Who are the Amish?

here though. Yeah. I've been getting here late lately, and I gotta tell you that extra half hour it feels like it eats up four hours of productivities. We are you driving a buggy to work? I am I, Chuck. I We should say I and nay throughout this, Okay, yeah, nay on the I nay um Chuck, Josh. Let me take you back in time a little bit, say seventeen seven.

It's a long time. Imagine Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Okay. All of a sudden, a new group of people show up and they seem nice enough, you know, they seem hard working or they like to, you know, use their draft horses for locomotion. And and all sorts of normal eighteenth

century early eighteenth century stuff. But in very short order, the welcome to the New world colonizing neighbor pies start drying up as the surrounding people who will heretofore be referred to as the English, realized that this new group of people who are showing up don't really care to socialize with them, or anyone else in the outside world for that matter. Yeah, that that's the way they like it. It is. Well, we're talking about Chuck. In case you

haven't guessed, is the Amish. I knew this because you read the article. Yeah, good thing. These people are incredibly interesting to me. Yeah. Me. To remember, we said on some podcast ways back that, uh, the Amish will never hear it. We can say whatever we want, and all these people wrote in like jerks, what about rum spring up yea, which we'll get to in a minute. But

they're absolutely correct. It's entirely possible there's an Amish kid running around, although it should be noted that we did not hear from any Amish kid on rum Springer, so take that. They may have heard it, though they may just not be real comfy with the typing comfortable with. Maybe there's letters on crystal meth rum springing. Yeah, we'll

get to that in a minute. Okay, all right, So again we're talking about the Amish who did first arrive in the United States and seventy seven and actually when they did get to Pennsylvania and at that time they were still a fairly young Christian sect, right, yeah, sixte is when they were actually formed because a Swiss Mennonite named Jacob I'm on basically didn't like three things. I know. The three things are so true. I want to split off because I'm not. I want to keep watching people's feet,

which I can understand. It's pretty cool because if you ever washed someone's feet, you grew up a Christian, right, did you ever do that? Now? I did once I was even Catholic. Wow, it's weird. Yeah, and it is humbling, especially if you're like twelve. You did that as a part of church. Wow, I've never heard of that. Yeah, I mean, and you know, modern like modern churches, I guess, right, But the point is it's it's meant to be a

humbling experience. You're washing the feet of another human being, feet and dirty, and you know it's let me tell you, buddy, you've had to wash your feet, it would be it would be humbling. Humbling is when one word that comes to mind. Yeah, you'd see new shades of greens. What else? Did he not want to celebrate Josh Communion twice a year? He wanted to celebrate it twice a year. Once said

once a year. So he said, screw that and the foot washing and then um, the Mennonites basically wanted to mingle with the English or I guess they weren't the English at the time, but mingle with society. And he said, I'm not down with that. So and that's going to create a new deal called the Amish, right, and it did, um, and it took off like a rocket. But I mean that last one is probably the most definitive characteristic of the Amish. You know that they didn't and still don't

socialize with outsiders as much as possible. Right, Yep, that'll keep popping up throughout this podcast, I predict watch for it. And they're still in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as well as uh Ohio and Indiana and Utah and Canada. Canada. Utah is the newest place they're having to go further and further west. For some reason, Utah makes sense. No, Mormonism has nothing to do with it, but it just makes sense. It definitely does, more so than like if they rooted down

in Vegas or something, which they never ever would. They shy away from electricity, which is one reason they'd stay away from Vegas, which probably would just scared the hell out of the Amish going down the strip in Vegas. Um, so let's talk about why they do this stuff. They

dressed plainly, right, yeah, very much. They wear The men wear dark suits, usually a blue shirt with some suspenders, a black brimmed hat, which is the shape of the hat apparently tells you a lot about the man, like if you're more old school, it'll have a different crown and brim with which I don't understand how that fully works. But the hat makes the man, Yeah, but not the clothes. Well, well, the clothes obviously, but the clothes are all the same. The hat is where you can vary it to say

