Mary

I have been going to two specific Amish auctions for a few years now, the Bird-In-Hand auction and the Refton Auction, both held at the end of June in PA.  At the Refton auction there is a hill that all the Amish sit on during the horse bidding.  Three years ago when I was there I climbed to the top and plopped down.  I wanted to experience "being among the Amish", just watching them interact and how the children took care of each other was fascinating.

Because of their beliefs on photography I was careful not to be too obnoxious about taking pictures, but it was definitely the perfect opportunity.

As I was sitting there I noticed three girls giggling and looking back at me.  Certainly they weren't talking about me.  Amish, especially children, never interact with us English (as they call us).  I waved to them to let them know that I was friendly and if by chance they wanted to talk to me I was totally open to that.  I could definitely tell that one of the girls was more outgoing than the other two and wanted to interact with me.  I also think her friends were telling her not to!  Eventually we scooted closer to each other and Mary said "hi!"  I quickly hid my camera because I wasn't interested anymore in taking their picture but I wanted to talk to them.  I asked their ages and Mary was seven, her friend Sadie was also seven and the third little girl, also named Mary, was eight.  They were interested in my camera because Mary kept looking at it.  "Do I dare pull it out?"

I also had my cell phone with me.  This was three years ago so I didn't have a smart phone, but this phone took pictures and video.  Since my phone was smaller than my camera I kept that out.   They wanted to see how it worked but I told them that I knew their rules about technology (especially photography).  I also explained that I didn't want them to get into trouble for talking to me.  But eventually I did show them pictures of my boys back home.  They were fascinated by the videos.

Then I did something daring... I asked them if they wanted me to take their picture so they could see what they looked like "in my camera".  Mary's two friends shyed away but Mary was super excited.  To be sneaky (because I didn't want them to get in trouble by their parents) I told them to scoot back a little bit then on the count of three turn around and I'll quickly snap one picture.  Mary was the only one that turned around:

Soon after that someone called them and they all got up and left.  But this picture will forever hold that special memory.

Whenever I go to the Refton auction now I sit on this same hill in hopes that I will see my friend Mary.  I know that she will not recognize me but I will surely know who she is.