Amish Folk in The Big Apple

It was the same year "The Juice", OJ Simpson committed or didn't commit a heinous crime, depending on who you believe or don't believe. Bert and I kissed our two small children good bye and we hopped into a taxi van in the middle of the night and drove to Akron, Oh to get on a train bound for NYC. 

Our children stayed with my parents. We knew they would survive staying at their grandparents, but we had no assurance that we would survive our trip to the big, bad city. As young Amish teens we had both read David Wilkerson's book "The Cross and the Switchblade" and John Benton's books of prostitutes and runaways and drug addicts who were found and set free. 

That was the picture we had of NYC. Well, that and also, my new-found pen pal friend, Lucy, who was from the Bronx and she painted a different, more glamorous picture of the city life . We would write to each other and each of our letters were small tomes. She would write about her life living in the city. She being a couple years younger than I and still in college and dating and going to bars and going on vacations to faraway lands like the Bahamas and when she would come home from her adventures she would write to me about her excursions both in and out of the city. I knew she was born and raised there and wasn't "killed yet", but was it really safe for two Amish folks to go to the big city and tour it and not get murdered, robbed, or anything else bad we had read about? She painted such an exciting picture of the city that we really wanted to go see for ourselves. Most of our family and friends thought we were utterly nuts to want to go to any city, let alone New York City! 

None-the-less, we tossed our anxieties by the wayside and boarded that train going to the big city. It was seventeen long hours of wobbly/rolling motions all the way to the Big Apple. During one stop at a station, I went to the bathroom, having no idea, nor seeing any signs cautioning against going to the bathroom when the train was stopped. Much to my dismay one of the crew came on our car and announced to us that we are NOT supposed to use the facilities while the train was stopped. 

I was mortified. I don't know why I didn't see the signs??? 

Sigh. 

From Philadelphia, Pa they booted the locomotive to the other end of our car and we "backed" all the way from Philadelphia to Grand Central Station. For years after that ride I have battled with a sort of vertigo and I'm pretty sure it was from that ride, because I was perfectly normal before that. I believe the trained moved at 90 mph and riding backward at that pace was just enough to mess with my equilibrium, I guess. 

Walking into Grand Central Station is like nothing I can explain to anyone who might have lived a sheltered life. You've never experienced people in a rush-rush way until you have entered the walls of Grand Central Station. 

My friend Lucy and her friend Denise came to Manhattan to pick us up. I can only imagine what must have been going through their minds thinking about how it would be to bring two Amish people to NYC and show them the city. When we first met up there at the station there were the usual hugs and introductions and then Lucy paused and looked us in the eye and said, "Now, not to alarm you, but when we leave the building here and go outside you are going to notice about 200 policemen all over the streets."  (For the life of me, I cannot remember why the policemen were there. Maybe she will remember as she is reading this and will reply on my Facebook page.) She went on to say we are not to worry, that all is well and we just needed to trust her and Denise. 

We stepped outside on the pavement and the first thing I noticed, after seeing a ton of policemen, was the city appeared to be clean and pretty. I was so surprised. The buildings were tall, the people were many, the traffic was heavy, the pedestrians were bustling and there was definitely a smell to the city, but it was so much cleaner than anything I had expected. Sometimes you smelled the exhaust fumes, other times you smelled sewer mixed with wonderful smells from the restaurants and street vendors. 

I think I fell in love with the city right then and right there. 

I remember after getting into Lucy's car we traveled around the city for awhile and she let us take in the skyscrapers and the city by way of car, then we headed to the Bronx, where she lived with her parents. 

I will never be able to say enough good things about her parents. First of all, they had that old world Italian charm about them. They sacrificed their bedroom for us the whole week we were there. I felt so bad, and felt so loved all at the same time.It was our little haven to go to when things started to get to be too much. When I say too much, I mean, just the hustle and bustle and the noise. There was a subway station screaming across the street - every couple of minutes it seemed. There were large airplanes coming and going overhead all the time. Then there was the beeping of horns and the sounds of sirens, and even the air conditioner seemed to make noise. We lived in constant noise the whole week we were there, coming on the train, and leaving on the train. The train itself was so noisy. More on the noise a little bit later. 

I wish I could remember every detail of every day, but Lucy and Denise were wonderful tour guides and took us all over, we went to all the touristy places, we went up into the crown of the Statue of Liberty, we toured Ellis Island, had a ride on the ferry, we went on a helicopter ride and saw the city from the air, we ate in Chinatown, we toured on a bus, we walked through Greenwich Village, we went up on Empire State Building, we passed the Twin Towers, we went to Chelsea Pier, and we rode the subway. We happened to be smack dab in the middle of the crowd leaving Madison Square Gardens when the New York Rangers won something "hockey". I have NEVER, EVER, EVER in my life seen anything like it before or after. NEVER. Folks were celebrating and happy and they were walking over the cars in the street because there were so many people, they had to wait to get around a car, or just walk over it. Of course, we were going the opposite direction of the folks coming out of the Garden...so, we were walking against the flow. Oh, it WAS an experience, for sure, for sure! One day we came upon the Puerto Rican Day parade. It was fabulous. Loud and flashy and gaudy.  The same day we came across a Jewish funeral. Some big Rabbi person had died and there were thousands of "Amish" looking hats, for blocks it was all you saw, men who looked Amish, but were Jewish. No ladies were there. I found that interesting. I guess it is their custom for the ladies not to attend such a funeral. 