something about yourself. I got to I did not know that. So those are the dudes, and they and the ladies they wear frock dresses, black capes, which I find kind of dashing. Sure, um. And if they're baptized, they cover their hair yea all the time and they don't cut their hair the women, no, but men do wear their short their hair short, cropped beards if they are married. Correct, But no mustache. Why I thought I added something to do with biker or something. Tom Selle, who just celebrated

his birthday by the way, let me know. So. Uh, it's because they and this was a brand new factor me because mustaches are associated with the military, at least to the Amish, and they're not downe with the military now, not at all. As a matter of fact. They they reject any um combat uh what's it called, chuck. They reject violence against another human and even in self defense, which means you can't go to war because you're going

to be put in a situation like that. Um. They they have been in the past conscripted, That's what I was thinking of. They have been conscripted to um serving non combat roles during the draft. Yeah. And I think during World War Two there was a couple of Amish guys who were conscientious objectors who were basically put in hell, which was the statemental hospitals, and I believe New York or New Jersey. Um, and they actually lead the charge in exposing the horrible qualities of life at these places

and some real reform in statemental institution. Do we really need Amish in the army though, I mean even during the draft? No, But would you want an Amish guy in the trenches next to you? Well, you'd never see one there. Well yeah, exactly, you know, I imagine they go to prisoner or whatever. But there, that does bring up a point that kind of arose in my head while I was reading this article, Chuck, and that is that, Um,

they live in the United States. So even though they are this very peaceful, tranquil um, non violent society, they still live in the United States. So yeah, I think if there is a draft, this is that's a that's a really important moment in history. So yeah, they gotta gotta do something. Everybody's pitching in you. You can't live entirely separately in my opinion. You know how I feel about Buddhist monks who go up in the mountains for their their whole lives. Draft them. I think the exact

get him in the trenches. So Chuck, Yes, Josh, like we said, Um, the Amish women wear bonnets on their hair after they're baptized. The Amish, being Anabaptists, don't believe in infant baptism. Neither did I as just a regular Baptist Southern Baptist. It makes sense like we don't baptized, we don't at birth or anything like that. You have to be old enough to make your own decision. Yeah,

which makes a lot of sense to me. I was baptized as a baby and I have no recollection of it whatsoever, And aside from the Catholic Gill has been virtually meaningless to me. I was baptized at sixteen and was led to the Lord with air quotes under my gay youth director. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he really is gay. He he later on, I didn't think you would call him gay. A few wives and we all know you love you chuck. He later on came out and the church said, I don't think I want you to be

director anymore. Does that no fire your baptism. I'm looking and I'm looking into that. So were you baptized in the river? No? No, no, just in the pool behind the in the church. You know, modern Baptism not a brother world though. Um, I I have to say, I find that, um, just a really good idea that you can't get baptized until you're fully aware of what you're doing. And my hat, my my wide brim hat is off to the Amish and to your sect for pursuing that. Yeah,

Stone Mountain First Baptist Church exactly that that sect. So, um, you enter the church when you're sixteen. If you want to write, yeah, you make the choice to what is. But here we reach rum Springer, right, that is when you are allowed to live among the English and do crystal math and sell it to I understand there's a pretty big druggring um of Amish kids that were selling drugs. You can dance and play guitar and watch TV and

waste electricity, use electricity, yeah, and wasted. Yeah. Oh I imagine if you're just coming into electricity at age sixteen, you wasted like it's nobody's business. Yeah. But yeah, so you you are allowed to go off for a period of time. Uh, and you are in rum spring which means run around. Yeah. Germans German, like all Amish stuff is German, right, they speak a low German amongst themselves, high German for mass. But they all know how to

speak English. So when they actually do have to associate with outsiders, they do. But on rum Spring, you imagine they're running around speaking English, probably doing drugs, and then some of them. We're not saying they all do that, of course no, but they can. They can and they do. Because that documentary The Double's Playground I saw that recently, isn't any good? Well, yeah, and that's where the crystal

mething came from. Those a kid who got mixed up in dealing it and um basically had to move, you know, because some guy was trying to kill him, some rival drug dealer was trying to kill him. Wow, so he really experienced the English life. He is like, object to this conscientiously coming for you. It's weird though, man, because it'll show parties and a lot of them. Like this kid was a boy and he, you know, dressed normally, like what if you call a sixteen year old attire

these days normal? But the girls were still wearing their thing. So they were at this party listening to the jay Z with their frock and her bonnet han drinking a beer. Wow. Yeah, I gotta check that movie. It's really good, awesome, it's really it's very insightful. Okay, So I had a pretty dark, shady past when I had my own little rum springer. Sure, no, I'm not. As a matter of fact, I have ended mine. I ended it a while back, but I fully ended it.

