Yoder Heritage Day

Had a great time this weekend at some of the Yoder Heritage Day events. I always love this annual gathering, the fourth weekend of August, to commemorate the founding of the small community of Yoder, Kansas. As they say on their little website,

"In 1906, A.M. Switzer plotted the little town of Yoder as a central point for surrounding Amish communities. Today, Yoder is still considered to be that. Though many businesses and homes have moved in around Yoder, the picturesque town has stayed the same size."

Bright and early we watched the teams of horse-drawn farm equipment plow up the sod in a demonstration on the south end of town. We toured the vendor booths, watched some of the childrens games, and most importantly, found a seat for the parade. Even though the parade doesn't start until 10:30, you had to find place by 9:30 or earlier if you hope to have a good view. So while I saved seats for Steven and for my sister, Steven roamed about checking out more activities. He purchased two wonderful old screw drivers from a junk/antique type booth, and picked up a few things we needed anyway at the Yoder Hardware Store.

Here are some of my favorite shots of that part of the morning:









After that, everyone walked to the north edge of town (town is only about one block long) and gathered around the arena for the buggy races and the horse events. There weren't as many Amish gentlemen entered in the buggy races this year than last, it seemed, but still a good show.



They had a horse/shooting showmanship display, and then started "horseback football" which pitted the local Amish young men and their horses, against a team from the Wild Mustang and Burro training program out of Hutchinson. Last I heard, the local gents and their very well trained buggy horses were quite a bit ahead in score in that game. (The game involved two teams of men on horseback, one small ball, and two barrels, one at each end of the arena. The goal was to get your ball down field and into the barrel to score. Much horse and men jostling occurred. They could pass it off to teammates, etc.)

There were many other events I would have loved to watch but we were limited on time. It was absolutely perfect, beautiful weather. Good crowd of people, of all types, from all over the country. I am always surprised how many use this as a "home-coming" event, and travel long distances to attend. The announcer for the parade as for a show of hands of people who traveled 100, 200 and over 300 miles to attend. It was impressive.

I also asked my sister to take a photo of my son Steven and I, so I would have a more recent picture to put up here on our profile.