Lucy's mother and father fed us like you would expect true Italian folks to do. Lucy's mother was a wonderful cook. The night we arrived she had prepared this amazing spread. She started with a noodle dish that was so yummy and she served it with Parmesan cheese on top. I serve my noodles that way ever since. Noodles are NOT good without the parm! Trust me. She had at least seven courses for us. I remember a pasta dish and meatballs, I think. Some salad and bread. It was ALL good and delicious and she kept serving us and serving us until I was ready to explode. 

Lucy's father was also serving. 

He served the wine. We took a sip of wine, he got up and filled the glass. Over the years, as we reminisce our time with the Iarusso family, this dinner time is always one of our fondest and favorite memories we have. They truly have the gift of hospitality bred into them. Hospitality oozes out of their pores. I am sorry to say that Lucy's mother did pass away a few years ago, but she was a wonderful lady and I always loved chatting with her on the phone or in person. Lucy's father remains in the Bronx and we hope to go visit him at his home next time we make the trek to visit our friends. We want to go back to the Bronx and see if we remember things or if things look and feel different than that first time we spent a week in the Bronx.

Lucy's family also had a summer home in New Jersey and so we went out there overnight to experience the "country life" the way they experienced it. We had so much fun, where ever we went, there were new things to explore, new things to see and experience. I had never been to a movie theater and being Amish we were not allowed to watch TV or go to the movies, but what happens in NYC stays in NYC - unless that person is no longer Amish and not afraid to share. wink wink....We went and saw The Flintstones. I LOVED IT. To this day, I love going to the theater. I would go every weekend if my better half enjoyed it half as much as I do. 

We had bagels in that little Italian home in the Bronx. So delicious. We still eat them to this day. We had our first soft pretzels on the streets of Manhattan. And one night, we went and looked for the prostitutes. Bert and I had read so many of those John Benton and David Wilkerson books, and that is what we knew about NYC and so we asked Lucy and Denise to take us to that part of the city. And they did. I remember seeing the ladies of the night, dressed up in their finest attire, standing there on the corners, just like in the books. Why the fascination? Just because it was something we had read about and couldn't fathom, I think. In today's world, I would probably be more inclined to get out of the car and try to befriend the ladies of the night, and try and help them somehow and do less gawking. Sigh

Lucy and Denise invited their friends over one evening and we had a party on the patio of Lucy's parent's home. I remember sitting there and visiting with so many of their friends, such lovely, lovely people. We visited Lucy's sister over on Long Island one day. What a lovely location Long Island is! The water was right over there, a stone's throw away from her sister's home. 

Then finally it was time to say good bye and return to Amish land and away from the city and the noise. I remember saying good bye to Lucy and Denise at Grand Central Station, getting in line and then looking back and they were no longer there. It was a moment of..."oh my goodness, we are all alone in this big city", but we boarded the train just fine and seventeen hours later we arrived in Akron, Oh. Early on a Sunday morning. Too early to pick up our children so we went home and got in bed. I remember laying there and the silence was deafening. The silence was so loud, you almost could have cut it with a knife. Later when we woke up and started to stir around the house I heard a car come up the road and it cut into the silence and was an almost welcome noise. I have never experienced quiet, quite like that. We soon adjusted to our home atmosphere, we picked up our children and got on with our Amish lives. 

I do have pictures that Lucy took while we were at her home, but I don't have a scanner and haven't figured out how to get the pictures on here. I think I should be investing in a scanner someday soon. I hope I painted enough of a picture with my words, though, that you are able to understand what we experienced as Amish folks in The Big Apple. 

Lucy has long since married, and moved more than an hour away from the Bronx. She and her husband are raising their two lovely children in the country, away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. We are like sisters, we don't stay in touch as much as we used to. When we left the Amish and adopted the English lifestyle, and got computers and email and Facebook accounts things all just seemed to slow down by way of long letters and phone calls. I don't feel any less close to her though, we stay in touch in a different way and when big things happen we are there for each other. Lucy and her family have traveled to Ohio for both of our children's weddings. At both weddings they were seated alongside my brother and his wife. They are family, always and forever. :) Our lifestyles still remain different, but we are more same now than we have ever been before. When we visit them we always make time to go see a show or two down in the city. We were there four years ago and saw Chicago, and Jerry Springer was in the show. I mentioned his television show in my last post, but I have to say, he is a pretty good singer and did a good job on the show, Chicago. Next time we visit I want to go on a food tour down in Manhattan and see another show for sure. The magic of the city draws us in and we can't help ourselves, we have to experience more of it now and then. 

If I could meet somebody famous from NYC? It would have to be two people, Donald and his daughter, Ivanka Trump. Both fascinate me and I wish I would get an invitation to dine with them and get to visit with them. We've been to Trump Tower, but never had the pleasure of even seeing them, let alone dining with them. 

Yep, a little bit starstruck!