Stuff You Should Know - Who are the Amish?

Episode Date: February 17, 2010

In this episode of Stuff You Should Know, Josh and Chuckers discuss the origins and practices of the Amish. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me as always is Charles Chuck Bryant. Yes, right? Yes.

Yeah, hey Chuck, how's it going, man? Oh, great. Yeah, things are great. You know, I love podcasting on Monday mornings. Yeah, or afternoons. Afternoon, what time is it's one? It seems like I just got here though. Yeah, I've been getting here late lately

and I gotta tell you that extra half hour feels like it eats up four hours of productivity. What are you, driving a buggy to work? Nice. I am, I, Chuck, I. We should say I and nay throughout this, okay? I. Yeah, nay on the I.

Nay. Chuck. Josh. Let me take you back in time a little bit. Say 1727. 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 hardworking and they like to, you know, use their draft horses for locomotion and all sorts of normal 18th century, early 18th century stuff. Yeah. But in very short order, the welcome to the new world,

colonizing neighbor pies start drying up as the surrounding people who we'll here to for be referred to as the English, realize that this new group of people who's showing up don't really care to socialize with them or anyone else in the outside world for that matter. Yeah. Yeah.

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. Yeah.

That's a good thing. These people are incredibly interesting to me. Yeah, me too. I remember we said on some podcast ways back that the Amish will never hear it. Sure. We can say whatever we want. Yeah, yeah.

And all these people wrote in like, oh, jerks, what about Rum Springer? Yeah, yeah. Which we'll get to in a minute, but they're absolutely correct. It's entirely possible that there's an Amish kid running around. Although it should be noted that we did not hear

from any Amish kid on Rum Springer. No. So take that. They heard it, though. They may just not be real comfy with the typing that an email requires. They're comfortable with that. Maybe there's letters on it.

They're using crystal meth. Yeah. Rum Springer. Yeah, we'll get to that in a minute. Yeah, okay. All right, so again, we're talking about the Amish who did first arrive in the United States in 1727. And actually when they did get to Pennsylvania at that time,

they were still a fairly young Christian sect, right? Yeah, 1693 is when they were actually formed. Because a Swiss Mennonite named Jacob Amon basically didn't like three things. I know. The three things are so trivial. He said, I want to split off because I want to keep washing people's feet.

Which I can understand. That's pretty cool, because if you ever washed someone's feet, you grew up a Christian, right? Did you ever do that? No. I did once, and I was even Catholic. Wow, that's weird. Yeah, and it is humbling, especially if you're like 12.

You did that as a part of church? Yeah. Wow, never heard of that. Yeah. I mean, in modern churches, I guess. Right, but the point is it's meant to be a humbling experience. You're washing the feet of another human being. Feet are dirty, and you know, it's...

Let me tell you, buddy, if I had to wash your feet, it would be humbling. Humbling is one word that comes to mind. Yeah, you'd see new shades of green. What else did he not want to celebrate? Josh communion twice a year? No, he wanted to celebrate it twice a year. All right, and the Mennonites said once a year.

So he said, screw that. And the foot washing, and then 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 I'm going to create a new deal called the Amish. Right, and it did.

And it took off like a rocket. But I mean, that last one is probably the most definitive characteristic of the Amish. Absolutely. 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 Ohio and Indiana and Utah. And Canada. Canada. Yeah, Utah is the newest place. They're having to go further and further west.

Yeah, for some reason Utah makes sense. It does, doesn't it? I know Mormonism has nothing to do with it, but it just makes sense. It definitely does. More so than if they rooted down in Vegas or something. Which they never, ever would. No, they would not.

They shy away from electricity, which is one reason they'd stay away from Vegas, which probably would just scare the hell out of the Amish going down the strip in Vegas. So let's talk about why they do this stuff. They dress 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 width, which I don't understand how that fully works. But the hat makes the man. Really? Yeah.

Huh. But not the clothes. 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 you. I did not know that. So those are the dudes.

