Chapter 5 Page 3

This was sometime in the early 40's. Dan knew all about being grounded. He was well aware how hard it was. Dan also had a checkered past. Dan had a girlfriend, Barbara, and the Amish grounded him because he had gotten in some mischief. Dan thought he would out smart his father Pete. He would wait till his parents were asleep, then on a Saturday evening; he'd sneak out and go see his girlfriend. Dan and his girlfriend had communicated through mail. Dan wasn't a very big man. His girlfriend Barbara wasn't very big either, but she was a strong farm girl and determined to see her boyfriend. When Dan arrived at his girlfriend's place, he'd make a noise on the old weatherboard below her window. Barbara would carefully open her bedroom window. Prepared for the occasion, she had two bed sheets knotted together. The second signal was that Dan was to jerk on the bed sheet twice, and Barbara would pull him up. This took place on a few different occasions on weekends, but Barbara's parents soon caught on. 

The next Saturday evening Barbara's Dad was a couple minutes ahead of Dan's arrival. Barbara's Dad made the noise below the window, Barbara dropped the bed sheet, and her Dad jerked on the sheet. Barbara began to pull, but soon discovered that whoever she was pulling weighed a lot more than her boyfriend. As she was leaning back and pulling with all her might finally the head of the man she was pulling cleared the windowsill. Barbara screamed with terror and said, "Oh my God, Dad!" That put an end to Barbara and her boyfriend beating the system. 

The Amish were able to now successfully ground Barbara and Dan, who are Fran's parents. Today was a day that both of Fran's parents had to think back when that had happened to them. Running off and leaving the Amish culture is nothing that new, but in most cases, runaways return. When Dan's Dad was a teenager in the early 1920's he too had run off. The report is that Dan's Dad, Pete, had a motorcycle accident and lost one of his testicles. Pete had also returned back to the Amish Culture, got married and later became a preacher.

 I had a lot of respect for Dan. He would almost always outsmart me. The reason Joe and I walked past his house was that we were hoping to convince Dan we had ditched the car. As soon as we were far enough away from his house we made a sharp right hand turn behind and around a curve, so we had the cover of trees. Fran's parents' home was very secluded and surrounded with trees and brush. We had good coverage within a couple hundred feet of their house. Dan had laughed earlier as we walked past his home, and I heard him tell his children they ditched their car. This was exactly what I was hoping Dan would think so he wouldn't be prepared for my next move. 

It was now just past their lunchtime. Joe and I were no longer hiding under the cover of the brush. We made it to an opening in the pasture, and we were hiding behind a large pile of uncut firewood. My intention, of course, was to get my girlfriend and run off. I'd bought a brand new pair of cowboy boots just for this occasion. We weren't waiting long when Fran's two youngest sisters, Sarah and Ester, went to the outhouse. I stepped out from behind the woodpile and waved at them. This woodpile was 200 feet from the house, and at least 500 feet from the road. Sarah and Ester waved back and continued to the outhouse, but once they were inside they both waved again trying to get my attention to move back. But I was too stupid to realize it. There was also a small chicken house between the woodpile and the washhouse. I turned to Joe and said, "Joe, look at those girls." But Joe wasn't there. Suddenly, I spotted Dan right on the other side of the woodpile. He was being careful, trying not to make any noise. I took off, running so fast that I broke both of my brand new shoe soles in front of the heels. Joe was within twenty feet of the fence by the road when I passed him. That fence didn't slow me down one bit. I used the same technique that you do when you slide into first base. I barely cleared the first strand of barbwire. When Dan cleared the woodpile he looked around for me. But by now Joe and I were hiding in a ditch on the other side of the fence. I almost laughed out loud when I saw the look on Dan's face, confusion and disbelief. I knew he was thinking there was no way we could have made it down to the road. Once again I'd out maneuvered Dan with only seconds to spare. This made one thing perfectly clear. The only way I was going to be able to see my girlfriend was to go back the Amish culture. 

