Crazy Cute or Cute, but Crazy?

About an hour from our house is an area known for its large Amish population. When out that way, it’s very common to see horse-drawn buggies, kids on scooters—the manual kind, boys with suspenders and straw hats and girls in long dresses. And laundry hanging out on a line. Parking lots of any size always have a place to tie up the horses, and the equipment needed to clean up the inevitable mess.

As we were leaving a parking lot, we saw an Amish woman. She looked sweet, like the model for a doll. She was wearing the usual black dress and had the small white cap on her snow-white hair. Her wrinkled face showed her age, but she still had pink cheeks.

What surprised us was that she was riding an electric mobility scooter. You’ve probably seen someone using them to get around locally. The scooter had a tall white pole with an orange pennant flying at the top for visibility, and was zipping along at a brisk 5-6 mph.

The thing is, she was exiting a parking lot onto a jammed road. That road is lined with stores and businesses and has entrances and exits every 20 feet. It’s a popular route for tractor trailers rumbling along at 50 mph or more. In the summer, tourists add to the crush of the traffic.

We hoped she was just going to cross the street, but she turned left and was quickly obscured by the traffic. We were in the lane to turn right, but both of us wanted to turn around and follow her to make sure she didn’t get run over. I mean, the horse and buggies are slow, but they’re big and easy to see.

Of course, there was no room for a car to follow her on a road with narrow shoulders. We probably would have caused an accident puttering along behind her. But it was hard to drive away.

I sure hope that orange pennant did an outstanding job.