Right. And the ladies. The ladies, they wear frock dresses, black capes, which I find kind of dashing. Sure. And if they're baptized, they cover their hair. Yeah. All the time.

And they don't cut their hair, the women. No. But men do wear their hair short. They cropped. Beards, if they are married. Correct. But no mustache. Why?

I thought it might have something to do with bikers or something. Or Tom Selleck. Yeah. Who just celebrated his birthday, by the way. A happy birthday, Tom. They're not trying to let me know. Really?

Yeah. So it's because they, and this was a brand new fact to me, because mustaches are associated with the military. At least to the Amish. Yeah. And they're not down with the military. No, not at all. As a matter of fact, they reject any combat,

what's it called, Chuck? They reject violence against another human in general. Even in self-defense, which means you can't go to war, because you're going to be put in a situation like that. Right. They have been, in the past, conscripted. That's what I was thinking of. OK.

They've been conscripted to serve in non-combat roles. Like during the draft. Yeah. And I think during World War II, there was a couple of Amish guys who were conscientious objectors who were basically put in hell, which was the state mental hospitals. Really?

And I believe New York or New Jersey. That's awful. And they actually led the charge in exposing the horrible qualities of life at these places. Right. And some real reform in state mental institutions. Wow. Do we really need Amish in the army, though?

I mean, even during the draft. No, but you. Would you want an Amish guy in the trenches next to you? Well, you'd never see one there. Well, yeah, exactly. I imagine they go to prison or whatever. But that does bring up a point that kind of arose in my head while I was reading this article, Chuck.

And that is that they live in the United States. Yes. So even though they are this very peaceful, tranquil, nonviolent society, they still live in the United States. So yeah, I think if there is a draft, that's a really important moment in history. So yeah, they've got to do something. Everybody's pitching in.

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 whole lives. Draft them. I think, yeah, exactly. Get them in the trenches. So Chuck. Yes, Josh.

Like we said, 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 old Baptist, Southern Baptist. Oh, it makes sense. Yeah, we don't baptize at birth or anything like that. You have to be old enough to make your own decision.

Right. Which makes a lot of sense to me. I was baptized as a baby. And I have no recollection of it whatsoever. Right. Aside from the Catholic guilt, it's been virtually meaningless to me. I was baptized at 16 and was led to the Lord with air quotes

by my gay youth director. Oh, yeah? Yeah. He really is gay. He later on. I didn't think you would call him gay if he wasn't. Of course not. We all know and love you, Chuck.

He later on came out and the church said, I don't think I want you to be your director anymore. Does that nullify your baptism? I'm looking into that. So were you baptized in the river? No, no, no. Just in the pool behind in the church, you know. I got you.

Modern baptism, not a brother where out there. Right. I have to say, I find that just a really good idea that you can't get baptized until you're fully aware of what you're doing. Yeah, it makes sense. My wife, Brim, had is off to the Amish. And to your sect for pursuing that, yeah.

Stone Mountain First Baptist Church. Exactly, that sect. So you enter the church when you're 16 if you want to, right? Yeah, you make the choice to. But here we reach Rumspringa. Right. That is when you are allowed to live among the English and do crystal meth.

And sell it too. I understand there was a pretty big drug ring of Amish kids that were selling drugs. You can dance and play guitar and watch TV and waste electricity, use electricity, and waste it. Yeah, oh, I imagine if you're just coming into electricity at age 16, you waste it like it's nobody's business. Yeah.

But yeah, so you are allowed to go off for a period of time. And you are in Rumspringa, which means run around? Yeah, German is 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 Rumspringa, you imagine they're running around, speaking English probably, doing drugs. 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 Devil's Playground, I saw that recently.

Yeah, is that any good? Well, yeah, and that's where the crystal methane came from. There was a kid who got mixed up in dealing it, and basically had to move. 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's like, object to this conscientiously.

