked.

"No, that's their driver." Pat said and directed her look to the man in jeans.

"Oh. Do they use drivers when they have to get somewhere far away?"

"Yes, they often use drivers because they can't drive."

"Right." 

The 5 Amish men had all taken off their straw hats and placed them top down under each of their chairs.  Obviously, this was protocol.  The boys looked like they ranged in age from about 14 to 19.  The 14 year old had a definite "bowl" haircut although the older boys' hairstyles were not so defined. 

I tried not to stare, but every once in awhile I would sweep my eyes over the two tables to check out what was going on.   I remembered seeing Amish families at the Dayton airport when I was young, it had been many years since I had seen any as I now live in Massachusetts.  I think I speak for most people when I say I have always been fascinated by groups of people who not only take their religion so seriously, but choose to live in a manner that hasn't changed in a few hundred years. 

And, although I did my best to keep my eyes averted from the group, my ears were wide open.  The older man and 3 boys spoke very little and went completely mute when their food was served.  But, the other young man was carrying on a lively conversation with the driver.  I couldn't hear everything they were discussing, but I did hear the driver give an enthusiastic description of all the bells and whistles of his GPS system to the Amish fellow.  What a funny thing! Imagine describing a GPS system to a young American man who not only had never seen one, but perhaps never would. 


Real Estate Hint #12 - Pods! Pods have become ubiquitous.  They are a pretty cool concept.  The company places a pod in your yard, you fill it up with stuff and then the company can cart the pod back to the storage yard until you move to your new home.  I highly recommend doing this if your house is cluttered and you don't have a basement, garage or attic to store everything in it.  Ridding your house of inessentials, old furniture, books, cds, whatever you don't need to enjoy life at the moment is a great idea prior to putting your house on the market.  My only caution is that although you may notice pods that remain in the yards of homesellers, I would not advise this.  It may cost more, but have the company come and tote your pod to their storage area.  A pod on the lawn cries out to the prospective buyers, "We don't have enough space in our house for everything we own - and neither will you!!!!"