Destination: Dinky's Auction House or The Amish Mall

A. was hyped up with anticipation and motown music as she and a group of international students, 1 other white girl, 1 white old man and 1 african american woman piled into 5 cars and caravanned to Amish Country. No one but the old man knew what to expect. About an hour later they started seeing signs like this:


Then they actually started to see them, license-plated buggies with Amish families aboard. The cars sped around them. Heading for Dinky's. We arrived parked and walked about. There were to large structures, warehouses, where after not too long the auctions started. A. was astounded by what she heard and saw. She could not understand a word of the auctioner. It sounded like singing, or "country rapping" as someone else noted. She took some footage.



(Heard hear: a goat being auctioned off, if you look carefully, you will see subtle movements in the crowd which means, "I bid at the price you just said."

Amish people do not care for graven images or photographs, so she tried to be discreet. Note: not all the people at this auction were amish, there were also rural people, and then us busload of Asian International students. Many Amish stared as they had not seen Asians before. How could they with not much traveling and no tv?

All the Amish women wore solid color dresses. The men solid colored shirts, and suspenders, no belts. We tried to figure out what the bonnets and facial hair meant. Rumors that black bonnet meant single and white meant married, and bearded meant married didn't seem reasonable as VERY young boys and girls were sporting this style. It shall remain a mystery.

A. was overwhelmed by the noise of the auction and hungry so she went to buy food. Fried chicken fingers and french fries, followed by blackberry pie and icecream. which came to a total of $7. Healthy food didn't seem high on the priority list, she thought to herself, as she enjoyed the freshes fried chicken she had ever eaten. It was delicious and she ate it all quickly. She thought, they must not eat this every night, maybe this is just thier friday night, fun at the auction-house fair, she wondered, but had no way to find out.

Upon returning home around 11pm she tried to wikipedia Amish, but found the article to be rather mean-spirited. She found a few other websites about Amish in Pennislyvania, and wondered if Amish in So. Indiana also speak Penn Dutch, but doubts it.


Strawberries secured during an auction. A cultural immerision.