You know that thing about not taking pictures of Amish people? I've always heard that they consider photography a violation of the commandment against graven images and that an Amish dude will get really angry if you take his picture. (Which raises the question, what might an Amish man do to you if he gets really angry? Perhaps he might forcibly shave your beard, like this guy. But what if you're clean-shaven like me?)
Anyway, we all know that the French Quarter is a place where people release their inhibitions and do outrageous, scandalous stuff, right? So I suppose I shouldn't be shocked. Anyway, I'm sitting on a corner by the French Market waiting for a couple of clients -- an elderly man and his even more elderly aunt -- to finish their shopping and climb back on my bike when this group of Amish women walks by. One of them -- I'm guessing she was about 40 or 50 years old -- hangs back just a bit to let the group get ahead of her, glances furtively around, quickly pulls a camera from her purse, and takes a picture of me. She snaps the picture at waist level without taking the time to aim and focus and quickly slides the camera back into her bag.
In a recent post I speculated that I might be on my way to becoming a major New Orleans tourist attraction. But I never imagined that it would get to the point that Amish people would be taking pictures of me!
(By the way, if I seem to be making fun of the Amish, you should understand that I consider myself a dedicated Anabaptist, which makes me a close ideological cousin to the Amish. So I look at it as gently poking fun at family members.)
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