It's now Monday evening. I wanted to write this column tonight so I can get an early start to work in the morning.
It was a windy day and the temperature reached 66 degrees. I hung all my laundry outside to dry, fold it, and put it away. Oh, how wonderful!
Sister Verena came here yesterday and spent the night. Tonight, her neighbor Mary brought her back to her house with a gator. She was warm enough for that. Mary was certainly close to Verena. Her good neighbors are priceless! Times have changed, people have become less dependent on each other, and love for one's neighbor has diminished. We are lucky to have good neighbors. Growing up, we knew all our neighbors. If you need to call someone, go there and use the phone. Now we have our own phones in a separate building.
I still remember the first phone call I made. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I think I was 13 or 14 when my girlfriend's mother deemed it safe to walk the half mile to the neighborhood. I passed Aunt Salome and Uncle Elmer's house, then Grandpa and Grandma's house, Uncle Henry and Aunt Barbara's house, and then I traveled often for many years. I remember her mother writing down what I wanted to say on a piece of paper. I was very nervous. A neighbor dialed my number on a rotary phone. I remember reading what was written on paper so quickly that I often wonder how it sounded to my friends who left messages from their parents. I'm sure the old lady in the neighborhood was smiling too.
If the first neighbor is not home, you can walk another quarter mile to the next neighbor. Every time I made a call, I placed a coin next to the phone. Long distance calls were written to a tablet near the phone so that they could be claimed later when the bill came. I still remember having to wait on the phone because all my neighbors were on the same line. Before I called, I picked up the phone and checked to see if it was quiet. Home phones now have speed dials that require just one or two button presses. All lines are separated as well.
After we got married, we had a neighbor across the street who let us use his cell phone. But if they weren't home, we had to walk over half a mile to other neighbors. I remember clearly when I had an appointment with my midwife and the driver never showed up. The plan was to send the four children home. The driver didn't show up, so I loaded the four kids into a small wagon and pulled them up the hill to my neighbors, a half-mile away. The neighbor across the street was not home at the time. She remembers being very tired by the time she got home. I found it difficult to pull the wagon because I was almost at full term for my next baby. As the baby's arrival time neared, a neighbor put a cordless phone in the grill outside the door so that if Joe had to call at night, he could do so without waking the baby. We were grateful when.
Some of my family will be joining me at the Plain and Simple Craft Show in Shipshewana on April 6th from 9am to 3pm. I hope to meet some readers there. The address is 345 South Van Buren Street, Shipshewana, Indiana.
I wish all my readers a blessed Easter. How grateful can we be that Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins? He is resurrected! god bless!
The author of Lovina's Amish Kitchen Lovina Eicher Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight children. Her two cookbooks, The Essential Amish Cookbook and Amish Family Recipes, are available wherever books are sold. Readers may write to Eicher at Lovina's Amish Kitchen, PO Box 234, Sturgis, MI 49091 (please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope for return). Or email her at LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org and her message will be passed to her to read. She does not respond to her emails personally.