Yeah, exactly. I'm 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 dressed normally, like what if you call a 16-year-old attire these days normal. But the girls were still wearing their thing. So they were at this party listening to JZ

with their frock and their bonnet on, drinking a beer. Wow. Yeah. I got to check that movie out. It's really good. Awesome. It really is very insightful. OK, so I had a pretty dark shady past

when I had my own little Rumspringer. Sure, you still on yours. No, I'm not. As a matter of fact, I have ended mine. I ended it a while back, but I fully ended it. Yeah, it's nice. I'm grown up now, Chuck. For me, though, there was nothing

that I was going to test out. It was all testing, right? But I wasn't going to examine, so I want to make a choice between good and evil, although ultimately, it's what it panned out to be, right? Which did you choose? I chose good. OK.

Can you see the smile? I'm so bright and sunny today. Yeah, true. Yeah. With these kids, once they reach a certain point, and I didn't get in the article how long Rumspringer lasts, maybe a year? I'm not positive either.

But let's say we'll go with a year. And then they decide, OK, do I want to go back to the church? Or do I want to just continue living with the English? Since they haven't taken an oath to the church yet, they could conceivably still be, they could have ties to their family, their Amish family, even if they decided to leave the Amish community.

Yeah, 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 in tale? Shunning is when you have taken that oath to the church. So you've made that decision beyond the age of 16 and then you leave and don't come back.

Well, you're not wanted back. Well, you can't come back, though. If you're past 16 and you leave, they will let you back in if you say, boy, I made a big mistake. Oh, yeah? 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. Sure, yeah. Well, they're Christians. Yeah. All right, so the kid, and what's I find it heartening that the vast majority of Amish kids

who go on Rumspringer come back, you know? They do. So they've made the choice now. They're going to become indoctrinated in the church. They're 16, but they're either toward the end of the 16th year, right? Right. And they're saying, I'm going to be Amish.

What is Amish life like? Well, they've already experienced a lot of it, because you grow up with the ordnung being pounded into your head, which is the German word for order. And that's their, they said it's mostly unwritten, just their sort of way of life, how to be Amish. Amish for dummies is the ordnung.

And you actually don't have to be real book smart, actually, because the Amish don't believe in extraneous book learning. And why would they? They think you need to learn a vocation or a craft. Absolutely. 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. Right. 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 things of the world, vanity and ego and pride.

And 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. No, and like we said, neither does electricity. No.

All of their power comes from either, they may have electricity, but it's coming from a diesel generator. Right. Or they have gas. They can burn gas in their house. Yeah, and oil, obviously. Right.

And so they don't have artificial light. Right. Which makes me wonder something, and you couldn't find the answer to this. But before the advent of artificial light, apparently humans had a totally different sleep pattern than we have now. Oh, really?

We went to bed much earlier. Sure. But about 2, 3, 1, sometime in the night, we'd wake up for a good 30 minutes or an hour. Really? Smoke a pipe, read a book, hang out, that kind of thing, and then go back to sleep. I do that now.

But do you really? Sure, smoke a pipe, read a book. Do you smoke a pipe while you read a book? Yeah, when I am. Yeah. Just go back to sleep. Sure. And Emily's always like, what are you doing?

What's that smell? I'm just being a plane. Yeah. Yeah. 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 burn those until midnight.

So you would probably go to bed earlier. Sure. Otherwise you're wasting. They're not big enough to waste. You'd be wasting the oil just to stay up till midnight, because what are you staying up for? Right. Because all you got to do is get back up the next day

and work your butt off. Yeah, and they do. Yeah. Because, again, they're farmers. And one of the reasons that they've hung on to farming is I guess it's kind of symbolic, Chuck. It's a way to separate themselves. Yeah.

The rest of the world has moved forward 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. Soybean, barley, and potatoes. Yeah. And that's just the farming tip. They also, obviously, they quilt, and they make their big craftsmen, furniture builders. Yeah, apparently, their big new thing that were utility sheds. Yeah.

Who knew? And as you mentioned, the quilt. Amish quilts are like among some of the ladies, among certain quarters of femininity. Yeah. Amish quilts are like as good as it gets. And apparently, you used to be able to get these things, really detailed or innate quilts for nothing.