Yet it's nice. I'm growing up now, chuck. Um, what's for me? Though? There was nothing that I was going to test out. It was all all testing, right, but there wasn't like I wasn't going to examine, like did I do? I want to make a choice between good and evil? Although old amately that's what it panned out to be, right, which did you choose? Um? Can you

see the smile? I'm so bright and sunny today. Yeah? Um. With these kids, once they reach a certain point, and I didn't get in the article how long run spring? At lasts? Maybe a year? I'm not positive either, but let's say, well we'll go with a year, okay. And and then they decide, Okay, do I want to go back to the church or do I want to just continue living with the English? Um. Since they haven't taken an oath to the church yet, they could conceivably still

be um. They could have ties to their family, their Amish family, even if they decided to leave the Amish community. They're not shunned, which is what they call it, right, So they haven't broken an oath to the church, so they're not shunned. What is shunning, intel shunning is when you have taken that up to the church. So you've made that decision beyond the age of sixteen, and then you leave and don't come back. Well, you're not wanted back.

You can't come back though. If you're sixteen and you leave, they will let you back in if you say, boy, I've made a big mistake. But if you leave forever, they will shun you permanently, which means no ties, no family, no Christmas at home, no Thanksgiving, no Easter, nothing like that. They celebrate all those Yeah, well they're Christians. Yeah, alright,

So the kid and what's what's what's um? I find it hartening that the vast majority of Amish kids who go on rum Springer come back, you know, so they they've made the choice. Now they're going to become indoctrinated in the church their sixteen but they either towards the end of the sixteenth year, right right, and they're saying I'm gonna be Amish. What is Amish life like, Well, they've already experienced a lot of it because you grow up with the ordining being pounded into your head, which

is the German word for order. And that's there, they said. It's mostly unwritten, just their sort of way of life. How to be Amish Amish for dummies, right, is the ord And and you actually don't have to be real book smart actually, because the Amish don't believe in um extraneous book learning. Why would they. They think you need to learn a vocation or craft and probably and it makes a certain amount of sense from a very religious standpoint. Knowing too much is kind of unhealthy and frankly a

little vain. We're very vain, chuck, Well, and that's what it's all about. You're talking about the dress and the electricity and all that. All of that has to do with the fact that they shun uh things of the world, vanity and ego and pride, and you know, clothing obviously leads to that when you're all wearing different clothes, you want to dress nice and dress better than your neighbor, save up money and spend money and decide spend time deciding what to wear. None of that works with the Amish,

and like we said, neither does electricity. All of their power comes from either they may have electricity, but it's coming from a diesel generator um. Or they have gas. They can burn gas in their house in oil obviously right. Um. And so they don't have artificial light, which makes me wonder something and you couldn't find the answer to this. But um, before the advent of artificial light, apparently humans

had a totally different sleep pattern then we have. Now we went to bed mater earlier, but about two three one, sometime in the night we'd wake up for a good thirty thirty minutes or an hour, smoke a pipe, read a book, hang out that kind of thing, and then go back to sleep. But with do you really smoke a pipe read a book? Do you do you smoke a pipe while you read a book? Yeah? Yeah, I just go back to sleep. And Emily's always like, what are you doing? You're like, I'm just being a plane.

