Also visit Saloma’s Blog, About Amish
Me at seven years old
A friend asked who took this picture or what occasioned it because she was under the impression the Amish don’t allow their pictures to be taken. Here is my response to her:
The picture -- you are quite right, it shouldn't have happened. This was when I was still attending public school, and on the morning of "picture day" my mother said, "Now if they insist that you need to be in the class picture, that's okay." When I got to school, and the other children were lining up to go to the gym for pictures, the teacher said, "Saloma, since you aren’t having your picture taken, you can stay in the classroom." I popped up out of my seat and said, "But my mother said I could be in the class picture!" I got in line with the other children, and when it was my turn, I climbed up on that stool and grinned my toothless smile into the lights and the camera.
Years later, after I'd left the Amish, I went back to the school I had attended, and asked if they had any pictures left from those days. She sent me to where the records were being kept. Someone pulled out my second-grade record, and there in the top left-hand corner was this picture of me -- only 1 inch by 2 inches big. I explained to the keeper of the records that I had no other pictures of myself and asked that I be allowed to borrow it. She did allow it, so I had a photographer reproduce and enlarge it. Recently I scanned that image.
Saloma in 2010
Photo by Kerstin Martin taken on Amherst College Campus [If you use this photo, please credit her]
During my first semester at Smith College, I had an unanticipated break in my studies when my father died. I traveled back to the horse and buggy world of my childhood, then I found myself back on the Smith College Campus in a matter of three days. This left me reflecting on the two separate and distinct lives I have lived. I’m sure anyone else who has lived and left the Amish lifestyle can relate to the feeling of having lived two lifetimes in one. My website is about these two lives, and how I attempt to bring the two together by reflecting both on my life and about the Amish culture. For no matter how much I appreciate my present life, I can never forget my humble beginnings and how that life shaped who I am.
For more reflections about Amish life, visit my blog.