Yeah. And then after a while, the Amish were like, oh, English, you really like these things, huh? How much do you pay for them? Yeah. And apparently, they peaked at thousands of dollars in the 80s, and then finally settled down. And now they're like a grand still, which really,

that's an expensive quilt. Sure. After we took advantage of them, it sounds like, for many years, I sang, well, sure, I'll take this handmade thing. For $7. Off your hands. Here you go, Amish. Yeah.

But they, I'm surprised that they did allow it to get as high as it did. Yeah. Because they don't really care much for cash. Yeah. They don't use credit. True. Most of their wealth, or I guess net worth,

comes from their real estate holdings. Yeah. They own a lot of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Lancaster County. Yeah. And everywhere they go, they buy a lot of land. That 16-year-old that just became indoctrinated in the church, one of the things

that he or she will be getting into about now is the courtship of a husband or wife. Yeah, sure. Right? So when you're about 16, you start to drink lemonade on the porch fits your sweetie. Right. You'll drive her in the buggy, or walk with her

to the singing service? Yeah, and singing is actually, 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 doesn't have 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 arranged so that this is part of the courtship process. So you can spend some time with somebody else that you're looking to wed. That's what they say. Yeah, they do.

And they don't always sing 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. Yeah.

I thought you were talking about Dexter, a 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 a good actor. Creepy.

You know what else is creepy now that I'm thinking of it? This is a little off topic. But Amish dolls do not have faces. Why? Because it goes with the whole vanity thing. And it was like a longstanding tradition that they just kind of held on to. 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. That's cool. 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? No eyes.

Was she Amish? No. She could be, though. So that was a total sidebar, then? Yeah. OK. 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. No. But they said there are likely flaws, because anything handmade is going to have an off-stitch.

But it's not like they do it on purpose or anything. Right. That's silly. So a couple of Amish teens are a courton. Yeah, they're a courton. Back to the courton. Starts about 16. Usually, they're 20 or older when they finally get married.

So they court for years. It's a long court ship. Well, there's actually studies that I've read that show that the longer the court ship, the more lasting the marriage. Just in general? Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, sure.

Yeah, not just among Amish, but with any humans. Well, that makes sense. Sure. You see these people get married after these celebrities get married after a few months of being on set together? Or like movies. Then they get on the next movie, and they're like, oh, I think I love my new co-star now.

Yeah, those people are crazy. They're like the opposite of the Amish. Complete opposite of the Amish. Yeah. So they're courting Josh. They are allowed to spend time together. They're encouraged to spend private time together. But it would be unseemly if they did this behind closed doors.

Yeah, it would be. So they keep it, like you said, on the front porch. They do have chaperones, right? Yeah, but a good chaperone 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. They're so, on one end, very rigid with the ordnung.

But on the other end, they're very permissible. Just the fact that they allow run spring to me is amazing. It's such a healthy, brave custom. Because you're saying, go. Go figure out if you really want to do this. See if you like it and come back if you want. It poses such a huge risk that these people are going to 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, they're courting. Courting again. Now they're getting married. Yes, what'd you say, about 20?

About 20. And actually, it happens at the same time for everybody. Right, fall, November? Yeah, November is the favored month. Winter hasn't begun yet. Still probably. But it's after the fall harvest. Right.

Right, yeah, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is definitely cold. So what happens is two weeks after the fall communion, one of two, remember? Yes. So what happens, Chuck, is that about the time, if you want to jockey yourself to get married in the fall or the winter,

you give your girl a present, a practical gift, no jewelry. Yeah, like a butter turn. Something like that. That's what I would give. Or something for really good quilting or whatever. Yeah, yeah. And you give her this present, and she takes it to mean like, OK, well, he wants to marry me.

He just gave me a butter turn. How else can you read that? What else does that mean? And she goes back and tells her family, and they're like, I or nay. But they're probably like, I, you know? Yeah, sure. But they keep it a secret, though.