Yeah yeah. Um. But I wonder if the Amish still have that kind of sleep pattern, because apparently artificial light eradicated that. Well. Yeah, and even if you're using oil lamps and candles, you don't want to in those until midnight, you know, so you you would probably go to bed earlier. Otherwise you're wasting They're not big into waste, you'd be wasting the oil just to stay up till midnight, because what do you stand up for? Because all I gotta do is get back up the next day and work

your butt off. So yeah, and they do because again they're farmers. And one of the reasons that they've hung on to farming, um is, as I guess it's kind of symbolic, chuck, it's a way to separate themselves. Um. The rest of the world has, you know, moved forward and with its book learning and all that book learning. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a crop list for you if you want to know. Let's hear it in order of acreage. The Amish grow corn the most. Makes sense, hey, wheat, tobacco,

which kind of surprised me. Uh, soybean, barley, and potatoes. And that's just the farming tip. They also obviously they quilt and they make uh they're big craftsmen, furniture builders. Yeah, apparently they're they're big new thing now or utility sheds um. And and as you mentioned, the quilt Amish quilts are like among some of the ladies, amongst certain quarters of femininity. Amish quilts are like as good as it gets. And apparently you used to be able to get these things,

really detailed ornate quilts um for nothing. And then after a while the Amish were like, oh, English, you really like these things? How much do you pay for him? And apparently they peaked at thousands of dollars in the eighties and then finally settled down and now they're like a grand still, which is really that's an expensive quilt. After we took advantage of them. It sounds like for many years. Yeah, by saying I'll take this handmade thing

for seven dollars off your hands. There you go, Amish. But they they I'm surprised that they did allow it to get as high as it did because they don't really care much for cash. They don't use credit. Most of their wealth or I guess net worth comes from their real estate holdings. Yeah. That they own a lot of Lancaster pennsylvani Lancaster County. Yeah, and everywhere they go

they buy a lot of land. Um that's sixteen year old that just became in doctor nating in the church One of the things that um he or she will be getting into about now is the courtship of a husband or wife. Right, so when you're about sixteen, Um, you start to drink lemonade on the porch, fitz or sweetie, Um you'll you'll drive her to in the buggy or walk with her to the singing service. Yeah, and singing is actually um their courtship ritual and wedding ceremonies are

really detailed. I didn't realize this. It's pretty cool. You want to go over it. Well, yeah, well the singing thing is not done anything to do with that. That's just what young single Amish kids do for fun, right right, But I mean it's kind of a range so that this is part of the courtship process. So you can spend some time with somebody else that you're you know, looking to wed. That's what they say. Yeah, they do. And they don't always sing um religious songs either, because

there's not anything else they can do. They can't dance, can't play musical instruments. It's like John Lithgow lives there. I don't even know what that means. Haven't you ever seen Footloose? Oh? Sure, I thought you were talking about Dexter or Third Rock from the Sun or something. He's on Dexter. Yeah, he played a serial killer in the last season. I haven't gotten there yet. Creepy. Yeah, he's He's good a creepy You else is creeping out and

thinking of it. There's a little often topic, but Amish dolls do not have faces. Why because it goes with the whole vanity thing, and it was like a long standing tradition that they just kind of held onto, like they don't want their photograph taken. They don't want their faces displayed as a graven image, so their baby dolls have no faces. It's cool, it's creepy as hell, dude. Have you seen the video of the little baby that was born with no eyes on Good Morning America? Was

she Amish? No? No? This that was a total sidebar then yeah, okay. And also you were saying about the dolls being faceless. Apparently with the quilts, there was a myth that grew up that every Amish quilt has a purposeful flaw so that they don't create anything perfect. Yeah, not true, but they said there are likely flaws because anything handmade is going to have a cross or a off stitch, but it's not like they do it on

purpose or anything that's silly. So a couple of Amish teens are courting, Yeah, they're courting back to the court. That's about sixteen. Usually they're twenty or older when they finally get married to the court for years. Well, there's actually studies that I've read that um show that the longer the courtship, the more lasting the marriage. Uh, just in general, not just yeah, not just among Amish, but

with any humans. That makes sense. Sure, you see these people get married after these celebrities get married after a few months of being on set together, and then you get on the next movie and they're like, oh, I think I love my New Coast Now. Yeah, those people are crazy. They're like the opposite of the Amish, complete

opposite of the Amish. So they're courting, Josh. They are allowed to spend time together, they encouraged to spend private time together, but it would be unseemly if they did this um behind closed doors, so they keep it, like you said, on the front porch. Uh. They do have chaperone's right, Yeah, but a good chaperone like knows to not pay too much attention they're just kind of there to let everybody else know we're not letting these two

go back on run spring. It's so weird. It seems they're so on one end, very rigid with the with the ordinaning, but on the other end they're very permissive, you know. They just the fact that they allow rum springing to me is amazing. It's such a healthy, brave custom. Yeah, because you're saying, like, go go figure out if you really want to do, if you like it, come back, and I mean you're it's poses such a huge risk that like these people are gonna be like, hell, yes,

