Thank you! Your message makes me smile and cry. I know how you feel: I live in Germany now and love Lancaster County as well. Unfortunately I can't be there often and long enough.

I graduated from here in 1963. Soccer team was best in Pa. Had to renovate it after we were gone.

Thank you for your comment, not5150. You are right about the differences between Amish and Mennonites regarding to their dress, headcovering, belief (to some extent) and the machinery they use. But you are not right about the buggy-topic, I'm afraid. Amish only drive buggies, they are not allowed to drive cars. In the Mennonite community though there are very many subgroups. In Eastern Lancaster County you find Mennonites that dress and act just like "mainstream christians". You will not be able to tell if they're Mennonite or not. Others dress a little different and have black bumpers on their cars (we call them "Black-Bumper-Mennonites"). And others yet are very close to the Amish. They dress alike (but may use patterns) and only drive buggies. Those buggies are black and have sharp corners on the top - Amish buggies in Eastern Lancaster County are gray and have "rounded corners". (Now zoom in and have a look at the buggy on the photo.) In Eastern Lancaster County you actually are more likely to see those Mennonites than Amish driving in buggies. So I conclude: This photo showes a Mennonite Buggy!

This is the only Amish farm around Bowmansville. Amish are allowed to have electrical power and telephone connection in buildings they don't live in. So they have answering machines in their barns. Anyway, if the photo was better, you'd see the lines running into the barn. In the center of the photo, on the left side of the taller silo, you see a buggy, which is Amish (you can't tell from the photo, it's gray and the top corners are round). On the right side of that silo is a tractor without rubber tires, which belongs to the Amish as well. Even that is allowed in Lancaster County.