I've said before that my hometown - Middletown, Ohio - is a dying rust-belt wasteland. What used to be a prosperous city of steel mills and paper plants has become a shell of itself with a dead mall, empty office buildings and shuttered factories. And there's nothing remotely Amish around here. The closest I come to my "plain fix" is when the occasional Old German Baptist Brethren (Dunker) wanders into town from the rural lands west of the city, but with our mall's pulse barely registering anymore even they rarely are seen. So I'm left to venture to Adams County, Ohio and Wayne County, Indiana for my close dose of Amish. But...wait...maybe there is something Amish in Middletown after all and in a most unlikely place....On an out-of-the-way road of industrial parks and mobile homes sits what looks to me to be an Amish buggy sitting behind a chain-link fence on the grounds of an office building. What the heck is it doing there? It appears, to my eye, to be a buggy belonging to a more conservative sect of the Amish because of the steel wheels and the fairly spartan motif. On the other hand, there also appear to be headlights on the front, perhaps the newer LED battery-powered ones,. Of course, maybe this isn't an Amish buggy at all,but some 19th century antique that the office building owners just thought was cool. Any guesses? In the meantime I'll try to reach out to the owners to find out the buggy's story!
Tammy Rutar
Perhaps someone went to an Amish auction and purchased the buggy for a lawn ornament. Maybe it belongs to an Amish that is practicing (rumspringa) running around. My last guess is an Amish family went to town to do business and their horse ran away, so they called a driver to take them home...lol. Who really knows unless you go to the nearest Amish settlement and ask.
Kevin
Or better yet, go to the business-owner and ask:) But those were good guesses, we'll see who turns out to be right!
Eleanor
You got me interested! Will be looking for your update.
Wendy
Hmmm. If it was bought merely for decoration, I would think it would be positioned out in front of the building. But of course, you saw it...
Lisa Combs
since I too live in Middletown, I won't spoil your question....but I have often wondered myself why that buggy is there....maybe I'll get brave and go in and ask!!!
Jan Landwehr
Kevin, it's quite possible that the owner uses that buggy in the Lebanon carriage parade that is held in early December. There is a club of carriage owners that put on parades etc. I don't know the name of it but my cousin belongs to it.
Christine
What kind of business is it in front of. Maybe they want people to come in and ask why the buggy is there.