I like electricity and I really love crystal meth. Yeah. You would think it these days that very few Amish kids would come back. Yeah, but they do. And when they do their courting courting again now they're getting married. Yes, what do you say about about twenty And actually it happens at the same time for everybody, right fall November, Yeah, November, um is the favorite month. Winter hasn't begun yet, um, but it's after the fall harvest, right yeah, and Lancaster County,

Pennsylvania is definitely cold. Um. So what happens is um, the two weeks after the Fall Communion one of two. Remember, um, so what happens, Chuck, is that about the time if you want a jockey yourself to get married in the fall or the winner, Um, you give your girl a present, a practical gift, no jewelry, like a butter turn something like that, or um, something for really good quilting or whatever. Um. And you you give her this present and she takes it to mean like, Okay, well you he wants to

marry me. He just gave me a butter churn. How else can you read that? Um? And she goes back and tells her family and they're like or nay, but they're probably like I you know. Um. And but they keep it a secret though they do among the family until two weeks after the Fall Community one of two. In the year, um, a list of all the kids who are gonna get married, for all the girls. Actually that which I thought was kind of cool. They do it by girl, Yeah, the woman. That's very woman centric

in the marriage weddings or weddings, I should say, yes. Um. So there's a list that's published, and by published we mean that the deacon reads the names off and that's all the kids who are gonna get married that year, right, Yeah, none of them are there. Well, that would be the dead giveaway to me, because everybody's at church. Yeah, which is they don't have a church. Actually we left that part out. Yeah. They do the church services in the homes.

Uh so, and it rotates from Sunday to Sunday. Yeah, so every home it needs to be capable of hosting church service. And in these church services there in pretting the Bible. Literally we left that part out too. We didn't leave any hanging out. We're just we're jumping around. Okay, this is this is amage country. You can do whatever you want because we know what electricity means. Right. Um.

So yes, they are published, they are announced. Um they are not there because they're enjoying time with their family at a private meal, private meal together and this is where it all kicks off. This is where it all gets sexy. Well, I don't know about that. So the wedding actually takes place in the home to um bride's home, which is where the honeymoon take I'm sorry the they live in the bride's home afterward. Yeah for a good uh I think six months a year. Yeah, and the

honeymoon takes place. They just go to visit other relatives. Yeah, pretty pretty hot and heavy. I think, yeah, this is this is crazy when when they actually do have the wedding ceremony, and let me also just let me rephrase that this is crazy. I don't think what the amage too is crazy. It's interesting, yeah, very interesting. Um, the the for the wedding ceremony, it lasts several hours, which I would go absolutely craz easy. I can barely make

it through a full hour long Catholic Mass type wedding. Yeah, they're they're uncomfortable. Can you imagine a few hours. Yeah, my wedding ceremony would lasted about four and a half minutes. Didn't was the preacher like bingo bango, you guys are well the preacher was my father in law. So okay, he'd put a scotch down and said, by the power of the Internet, you were a man and wife. Nice. Um yeah, okay, Well multiply that by several hours. Uh,

and then it's done and everybody starts feasting. Um. And then the first night, yes, Chuck is spent at the bride's parents house. So nothing else needs to be said about that. No, but it's since we've been on rum springet. That means that there's probably plenty of Amish kids, Amish married couples who weren't virgins at marriage. Oh can they do the sex when they are on rum I have the impression that you can do anything you want on rum Spring, including still meth well, and it doesn't necessarily