They do. Among the family. Until two weeks after the fall communion, one of two in the year, a list of all the kids who are going to get married, or all the girls, actually, which I thought was kind of cool. They do it by girl. Yeah, it's very woman-centric in the marriage.

Yeah, it's very neat. Or weddings, I should say. Yes. 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 going to 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, except for the people who are all getting married. We should mention they don't have a church. They actually. We left that part out. Yeah, yeah, they do the church services in the homes.

And it rotates from Sunday to Sunday. Yeah, so every home, it needs to be capable of hosting church service. Right, and in these church services, they are interpreting the Bible literally. We left that part out, too. We didn't leave anything out. We're just jumping around.

Oh, OK. This is Amish country. You can do whatever you want. Yeah, because we know what electricity means. That's right. So yes, they are published. They are announced. 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, too. The bride's home.

Right. Which is where the honeymoon takes. I'm sorry, they live in the bride's home afterward. Yeah, for a good, I think, six months, a year. Yeah, and the honeymoon takes place. They just go to visit other relatives. Yeah. Pretty hot and heavy, I think.

Yeah, this is crazy when they actually do have the wedding ceremony. And let me also just rephrase that. This is crazy. I don't think what the Amish do is crazy. It's interesting. Yeah, very interesting. For the wedding ceremony, it lasts several hours,

which I would go absolutely crazy. I can barely make it through a full hour-long Catholic mass type wedding. I hate those. Yeah, they're uncomfortable. Can you imagine a few hours? Yeah, my wedding ceremony lasted about four and a half minutes. Did it?

Maybe six. Was the preacher like bingo, bingo, you guys are? Yeah, well, the preacher was my father-in-law, so. Oh, OK. He put a Scotch down and said, by the power of the internet, you are a man and wife. Nice. That was it.

Nice. Yeah, OK, well, multiply that by several hours. Right. And then it's done, and everybody starts feasting. And then the first night, yes, Chuck, is spent at the bride's parents' house. Woo-hoo. So nothing else needs to be said about that?

No, but since they've been on Rump Spring yet, 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 Rump Spring? I have the impression that you can do anything you want on Rump Spring, including crystal meth. Well, and it doesn't necessarily indicate that the Amish are anti-intercourse or anything.

Or prudes. 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 new in-laws in the next pet. Yeah, feel free. Yeah, totally free. And then like you said, Chuck, the honeymoon is on weekends, because of course, during the week you're working,

like nothing happened. But on weekends, you go around and visit family and stay with them for the weekend. Collect gifts? Yeah, which is pretty cool, probably more butter churns. And then you're set up after six months. You're living with 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, this Amish guy who's like 20 or 21 hasn't spent his whole life saving up for this. Yeah, he didn't have a pot to squirt milk into from a cow. No, which is interesting you say, though. We'll get to that in a second. No, but there is a community pot, which everyone's expected to throw into.

And from this community pot and from any familial help, the kids get their own farm. They buy the farm. Yeah, we'll raise you a barn, nice, lovely young couple. Yeah, have you ever seen Witness? You know, it's on my Tivo right now. It's a great movie. I have never seen it, though.

Good movie. And it's been sitting there for weeks. Yeah, when Harrison Ford's outer veneer finally cracks and he comes to see the value of the Amish way of life, now misunderstood they are, it's beautiful. But there's a barn raising in there. And everybody gets together. They build the walls and then push them up.

And everybody's pitching in, it's a very communal affair. Well, you have to. That's one of the tenets of being Amish is, you have to lend a hand. Definitely, unless it's in a combat situation. Right, right. So if you're neighbor, if you're Amish neighbor, if you see him coming over with a hammer in his hand,

you don't pull the blind shut and lock the door like I would. I need to get off your ass. No, no, no. You've got to go help the guy. Yeah. It's all about the community. Right. 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. OK. But we're inside, right? Sure. And it looks pretty much like the 18th century.

