This is the second time I've seen this group of women around my town.

Today, my Admin and I from work ran to the grocery store to pick up some beer and ice cream for an impromtu patio party at work. (it's 102 here today so far! Ack!) When we went into the store, there was a group of women (maybe 10 of them), ranging in age from roughly 19-30, they were all dressed in traditional ankle length pinnefore dresses (most in soft floral prints), long sleeve white blouses buttoned to the collar, and head scarfs or hats. They had obviously arrived in an extended van parked in the lot. They were attended by a gentleman escort who was dressed like any other westerner, with a plaid shirt and jeans. The ladies were in the store giggling and chatting happily in clear English over some of the sundries in the freezer case.

I don't believe they were conservative Jews, or the gent attending them would have been in traditional dress, they weren't Amish since we don't have any Amish in this area, and they don't wear florals. I did think that perhaps they might be traditional Mennonites, but when I tried to skirt around them, I smiled and said "excuse me Friends" which would have been a clear message to them that I was Quaker and I would have been greeted with warmth as a sister of sorts. Instead I was met with a rather stony look and the smiles kind of faded.

I'm 100% positive that they weren't dressed as pioneers for a play or a production, I've seen them around town on one other occasion.

They're clearly from a very traditional religious group of some kind, but does anyone have any gueses on which one? I surely didn't know. (My only other guess would have been Molokan, which is a splinter group from Russian Orthodoxy, but the Molokans that I know here clearly speak Russian as their first language.)

It might be worth noting that I don't believe the gentleman that was with them was a hired driver. They seemed to know him very well and on several occasions seemed to defer to him with questions.

The Mennonites I know wear little white caps on the back of their head, their hair is gathered into a bun and covered by this. Hudderites wear scarves, but they don't usu sally wear floral, they are usually in dark long dresses. The only other suggestion I have is Mormons, not the LDS, but the offshoots that believe in bigamy. When I was a child we saw a lot of these and they wore floral prints, and were always under the watchful eyes of at least one male. They were not encouraged to talk to "outsiders", and would not meet most people in the eyes.

Not sure if I helped, but those are what I have experienced/know

Some of the Mennonites do actually wear mute florals as work clothes, at least the ones who lived on a farm near my grandparents did (all the Mennonites I know are Liberal and wear jeans and sneakers like the rest of us). I've run into Hudderites (not around here though), they definitely weren't them.

I can't imagine that we have any of the offshoot polygamist Mormon groups here, I mean this is Seattle, this would be one of the hardest cities for them to get along in--I mean, if you've got a bucket of wives and a barge full of kids, you'd have to be a billionaire to support them all in this area. I would also think that if they were from a Mormon group, as least a couple of them would have been pregnant but none seemed to be. I suppose it's possible they're Mormon, but wow, I just can't imagine it. But I suppose you could be right.

It just seemed so strange to me... they weren't exactly young or old but between 20 and 30 or so... they had no children with them, and only the one man. It was just so odd and it piqued my curiousity.

The Mennonites here wear long dresses, either in floral or muted colours, it is the little lacy caps that signify their beliefs, at least with the females. As to supporting the children of a polygamist Mormon group, they get around it (at least in Bountiful) by declaring that they do not have support of the father, and they have no skills/against their religion to work out of the house, they collect welfare. They also get the Canadian Child Tax Benefit, which is at least around $150 per child. SO, they could bring in over $1,000 per wife, more if she has more than three kids and then they live in a communal house, so they in actuality are raking in the dough. It would be extremely easy for them to buy a ranch or a small farm on the outskirts of town and come in for supplies. And they do not usually take the little ones into town with them unless both parents are there. Only the older females are allowed out to buy supplies.

Sounds like Apostlics..

Well, after doing some fishing around and asking folks if they had ever run across this group I think I have an answer.

They're from a cult... a Catholic cult of all things--of course they deny being a Cult.

The group has about a hundred members, their leader (who died last year) was Francis Schuckardt and he insisted he was the "true Pope." The church is called Tridentine Latin Rite Catholic Church. It's hardly worth mentioning that the Vatican does not recognize them as being a legitimate Catholic group.

That article was some seriously crazy reading.

hari krishna's?

Ummm, no, Tridentine Latin Rite Catholic Church as stated in the post above.

Hari Krishna women don't wear floral pinnefore style dresses and head scarves. *scratches head*

Obviously you didn't read the post or any of the responses.