indicate that the Amish are anti intercourse or anything. No. I mean I think if you're married and it's a blessed union from God, then feel free, sure in a one room house with your laws in the next pet Yeah, feel free. Yeah. And then like you said, check the honeymoon is on weekends because of course during the week you're working like nothing happened, um, And but on weekends you go around and visit family and stay with him for the weekend. Yeah, which is pretty cool. Probably more

butter turns. And then you're you're set up. After six months, you're living with the h the bride's parents. And then after six months or a year, one of the two, it's time to get your own place. And remember the Amish, This Amish guy who's like twenty or twenty one hasn't spent his whole life, you know, saving up for this. Yeah, he didn't have a pot to uh too, which is interesting. You say that we'll get to that and say we'll get the um. No, but there is a community pot

which everyone's expected to throw into. And from this community pot and from any familial help, um, the kids get their own farm. They buy the farm. Yeah, we'll raise We'll raise you a barn. Nice lovely young couple. Yeah. Have you ever seen Witness? You know, it's on my my tebow right now. I have never seen it though, good movie, and it's been sitting there for weeks. When Harrison Ford's out of Veneer finally cracks and he comes to see the value of the Amish way of life.

How misunderstood. They are beautiful. Um. But there's a barn raising in there, and it's you know, everybody gets together. They build the walls and then push them up and you know everybody's pitching. It's a very um communal affair. Well, you have to. That's one of the tenants of being Amish is you have to lend a hand. So definitely, unless it's in a combat situation. Right, So, if your neighbor, if you're Amish neighbor, if you see him coming over with a hammer in in his hand. You don't like

pull the blind shut and lock the door like I would. Off, No, no, no, you gotta go help the guy. Yeah, it's all about the community. So the kids are all set up, they have their house. Sure, they raise the barn. Let's look around inside. We'll go out into the barn in a minute. Okay, but we're inside right, and it looks pretty much like the eighteenth century. Yeah, it's not fancy. There's not a lot of obviously, there's no gadgets or anything like that.

Very plain handmade furniture. Um, you know what you might find the josh, you might find a modern stove if it burns would Yeah, there's are it seems like there's a lot of contradictions here there and amously like why would you have a modern appliance? The point is that you'd have a modern appliance that burns would or can run on gas because remember you can use gas as long as you're not connected to the grid. They look um, But it makes sense because it's cheaper. It's gonna use

less um less source energy. Yeah, it's gonna require less input. I mean, and I mean, think about it. If you get like an antique or like a reproduction old wood burning stove. That thing's gonna cost you a mint, and it's actually kind of vain that you would do. So, yeah, you might find something that makes life easier that doesn't radically undermine the community structure, and you're not being vain about if if a technology makes it through those that

that that criteria, then it might be adopted. Yeah, and then if it passes the ordining. And one of the examples in the article I thought was good is, for instance, the use of nylon rope instead of hemp rope. If it can accomplish what you need to get done and doesn't disrupt or bring attention to to itself, then they may accept this new technology as long as you can still have that community communion twice a year. Right and watch the feed. Right, let's go out into the dairy barn. Chuck.

Our socks are about to be blown off, dude, right you know why? Yeah, because dude, there is not the little Amish man sitting on a stool with a pale milking a cow. No, they may do that for their own milk, but they have modern equipment, refrigerated tanks running on electricity milking machines. Yeah. And the reason why is because the Amish aren't dumb. They know that they are

living in twenty one century America. They also realized there is such thing as the f d A and if they're trying to sell their milk, then yeah, they have to meet those those basic standards in in in century America. These basic standards include you know, electricity powered cooling tanks and milk pumping and stuff like that. I mean, you're running an actual dairy farm and you have to kind of meet those standards. So yeah, but there is this

place is crazy. It's humming. Yeah, move but of course it's run by the generator still because they're still off the grid. Um. I found it interesting that they I'm sure it hasn't been a picnic or easy, but they seem to have worked with the US government over the years and kind of working some of these things out, like school, Yeah, like compulsory education. They they let them go do their own school to think till the eighth

grade is when they're required to go. And they kind of just said, all right, you know, if you're going to school your kids that way, that's fine. Do taxes stay here? They do not have to pay Social Security tax. No, and they don't borrow. No. Um, they do pay tax though, yeah, they do, like they pay property taxes and stuff, just not social Security tax because they don't draw Social Security or Medicare or which is kind of because you and I are never going to see a penny of Social

Security and we still pay it. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, maybe you should grow a beard with no mustache. Okay, we should both do that. Yeah, it looks kind of goofy. I think it looks cool. You really like see every coop? Yeah, it's such a look though, you know it's you. It's really specific. Look. It definitely is. Um, chuck. We said that they don't borrow, but they do engage in trade. Um.

