Rolling Down Black Stockings: A Passage Out of the Old Order Mennonite Religion

By Esther Royer Ayers

Book Overview

Rolling Down Black Stockings is a personal recollection of Esther Royer Ayers's youth spent in a highly restrictive and confined religious community. Her story is as much a search for identity and a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873388283
• ISBN13: 9780873388283
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Kent State University Press
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Falling in Love with Esther Ayers

How could you not fall in love with Esther Royer Ayers after reading her stirring life story in "Rolling Down Black Stockings?" I know that my wife and I did. Perhaps it's because Esther and I had strong, dominant mothers who chose non-mainstream religious beliefs and practices over common sense to raise their children. Maybe it's due to the ghosts that haunted both of our adult lives because of how fear trumped love in our parent's decision making skills while we were growing up. Then again, it may be that as an author, I especially enjoy writers with a gift for words, engaging their readers with eloquent prose, poignant metaphors, and down-to-earth analogies. Richard E. Kelly, Author of "Growing Up In Mama's Club"

A must read

Before this book, the only experience I have had with the Amish was visiting Lancaster, PA and sampling their crafts and food. It was fascinating to learn about the author's life and growing up in the Amish community. I learned many things from this book, some happy and some sad and think it was very courageous of Esther Royer Ayers to share her story. I think it is a must read for anyone interested in other cultures.

A Candid Memoir

I thoroughly enjoyed Rolling Down Black Stockings, Esther Royer Ayers' candid memoir of growing up in the shackles of an Old Order Mennonite Church family. I delighted at the young Esther's spirit of rebellion, and cringed at some of the humiliations forced upon her and her siblings in the name of religion. At times, I felt that the treatment of the children bordered on child abuse; i.e. forcing a bright, precocious child to "fail" in school in order to comply with church rules. And although she finally developed the courage to move them all away from the community and the church, Esther's mother was herself unable to cope with life in the outside world without having one after another authoritative church as a crutch, probably because it felt familiar and comfortable to her. Fortunately, Esther is finally able to throw off the hobbles of her early shame, and live freely and contentedly in the world, although it took a good deal of her adult life to reach that point. This book is not only Esther's personal story, but also a definitive history of a religion that remains a mystery to most of us. It's a story that has probably occurred, and still occurs, many times over.

I liked Rolling Down Black Stockings

This memoir recalls Esther Ayers's strange childhood. Her first job, at 12, was as a maid in a neighbor's house. Esther and her seven siblings already knew how to work hard -- cleaning, heating water for laundry, hoeing, gathering potatoes, and hauling buckets of milk. For Old Order Mennonites, heavy toil with few pleasures was the way to heaven. An eighth grade education was good enough. Children were ordered to fail twice so they could legally quit school at age 16. For bright inquisitive Esther, this life was stifling. Esther had never been to a movie, read a magazine, or seen a home with art on the walls. She rolled down her long cotton stockings to pretend she was wearing bobby sox like her classmates. When her father died, Esther's mother finally left the church. Relatives and neighbors were furious. After a long adjustment, Esther finished high school and college, and found her own life. If you've ever questioned what the Old Order Mennonite religion is all about, and what it requires of its members, this memoir gives you all the answers

Is an Old Order Mennonite in a cult?

Imagine a childhood never experiencing a phone, radio, television, or even choosing clothing that is bright and cheerful. Old Order Mennonites, like most Amish, lead a very, almost cultish, small group life quite outside the world at large. How does one break away from teachings that become glaringly known to you as too limiting in scope and isolationist, even when you're yet a child? How do you meld with other children when you not only feel different, you are not even completely accepted, as deeply wanted, by your own Mother? This is what I see in this book. The writer conveys this sometimes humorously, telling of that and her eventual successful family life, and even graduating from college.