Quote Originally Posted by elijah

She said, "It's bad when the Amish are giving you strange looks."
Har! You are right about that, Elijah!!

My experience with the Amish is that they can be(especially their children) curious about seeing things outside their culture, and I suppose that seeing a fellow wearing a skirt is waaaaaaay outside the norm for them. I'll bet you provided mom and dad some fodder for a good life lesson in the form of a cautionary tale on the way home in the old horse-and-buggy. Of course, you might even have given them cause to cross the zoo off their list of things to do- though I doubt it!!

As an aside containing a relevant segue, I have a friend who is in a rock band that dresses up like the Amish [http://www.earthquakers.com/]. It started as a gag some years ago, but it was so successful that the members continued the gag, even growing beards and taking on fictitious names such as Eli and Seth, etc. They had a bit part in a bad movie called 'For Richer or Poorer' starring Tim Alley and Kirstie Alley, and still enjoy local fame.

Anyway, my friend has mentioned that occasionally there will be an Amish kid or two at a show, just standing there staring at them. It made me laugh when he also mentioned that as a litmus test to check their authenticity, the kids will toss out phrases in Pennsylvania Dutch to see if the band can respond. I guess they must look that convincing to the Amish populace. Of course they don't know the language, so invariably one of the kids will turn to the others and say something on the order of, "See, I told you. They aren't real."

Speaking of being proven "authentic", I had a fellow come up behind me the other day and say that if I was wearing a kilt I had better be able to speak Gaelic. I thought that he was kidding and turned to speak with him (in English). He turned out to be a most unpleasant sort.

That was my very first encounter with the kilt police. Since that time, I have learned a few choice Gaelic words to have on hand should this ever happen again. I have also been learning a few nicer phrases just to balance things out.


Mychael