To TJ, a story about your eighth birthday outing with
Grandpa and Grandma Schmucker:
When your family visited us in Goshen in August, 2013, we
celebrated your belated birthday with you by going to Shipshewana one afternoon
to tour “Menno-Hof” and a few other things along the way.
As we drove through Amish country in our car to Shipshewana,
we again noticed their many horses in pastures eating grass, cows resting under
shade trees, clothes hung out on the line to dry, Amish children playing
outside on their farms where they probably had other animals in the barn. Several buggies were being pulled on
the road with people inside.
Before getting to Shipshewana we passed a country store
called “The Jelly Bean Store”.
Thinking that sounded interesting, since we had never been there either,
we turned the car around and explored inside. It took awhile to find the jellybeans among all the other
kinds of candy and many other kinds of packaged food. The many colors of jellybeans looked so good and they were
SO BIG! It took awhile to finally
pick out the red cherry flavored ones.
And then there were packages of some kind you had not seen before that
looked like peanuts in the shell, the color of orange. So, being your grandparents who knew
they could spoil you a little on this special day, we purchased a bag of
each! You liked them both as we
sampled each bag. In the back of
the store we could see through huge windows where they make noodles. Unfortunately they only do that in the
morning but we got to see the finished bagged noodles.
On down the road we came upon a famous cheese shop to make
another stop and explore (and taste!)—there were free samples of all sorts and
kinds of cheese we could taste. We
went down the whole row and tasted each one at least once! With a toothpick we picked up little
sample cubes, and declaring, “Mmm, mmm”!
Large windows were in the back of this store as well where cheese was
made that morning. So when you
come back, we must visit these two places in the morning.
Finally at Menno-Hof, a large red barn building and country
white farmhouse that is really a museum, we were greeted by a kind lady who
talked to you and told us what to expect inside the museum. Another lady was our guide and took us
into several rooms where we first saw a couple videos about Menno-Hof. Some of the rooms and hallways
displayed many pictures and stories about the Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites
long ago. Most interesting to you
probably was the dungeon room and especially the tornado room and then walking
through a replica of a small wooden ship, the Rotterdam, like some people
sailed on from Europe to our country long ago, arriving on September, 16,
1736. It took 5 months for their
voyage. Their bunk beds were hard,
it was quite dark inside; and there was a small cooking stove, etc. Some of the passengers wrote their
names on the walls, one of which was Melchoir Detweiler, an ancestor of
YOURS! (He belonged to my mother’s
side of her family. He was your
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather!)
You chose to have your birthday supper with the rest of the
family as well. We would do that
later in Goshen. But what is a
birthday without ice cream?? We
found a frozen custard place (another name for ice cream). You had a big serving in a dish; we had
cones and found a gazebo to sit in while we ate.
While we had been gone, your mom and Luka flew to Chicago
where you would meet them the next day.
So they were not able to eat out with us but your dad and Luka joined us
at a really good Mexican restaurant, Los Primos, in Goshen and you ate a big
dinner!
Happy
birthday, TJ!
You are growing up so fast and always have grown taller each time we see
you. You are such a kind and
helpful brother to your little sister and can teach her and Luka new
things
because you are older and have learned so much. You are smart in school
and have lots of friends. We love you very much and look forward
to the next time we will be together.
Grandma and Grandpa Schmucker
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