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Author shares his 'Tale' in Batavia
Friday, March 13, 2009
By Ben Beagle
bbeagle @batavianews.com
BATAVIA -- About 130 people joined author Paul L. Gaus on a virtual
journey down his favorite dusty country lane on Thursday night.
"It's pretty typical," he said from the Reading Room at Richmond Memorial Library, "and it's been the key to my travels in Holmes County for the last 30 years."
Gaus, whose mystery novel Separate From the World is this year's selection for the "A Tale for Three Counties" community reading project, described a road that passes across a meadow, skirts alongside a creek, goes up a hill that overlooks Amish farms as far as the eye can see and affords a view uncluttered by utility poles, television antennas and few cars. The author went seemingly house to house along the road -- Salt Creek Township, Lane 601 -- as he related his encounters with the road's Amish residents and shop owners.
"I loved to hear his stories, and how he's learned about the Amish. I love to hear stories about people's encounters," said Betsy Abramson of Corfu, who read Separate From the World, as part of a book club -- called "The Chick-a-Lits" -- that started among a group of friends after their daughters graduated high school and the women wanted a way to keep regularly seeing each other.
"And he has a nice voice, very soothing," she said.
Gaus' Thursday night talk and book signing was the second of four such programs he is giving this week as part of the Tale project.
A record turnout of 110 people for an afternoon session at Genesee Community College was followed by near-record numbers at Richmond library, with a few people attending both sessions.
Tale programs continue through Saturday. Today, Gaus will have lunch with winners of a book review contest sponsored by The Daily News, and give another presentation at 7 p.m. at Lee-Whedon Memorial Library, 620 West Ave., Medina. His final visit is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday in the Perry Elementary/Middle School auditorium, 50 Olin Ave., Perry.
"I thought he gave a real understanding of Amish culture," said Mary Joan Gleason of Le Roy, who read Separate From the World as part of a book discussion group at Woodward Memorial Library, Le Roy.
Gaus commanded the library's Reading Room, displaying a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of Amish culture as he explained a little history, Amish rites, and recalled his frequent visits to Holmes County, Ohio, home to the world's largest Amish settlement.
"I have made it my purpose to get off the blacktop and onto the gravel," he said.
This could mean a stop near a pasture, or ducking in to a wood lot. More often, though, it's Gaus sitting on a park bench and observing.
"I wait for the opportunity to present itself," he said, "and often they approach me."
Gaus' stories revealed an Amish culture that was curious, but reserved, about the outside world they call the "English." His stories also illustrated a resourcefulness among the Amish that many readers did not expect. He noted an acceptance of cell phones, automobiles and shared how a former engine shop owner adept at electronics now installs security systems -- while dressing and behaving in the ways of the Old Order Amish.
"It's been 30 years of getting to know people casually and gathering material for my course," said Gaus, a retired chemistry professor at the College of Wooster in Ohio, where he also taught a freshman seminar course on American cultures such as the Amish and Navajo.
At one farmhouse -- the first on that favorite lane -- Gaus recalled his discovery of a car parked behind a barn after years of seeing nothing but horse-drawn buggies, open hacks and surreys in the yard. He would see the car for several years, eventually learning that the family's teens -- who had not yet been baptized into the church -- were allowed to use the car to drive into town on weekends to see friends, and that the teens would often use the car to drive the family around on business.
Later, the car was replaced by a tractor, which one of the enterprising young men would rent out to other farms in the valley, Gaus said, explaining that only after deciding to join the church would the young man have to give up the car or tractor.
During a visit a couple of weeks ago, Gaus noticed the car was gone. So was the tractor. Buggies again filled the farmhouse yard.
And at the end of the lane, near a steep hill, was a large red barn that belonged to an Amish dwarf Gaus befriended and whom he would often take students from his freshman seminar to meet.
Years ago, Gaus recalled walking past this barn and hearing a voice ask if he would like a drink of cold spring water. Gaus could not see who was speaking, and when he peered into the barn he barely saw the man who stood only to the window sill of the barn.
"I stopped for a drink, even though I had water. Truth is, I had a Diet Pepsi in a cooler," Gaus said. "But this was the kind of thing I've looked forward to for 30 years -- the opportunity to talk."
Another trip about 10 years ago found Gaus coming through the area with the top down on his Miata sports car. While stopped along the road he heard a rapid-fire mechanical sound that he took to be a weed whacker. But when the sound zipped over and around his car he realized it was a remote-control airplane -- being flown by a young Amish boy from beside a nearby barn. When Gaus turned toward the boy, the child gave a quick thumbs up and disappeared behind the barn.
"His father was Old Order Amish. They were very religious and proper, it's just that they really liked remote-controlled airplanes and flew them in the valley frequently."
While the evening program was a largely personal take on the Amish, Gaus did offer some insights into his book and how each of his three recurring characters -- college professor Michael Branden, sheriff Bruce Robertson and pastor Cal Troyer -- each serve specific roles -- a thinker, a law enforcer, and a religious connection -- in bridging the cultural divide among Amish and "English" society in his six books.
Of Robertson, Gaus said, "he's more fun to write than maybe you realize. He's such a rascal, not so sophisticated. He's like a bull in a china shop."
Thursday's Tale events included two programs at Genesee Community College, a luncheon that was followed by an afternoon talk and book signing.
Gaus shared different stories about his Holmes County experiences at GCC, where he also noted how the proximity of Amish and non-Amish residents sometimes creates "cultural friction" as a result of their different lifestyles. The friction, though, provides excellent material for writing novels, he said.
Gaus' remarkably detailed stories frequently revealed how Amish are increasingly faced with the challenge of balancing their strict religious ideals with their involvement in the modern, technological world.
About a dozen invitees attended the GCC luncheon, including several instructors who used Gaus' book as part of their classes this semester and representatives from GCC's Tale committee.
"A Tale for Three Counties" is organized by 20 libraries in Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties. GCC has been participating in the Tale program since 2005.
(Includes reporting by Daily News Intern Kevin Kennedy.)
Courtesy of Batavia Newspapers Corporation