Five Days in September, 9/3/10

Yoder's Pickles, Belleville, PA

Today is a beautiful morning. The sun is out and it is going to be hot again. Right now though, it is  in the '70's. The weather feels very pleasant in a skirt and sandals. We are 3 generations of pacifists in the car, propelling down the mountain, listening to John Lennon loud. What a beautiful experience....this feels like a perfect day.

We have to drive over a couple of mountains to get to Belleville, where we will go to Peight's Dry Goods store. This is an Amish market where you can get just about anything you might need for your Amish home (pots and pans, herbs, flour, canned goods made by local people, fabrics, socks and straw hats). We are heading over to shop and have a picnic. The store sits @ the bottom of a mountain with acres and acres of corn, wheat, and beans growing all around. Farmhouses are visible in all directions and clotheslines are stretched across enormous yards, with clothing belonging to all ages of people, dancing in the wind.

Before we get to Peight's, we stop @ a roadside stand in front of a simple, sturdy farmhouse. Three children in ages ranging from 6 to 11 run out from the house to greet us. The 9 year old girl asks if I would like to buy some Tupperware. I thank her and tell her "not today", and peruse their jars of dill pickles, sweet pickles, beets and spaghetti sauce. There are also fresh tomatoes, gourds and squash. One time a couple of years ago when we stopped here, there were perfect loaves of delicious hot bread for sale. We bought one, and had it for our picnic that day, and all I can say is wow! For our picnic today, I buy the sweet pickles and we head down to the store. We buy cheese and hard salami, potato salad, bread and cold drinks. Outside, we put our blanket down and stretch out along a split rail fence. The sky is a beautiful blue with wispy, dreamy clouds. There are hawks flying overhead and loads of small white and yellow butterflies flying all across the top of the beans in the field next to us.  Two young women are heading across the field toward the store. In their traditional clothing, with the light the way it is, they look like they are walking right out of a painting.

We eat our simple lunch, which tastes like a feast.  As we satisfy our hunger and nourish our souls, I am conscious of the fact that I will remember this sublime day for a long, long time.

Expect good things....