Even Mennonites Get The Blues
by Pril Stevenson

I was sitting around at the jam, talking to someone, and in walked probably five guys, all with the same sort of beard. I thought “Huh”. And then a woman came in behind them in an ankle-length skirt, long-sleeved shirt and a little hat, and I went “Ok, I get it now. Sort of. What the hell?”.

Maybe one of these five people was over 25, and the guys all had skater shirts on and jeans and things, so, that was odd. You see Mennonites around town a lot at the store and things like that. Well, actually, I don’t know for sure if these are Mennonites or Hutterites or what. I’ll just call them Mennonites because I know there’s a colony around here. amish drunk.jpg

Anyway, so there was this group of them, and they went back to the back part of the bar, and the bartender took out three pitchers and a half-dozen glasses. My friend and I wondered to each other if that was okay. I’d never seen a Mennonite in a bar, fer pete’s sake. We decided it was probably all right, and God wouldn’t care too much, as long as they didn’t get shitfaced and rowdy.

Well.

The pitchers kept coming. Soon, they came out to the dance floor and boogied like MTV had babysat them. They were having a great time. Picture Amish people freak-dancing, and you’re close.

Sometimes it’s like being in a movie.

I’m not sure what they were celebrating. A wedding or a birthday or something. But they did get shitfaced and rowdy, and it was great to watch.

I have to write this down as one of the weirder things I’ve seen from the stage. Mennonite break-dancing to the blues.

Who knew?

Pril gets down and funky with anyone.

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Comments

During one of the hottest days of the summer, 2004, my family went to the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans -- one of our favorite stops there. There were tons of Mennonites there that day and, for some reason, it was the oddest thing. These guys wearing all this heavy wool in the swealtering heat in the zoo. Don't know why it was so odd and funny, but it was.

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Hutterites! When I was in Montana that was the what the guy who asked me if I wanted to marry his sister was! Or maybe he just wanted me to get her preggers... I'm pretty sure it was marriage... Seems they wanted to make some more Hutterites. Anyway, he was a Hutterite! Nice guy, but I was not interested in marriage or fatherhood at the time...

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they sure are a surley lot

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i'm pretty sure they were Mennonites. There seems to be degrees of laxity in that sect. Well, they got trashed, and it was just something i'd never seen before. I mean, they were falling-down drunk. They probably all had four beers! lol! Even the girl was staggering around, swigging a glass of wine.

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I believe the young man in the photograph is Amish not Mennonite. Mennonite males are not usually distinguised by thier clothes or physical appearance, Mennonite women defintely are (long dress, hair net type of thing and the grossest part -hairy legs that stick out of their nylons)

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well, the editors found the picture. I didn't take any that night. The guys in this group all had that sort of beard, though. Oregon has a pretty big population of Mennonites, though.

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