In April of 1976, I went back home just in time to start joining church. Fran's brother-in-law Sam and his wife were no longer living in Peoli Ohio Amish settlement. They had moved to Wayne County, Ohio. Still, there was no way Fran's parents were going to let their daughter start seeing me again. They made arrangements with their Sam for Fran to move to Wayne County, Ohio and work for them during that summer. That did it. I had to stop this from taking place. I told Fran to start joining church and urged her to confess to having sex. At seventeen, Fran was a little young to join church, but there was no way I was going to allow Sam to lay hands on her again. Fran agreed she'd rather join church than go live with Susan and Sam. 

That Sunday there were three boys and four girls, my sister Amanda and my girlfriend Fran, all seven of us began to join church that summer. In the fall of 1976, the Preachers in the church sprinkle baptized Tony and Dennis, and all four girls. At this time Tony and Dennis still hadn't confessed of stealing John George's car. But the Bishop and Preachers said I had to be punished a little more for all the sins I had committed. The Amish weren't really talking to me anymore, even though I wasn't being shunned. I was staying at home at night and working for the public during the day. Dad wasn't doing too much farming anymore. In the spring of 1977, the church finally decided that I'd repented enough for my sins. The Bishop and Preachers baptized me. After I was baptized, I wrote Fran a letter and asked her if she would marry me. The answer was yes. I was so tired of being  grounded. Fran and I had been grounded for about a year, which meant we had no freedom at all, as long as we were single. 

The first Sunday in June of 1977, we decided to announce the engagement, to be married the sixteenth of that month. Our wedding started at seven o'clock in the morning, and lasted until ten o'clock that night. We got married that day around twelve o'clock. Our services were held in the top part of Fran's parents' barn. In Fran's parent's house, they set up tables to feed everyone. They fed around one hundred and fifty people for dinner, and around one hundred for supper. In order to set up all these tables, they had to move most of their furniture out of the house. Fran's parents had a small house. It was also a small wedding, compared to the rest of the "Amish." 

Fran had been so devastated by what Sam had done to her when she was only sixteen years old. She wanted to confront her parents before we were married, but her father was the Bishop. Also Sam had threatened her with dire consequences if she told anyone. Fran and I talked about this before our wedding. She decided it would be best to wait until right after our wedding, because now no matter what happened she would have me to lean on. Shortly after the wedding, Fran confronted the preachers with the Sam's action. The preachers said, "We would ask Sam, but that it had happened a couple years ago." She said, "That didn't matter, he forced me to have sex, I'm a member and I want something done about it." The preachers replied, "Okay we will check into the matter." Since Sam was no longer living in Peoli, Ohio it took the preachers a couple of weeks to confront Sam. Sam denied it at first. The preachers came back and said, "Fran, Sam denied it." the preachers replied. "Do you just want to drop the issue?" Fran replied, "No Sam has done this against my will, he has ruined my life. Sam must confess to his sins. The second time the preachers confronted Sam, he admitted to having sex, but said that Fran was a willing participant and, in fact it, was her fault. When the preachers again confronted Fran, and told her what Sam had said she stood there in silence for a couple seconds. Tears began running down her cheeks as she began to speak. "Sam raped me time and time again. I always tried to stop him. He threatened me, saying that if I ever told anyone he'd completely deny it or say it was all my fault. This is why my husband and I ran off earlier, we didn't know how to deal with it." The preachers asked, "Okay would you be willing to confront Sam face to face?" Fran replied, "Yes, if that is what it takes." The preachers confronted Sam concerning Fran. At first Sam denied it, but when the preachers made Sam aware that Fran was willing to confront him face to face, Sam stood silently looking down at the ground. When he finally did look up he had tears in his eyes as he began to speak. He said, "Everything Fran said is true." He was excommunicated for two and a half months for the lying and the rape of my girlfriend. 

