The Amish Hippie

During one of our exploration days while camped in Manchester, Tennessee, we drove to Monteagle, a very small rural town located on the southern Cumberland Plateau. Like everywhere else in Tennessee, Monteagle was green and lush, and, we later found out, also famous for a treacherous stretch of Interstate 24 that passes through the town. The interstate regularly shuts down in bad weather and in the Jerry Reed Song “The Legend” (the opening track in the film Smokey and the Bandit), Reed tells the story of the Bandit miraculously surviving brake failure on the Monteagle Grade. There is also a song called “Monteagle Grade” by Johnny Cash on the album Boom Chicka Boom.

All claims to fame aside, I found myself laughing out loud when we drove by a shop called “The Amish Hippie”. People who know me know that I’ve always been drawn to all things Hippie, and to all things Amish. But I never, in my wildest imagination, thought there would be one shop that encompassed both concepts under one roof. Of course we had to stop. Of course we had to go in. And of course we took pictures. Spread across three or four separate rooms, this funky, eclectic, quirky shop did indeed carry both Amish related merchandise (homemade jams, woven baskets, soaps, candles), and all things Hippie related (clothes, posters, incense, bags, t-shirts, beads, paraphernalia).

We spent about half an hour taking it all in, bought an Amish Hippie T-shirt as a memento, and tucked this experience into our virtual “unexpected delights found while traveling” file.