These are excerpts taken from Amish scribes’ letters in The Budget…in their own words. Enjoy!

Recently Luke came in the house, flopped himself on the loveseat and said, “Mom, I want a whiskey.” “A what?!” I asked. “A whiskey,” he repeated. Keeping a straight face I said, “Are you sure you know what you are asking for?” “Yes,” he said, “It’s one of those things that you throw (giving his arm a fling) and it sails through the air.” “Oh,” I said with relief and much laughter. “Maybe you mean a Frisbee.” “Yes, that’s it,” he said.

And then there was this little neighbor boy under school age who went to borrow an age from the neighbors so they could make a cake. The neighbor lady told him they need not return the egg. His remark was, “No, we can’t. We need this egg!”

A woman was brave enough to try to protect her family from a yearling bear that walked up onto their patio and pressed its nose against the window and looked into the dining room. Before that, one of the children had come running into the house, all excited, and said that there’s a bear in the yard. This mother got the shotgun and some light shells and went outside as the children in the house cheered her on. The bear ran up a tree and sat there looking at her. She waited until it finally came down and then peppered it in the rear, but it just climbed up another tree. Finally it came down and lumbered off into the woods. Later mamma bear came along, examined the slop pile, then continued sniffing the scent of her cub, and eventually disappeared into the woods behind their house. This morning a middle-sized bear feasted on the ripe peaches in the yard. All this makes it a little scary for the children to play in the yard!

Our neighbors said in the early 1950s he sold 10 butcher hogs—which paid a new pickup truck for him. Today it would take about 200 hogs to pay for a new pickup truck. Back then pigs were called mortgage lifters and today they are called mortgage makers.

Source: The Budget, PO Box 249, Sugarcreek, Ohio 44681