They somebody's got to buy that milk, right, Um. So what they do is they deal with middlemen as often as possible, and generally these are Mennonites, because the Mennonites are very very similar to the Amish right, but the Mennonites have no rules against socializing with the outside world. So if you have the Amish, you stick to themselves, socialize with as few people as possible. You get a couple of good men and knights who have some stores or whatever, um that that will sell your stuff, and

they turn around and sell it to everybody else. It works out great, it definitely does. They They say, hey, we have we need five utility sheds this month, um, go build them. They build them. They didn't go and pick them up from them, sell them to the people, deliver them cash. They do use the lumber we should

point out. They obviously don't make their own paint and shingles and things like that and mill their own wood, although someone might mill would but they do order to get orders from lumber yards and they'll bring the stuff out to them, except payment on the spot, just to make it easy cash or barter. Obviously, they still don't, you know, throw the Amex black down. No, I mean, if they don't have cashley just don't do it. Yeah. But yeah, if they can barter, I think that's probab

be preferable. Right, And they go to other mom and pop stores here and there. But you you probably won't find any Walmart in Lancaster County with a lot of buggies in the parking lot. No, it's a little too Gerish, a little too Gerish. And actually they said that the tourism that's surrounded around the Amish way of life UM has people look for stores with buggies out front or whatever, and then they come there like just to go see

the Amish. Right, But if they were, if they're encountering a smart mom and pop store owner, they probably just have a couple of buggies that are out front all the time, and the Amish aren't anywhere around. But it still draws the tourists and the Amish are really off the beaten path on some back road. The store that doesn't even have a sign that they just heard of by word of mouth because this person opened just to deal with the Amish. Well, they said, that's a good

way to get some pretty steady business. Open up a mom and make your own sign. Don't get a neon sign in the window they don't like. Just be smart. And we're talking about the Ordon right ord, and how that um that that serves as the keystone the foundation of all Amish life, but it's also something can be passed through it. It's a prism that that new technologies passed through, right, and then they agree on whether it harms them or not, and if it doesn't, they adopt it.

And one of the things that I found interesting was that um out of the necessity for travel, you know, with more and more Amish moving out to like Utah, um, you can't just go through the horse and buggy. So what they've determined is that if you don't own or operate mechanical vehicle, you can still travel in it, which means they can fly on an airplane because they don't own it and they're not operating it. And I think that's cool how it's still I think that's probably how

they've managed to survive. And actually, in the last fifty years their number is tripled. They're about a hundred thousand Amish living in the US, so they're yeah, and they're thriving, I think because they figured out how to adapt and evolve as little as possible, but they're still adapting and evolving. I think that's pretty cool personally. It means they're not, as the article says, stuck in time and completely closed

off to everything. They just only adopt something if it really helps their way of life without causing a negative impact on their life. It seems pretty open minded to me. I gotta tell you, a lot of the Amish stuff though, made me not want to run off and be Amish. But they kind of have it going on. You know, they've got the right idea about so many things you don't have to be Amish to, you know, live a simpler life stuff. And you know, you can join the Amish.

I read that you can. Um, it is possible to be accepted even though you were not born and raised Amish. But it really doesn't happen very often at all because, ay, they're not looking to recruit, you know, they don't proselytize, go door to door like you know some Christians do. UM, So chances are you're not gonna just hear about it and want to do it. Second of all, you need to speak the language Low German low German. So if you speak low German, you might have a good chance.

And thirdly, it's just not very often that someone would want to grow up in the secular world and just get rid of all that unless they joined some hippie commune and or unless they're Harrison Ford, unless they're Did he join? Is that what happened? Yeah? I think in the end, if I remember correct, then he goes back or something like that. I think that's it right, Chuck. It's like Jerry's looking at It's like, yeah, it's been like seventy minutes, has it? Has it been that long?