A couple of days after Fran and I got married, we moved in our new little house, which I built before we got married. Dad let me use three acres of his land to build a house and a small barn, but Dad kept the deed to the place. We lived there for a couple of months, and I worked on my brother-in-law's sawmill. My sister Mary had got married about six months before we did. Mary and her husband were living at home in the main house. Once more Dad built a little retirement house, close by the main house on the farm. My brother-in-law John, had moved a sawmill on to the farm, and I was working for him at the time. In the meanwhile, John was trying to farm, and run the sawmill. John and Dad didn't see eye to eye on the farming. Dad asked John, if he wanted to trade places with me for John and sister Mary to move in the little house that I built, and Fran and I to move in the main house. That was fine, so we moved in the main house, and John and Mary moved in our little house.

 Then Fran and I took over farming. In the fall of 1977, my brother Pete was still living in Wayne County on the homestead farm, but Pete and his family wanted to move to New York. Pete sold the farm to sister Rachel and her husband. Sister Emma was already living in New York, and because of Pete and Emma going to New York, that made Mom, Dad, sister Mary and her husband decide to move to New York, too. In order to move to New York, Dad had to sell the farm, cattle and farm machinery that he owned in Peoli, Ohio. I asked Dad, "What am I going to do with the cattle and farm machinery, I invested in the farm, after I took over farming?" "You married the Bishop's daughter," he said. "Let him help you." How about letting Fran and I buy the farm and the machinery on time. Would you help us the way you helped the rest of the children? Dad shook his head. "That's just it. You've never been like the rest of the children." Right then we started feuding. My wife and I stuck up for what we thought was right, and so did Mom and Dad. But they had us out numbered, because sister Mary and her husband stuck their noses in it, too, though it was really none of their concern. I was always kind of pigheaded and I always believed in speaking my peace no matter what. Mom, Dad, sister Mary and her husband, John, got us condemned from the church for a little while. We had to move immediately. 

We started to look for a place to live, and found one in Wayne County, Ohio. A higher classed Amish couple had an extra little house. We rented the house and paid one hundred and ten dollars a month rent Fran helped them milk cows in the morning and evening. Soon, we had enough money saved up to buy our own sawmill, so, I bought one close to Wilmont, Ohio. I leased the building from some Englishmen, and I had my own business. We had been excommunicated from the Amish church now for a couple of months. Finally, by the early summer of 1978, the church decided that, we had confessed enough to become members of their church once again. However, if they only knew what all we had on the sawmill, that would have made a difference as it was against their religion. They would have never taken us back in their church. Nevertheless, it took them only a couple of months to figure out that we were crowding the lines of their religion. We had a top-cleaning saw, which ran on electricity, a log turner, a propane power unit and electric lights in the building. On the side I was training horses for the racetrack. These things were all strictly against their beliefs.

 The church excommunicated me again for having these things, and they so excommunicated Fran for knowing about it and not telling. The church made us sell the sawmill and quit training buggy horses. When they condemn you from their church, none of the members are allowed to associate with you, eat at the same table you do, help you work on the same piece of equipment at the same time, not even drink or eat your food. This is not only the Bishop's decision, but also the whole church's decision. By this time Mom, Dad, sister Mary and her husband were living in New York. Sister Amanda was the only one who wasn't married. She was working for an "Amish" couple in Wayne County. I was now picking apples for a living, which sure wasn't what I wanted to do. So, Fran and I talked it over, and decided to get out of the Amish once and for all. We traded our buggy and two horses for our first car. 

We got a pretty bad deal, we didn't think too much about it, because we wanted to get out of the Amish so badly. We had to buy all new clothes, because all the clothes we had were Amish clothes. Everything we were taught at home, as far as working and making a living, was no longer of any use to us, because almost everything we did, was done by hand. We didn't have any electricity in our homes. We decided to leave the Amish and modernize. Perhaps if I hadn't bought that sawmill with the propane engine and edger in it we wouldn't have been excommunicated. However, I'm convinced that the Amish Bishop and Preacher had one thing in mind: to break my spirit. I was convinced if I weren’t excommunicated for the sawmill, there would have been something else later on. By this time, I'd had all the Amish Preacher company I could stand.