The People's Exchange

The People's Exchange is a 128 page free bi-weekly advertising paper serving the Amish communities in Northern Indiana and southern Michigan with a circulation of 8,500. Its classified ads are sorted by animals (horses, livestock, pets), benefits (fund raisers for those in need like the haystack supper for David and Barbara Helmuth's doctor and hospital bills), real estate, reunions, stud and taxi services. Features include Childhood Chuckles, Farmyard Funnies, recipes, and Red Cross blood drive dates. Happy birthdays and anniversaries are featured on the front page.

Display ads feature gas refrigerators and freezers from L&M Appliance; windmills, bike carts, and double tubs for laundry at Wingard's; washline posts and hitching racks at AL Enterprises, and the Spring Dairy Feeder Heifer Auction coming up in Topeka on April sixth.

This publication, which is like reading the Sears & Robuck Co. Catalog at the turn of the last century, illustrates the self sufficiency and caring for one's own that make the Amish a model for the rest of us to emulate in this ever more individualized world. Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, spoke last Sunday at the University of Notre Dame about this phenomena. He, perhaps, should include a footnote about the Amish.