Because I had one other thing about the funeral. Well, the funeral is much like you would think. It's a plain wooden box. And um, they do utilize the services of an embalmer, but there are no flowers. There's no singing. Even at the funeral, they actually uh quote lines from hymns they speak them only, and but they do not they wear white at funerals usually, and they do not raise the dead, just respect. So even in death, there's

not like adulation heaped on anyone. It's all very much just like Daniel Proctor did a very fine thing in his life, and now he is dead. He could butter and he did. Now they'd be uh, they'd be too much idolizing. Well, let me say this real quick to Chuck. One of the coolest photos I've ever seen in my entire life was taken at a funeral of a m

a person whose house was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. And this is like a couple of years after and as Amish couple who I guess had made friends with the person was attending the funeral among all the English and everybody else is just dressed normally. And there's this a very solemn, steadfast Amish couple of youngest Amish couple in their thirties. I would say, just at this guy's funeral, it was really awesome. It's cool. We should also point

out they don't shun medicine. They're not Christian scientists. They lead that up to the individual, so like they well, if someone has an act indent, they will actually get into an ambulance and go to the hospital. And speaking of accidents, to prevent those, they have come to accept putting flashers and orange hazard triangles on their buggies because

it's just common sense and the Amish have that in aces. Yeah, this is just a small bit though, Like this is the Lancaster County Amish, or like ten percent of the Amish, and this is really who we've been talking about. Yeah, there are other sex or other it's all local. The ordung Um ordnung Uh is decentralized. I mean that is the central authority, but it's all interpreted on the local level. So what one Amish group believes is not necessarily the exact same as the other. So that was the twist

at the end that Chuck just gave. We were talking about the Lancaster County Amish the whole time, right memento or I thought you're gonna say in Night sham Lanxia that stupid movie the Village. I thought that twist is pretty cool, but I don't know if the whole movie was worth working up to it. That was awful, So Chuck, that's it, okay, all right? Oh yeah, if you want to know more about the Amish, handy search bar, et cetera. Chuck,

it's time for listening. Man. We must be on on the I'm tired of Jerry Starr and be like this. It's making me nervous. I'm gonna call this email. My father in law, Kurt Josh and Chuck conducted a primitive tribe contact in the early eighties, so this is about the unknown people. His stories are really wild. This is an oblivion portion of Amazon rainforest anyway, that got attacked by Yukwa Euqui natives who saw past the banana and other offerings. So I guess they offered banana and they

were like, not so much. We've got tons of that, right, his translator took a six ft arrow in the back and I think that's called a spirit. Well that's what I was gonna say, And you would think, so buddy could listen to this. They had two man bows. One guy would hold the bow and the other guy would pull back the line. So it was, in fact the six foot arrow. Kurt still has one of the other

arrows retreat from the site. In fact, they have all kinds of pictures in the photo album, including pictures of my wife who was four and five in the buff because everyone was in the buff, the tribes people were. They lived in a little hut. Wait, this guy married a tribes person. No, no, no, he was just doing work there. Um. They lived off in the land in a little hut and worked to build an airstrip to

fly supplies for an outpost. Very unomish. My mother in law can prepare a wild chicken, very Amishka and she incurred have gone to special kind of preparatory boot camp. And he is one of my heroes. And so that is from Ryan and Lynchburg and his wife Crystal wrote me shortly thereafter to set the record straight on some of Ryan's facts. But I'm not gonna read Crystals because Ryan's is much more interesting. So he made up the

two mambo. No, he She just said it sounds way more Indiana Jones than it really was, and it was really like this. But we'll just we'll just keep the fanciful version alive. Thank you, Ryan and Crystal. Yeah, and here's to your four year long courtship, which we can only imagine. Right. Yeah, if you've had an extended courtship and have a great relationship to speak of because of it, we want to hear about it. Tell us your sweet

romantic stories in time for Valentine's Day. Uh, you can send it in an email to stuff podcast how stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot Com. Want more how stuff Works, check out our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot Com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you