Saturday, March 25, 2023

Dumb Struck

 Yesterday, William had a night out with his mother and stepfather. We took a bit of a break too, grabbing pizzas and the makings of rootbeer floats to take along to Mattie and Levi's. We also took something along for the children:




The game tickled Tim the first time he saw it and he got it for William. William is, unfortunately, not a fan of 'jump scares', and the game wasn't a hit with him. I thought that perhaps Mattie's youngest children would get a kick out of it. They gathered around the table as I set it up and I played the first game with two of the girls.  When the snake 'struck', they screamed with laughter. 

That game stopped everyone dead in their tracks. The girls started another game with a couple more of the children getting involved. The older boys came in from their chores and the next thing you know, they were in on it as well. Every time the snake struck, they would just about roll with laughter. It was fun to see. The best part was when their father walked into the kitchen. He stopped to see was all the hysteria was about and when the snake struck, he gave a startled jump as well which added to the general hilarity. 

So we ate supper, and blabbed away. Northsider, they had never heard of hot beds either, and were quite intrigued with the idea. Many of them have polytunnels to start their garden plants. Levi said thoughtfully, "That would work...manure generates quite a bit of heat." They do not have a poly tunnel of their own, but Maddie has her plants started inside. 

It was an very nice visit. We sat in the livingroom in our rocking chairs and talked quietly while the children played with Jake. I only realized our mistake when Tim said, "We need to get home." I looked at the pendulum clock ticking away. "We've got plenty of time," I said. Tim said, "That clock is an hour off."

Come to find out, we had set dinner for five PM, and were right on time. What we didn't realize is that the Amish do not set their clocks back. We arrived at 4 PM their time. "No wonder you looked so surprised!" I said. 

Jake the Snake struck once more, and gathered in a circle on the floor, the children rolled around laughing like it was the first time that they'd seen him do that. The adults laughed as the clock struck 6. It was 7 PM, our time and time to go. 


13 comments:

  1. Sounds like a terrific evening! Next time perhaps you should take some "noise putty" which is the fart putty I got August is called. Hilarity will ensue for sure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Mrs. Moon. I did. When we stopped to pick up rootbeer at our GDDG, I picked up flarp. Just one can because I didn't know if it would be offensive. It wasn't. They'd made a batch of it with borax and elmer's glue!

      Delete
  2. I didn't know that your Amish friends don't change their clocks. Seems like it would make life confusing for doctor's appointments and such. Maybe they have one clock somewhere that keeps outsider's time?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for mentioning me at the Amish Supper Debby. Hot Beds are very old and were used by Victorian estate gardeners to grow exotic fruits like pineapples.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Levi seemed quite intrigued by the idea, really. He had never heard of such a thing and he pondered it a while stroking his beard while I talked.

      Delete
  4. A very happy evening Debbie - it pleased me to read of your enjoyment.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That sounds really fun, and what a surprise about the time!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had forgotten about that until this post but remember a number of incidences where it caused confusion with our neighboring Amish.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like a fun evening! I didn't know the Amish don't change their clocks, but I guess I'm not surprised.

    ReplyDelete
  8. A lot of my fellow Aussies consider people from our state to be quite similar to the Amish, with one of the charges being that we do not adopt daylight savings. However, we are closer to the equator and can fritter the daylight as we please. Jeanie

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds like a fun night! I love hearing and watching people laugh and enjoy themselves😊

    ReplyDelete
  10. Some decades ago we invited our new neighbours in for drinks and nibbles. They arrived an hour late as they had forgotten about the daylight saving time change and of course were full of apologies. Being on a different time to the state where you live must be challenging at times.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh gracious! That's hilarious!

    ReplyDelete

I'm glad you're here!

Weary

I am sure that everyone has seen the video of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. I lived in Baltimore for a couple years while my...