Almost the first thing you will see when you drive into the Pennsylvania town of Intercourse is a horse and buggy driven by a woman dressed like someone from the 17th century.
In a way she is from the 17th century because you are in Amish country, where the people make heroic efforts to keep modern life out of their lives. They manage to exist without electricity, TV, video recorders, cars and even bicycles, although skates and scooters are allowed. They also speak "Pennsylvania Dutch", which no one else understands.
In the film Witness [RO ]with Harrison Ford the Amish are depicted as strange people trying to live in the late Middle Ages surrounded by the most consumer culture in history. But it is still a culture shock to see the real thing.
It is not easy to talk to them as they do not encourage contact with strangers. There is an increasing amount of sham Amish stuff for tourists which claims to show you an "Amish village", although there is no such thing. They don't live in villages but in big farmhouses and only by such things as the type of blinds on the houses can you tell from the outside that an Amish lives there and not an "English", as non-Amish are called.
The best way to get a glimpse of authentic Amish life is through the Mennonite Information Centre outside Lancaster. It will supply a guide to bring you around the country roads where about 40,000 Amish and Mennonites live.
The first thing you want to get clear is the difference between Amish and Mennonites. Our guide, Fay Landis, is a Mennonite and explains. The Amish and Mennonites both derive from the Anabaptists who broke away from the 16th century Protestant reformers in Germany and Switzerland over the issue of infant baptism. The Anabaptists and their descendants say baptism should be postponed until a person can make an informed choice - in late teens or early 20s.
They were called Mennonites after their leader, a Dutch Catholic priest called Menno Simons. But in 1693, a group under Jacob Ammam, a Swiss Mennonite elder, broke away over arguments such as "shunning" an excommunicated member and eventually became known as Amish.
There are now 1 million Mennonite-Amish around the world, of whom about 400,000 live in Canada and the US, mainly in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois.
Those are the basics. The details are another thing. There are Old Order Amish, who would be seen as the strictest. They try the hardest to avoid modern gadgets which could distract them from living in accordance with the Bible and as separate from the world as possible. The Mennonites like Fay Landis live pretty much like their "English" neighbours.
Two Amish girls were cutting their front lawn with strimmers instead of a motor-mower - the distinction between what consumer goods Amish can and can't use is confusing to outsiders - our guide explains that mowers are not allowed but strimmers are OK. Telephones are not allowed inside the house but you will see them in cubicles away from the house. The Amish can only phone out in an emergency and so will not be tempted to indulge in chat.
The Amish rules about modern gadgets leave Jesuitical hair-splitting in the shade. Electricity is not allowed, but electric batteries and propane gas are OK. Hydraulic power is also used. Tractors are used but cannot have rubber tyres as it might encourage the Amish to use them as cars. You cannot go very far from home with horse and buggy. Rail travel is permitted, but not aircraft. The weird distinctions are the Amish way of keeping modern life at bay while ensuring survival.
The Amish men wear broad-rimmed hats and dark clothes with no zips or buttons, only hooks and eyes. Women wear long, full skirts covered by aprons. They do not cut their hair, which is worn in a bun and covered with a white or black cap.
You would think Amish children would flee the austere life as soon as they grow up. Yet the Amish population in Pennsylvania has doubled in the past 20 years, with a drop-out rate of under 15 per cent.
The children are not educated beyond eighth grade or the second year of secondary school in the Irish system. Then the boys go to work on the farms or to learn a trade. Girls prepare for marriage while learning needlework, helping on the farms or working in stores selling Amish produce.
While waiting to decide on baptism, the boys can go a bit wild. But once they accept baptism they must keep the rules or risk being excommunicated or "shunned". This means being cut off from their families for life.
The Amish are skilled farmers whose produce is bought by neighbours and tourists. We tried the traditional "shoofly pie", stuffed with molasses which attracts flies, hence the name. While I would not recommend it, you know you are getting the genuine article.