Yeah, it's not fancy. There's not a lot of, obviously, there's no gadgets or anything like that. Right. Very plain, handmade furniture. You know what you might find though, Josh? What? You might find a modern stove if it burns wood.

Yeah, it seems like there's a lot of contradictions here there in Amish's life. Like why would you have a modern appliance? The point is, is you'd have a modern appliance that burns wood or can run on gas. Because remember, you can use gas. As long as you're not connected to the grid, they live off the grid.

Yeah, canister grids, like a probe or something. But it makes sense because it's cheaper. It's going to use less source energy. Yeah, yeah. It's going to require less input, I mean. Sure. And think about it. If you get like an antique or like a reproduction,

old wood burning stove, that thing's going to cost you a mint. And it's actually kind of vain that you would do that. It's very, very vain. So yeah, you might find something that makes life easier, that doesn't radically undermine the community structure. Yes.

And you're not being vain about. Yeah. If a technology makes it through that criteria, then it might be adopted. Yeah, and if it passes the ordnance. And one of the examples in the article I thought was good is, for instance, the use of nylon rope instead of hemp rope.

Right. If it can accomplish what you need to get done and doesn't disrupt or bring attention to itself, then they may accept this new technology. As long as you can still have that communion twice a year, it's fine. Right. And watch the feet.

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. Yeah. 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 21st century America. Of course. They also realize there is such thing as the FDA. Yeah, standards. And if they're trying to sell their milk, then yeah, they have to meet those basic standards. Exactly.

In 21st century America, those basic standards include electricity-powered cooling tanks and milk pumping and stuff like that. I mean, you're running an actual dairy farm. Right. 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. Right. 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 in kind of working some of these things out, like school. Yeah, like compulsory education. 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 say, all right, if you're going to school your kids that way, that's fine. Yeah.

You just stay here. They don't have to pay Social Security tax. No, and they don't borrow. No. They do pay tax, though. Yeah, they do. Like they pay property taxes and stuff like that. Just not Social Security tax because they

don't draw Social Security or Medicare or food stamps or anything like that. 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. OK.

We should both do that. Yeah. It looks kind of goofy. I think it looks cool. Do you really? Yeah. Like Sierra Coupe. Yeah, it's such a look, though, you know.

It's a really specific look. It definitely is. Chuck, we said that they don't borrow, but they do engage in trade. Somebody's got to buy that milk, right? Yeah. 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 who stick to themselves, socialize with as few people as possible, you get a couple of good Mennonites

who have some stores or whatever that will sell your stuff, and they turn around and sell it to everybody else. It works out great. It definitely does. They say, hey, we need five utility sheds this month. Go build them. They build them. Then they go and pick them up from them,

sell them to the people, deliver them cash. They do use 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 some of them might mill wood. But they do get orders from lumber yards, and they'll bring the stuff out to them, accept payment on the spot just to make it easy.

Right. Cash or barter. Obviously, they still don't throw the AMX black down. No, I mean, if they don't have cash, they just don't do it. But yeah, if they can barter, I think that's probably preferable. Right, and they go to other mom and pop stores here and there, but 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 garish. A little too garish. And actually, they said that the tourism that's surrounded around the Amish way of life, people look for stores with buggies out front or whatever, and then they come there just to go see the Amish, right? Yeah.

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 in. The Amish are really off the beaten path on some back road in a 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 neon. Just be smart. And we're talking about the ordnum, right?

Ordnum. Ordnum. And how that serves as the keystone, the foundation of all Amish life. But it's also something can be passed through. It's a prism that new technologies pass through, right? Yeah. 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 out of the necessity for travel with more and more Amish moving out to Utah, 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 50 years, their number is tripled. They're about 100,000 Amish living in the US. They're booming. So yeah, they're thriving. I think because they've 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 negative impact on their life.

Right. Seems pretty open-minded to me. That's the Amish in a nutshell. I got to 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. They got the right idea about so many things. You don't have to be Amish to live a simpler life.

There's all sorts of stuff you can do. And you can join the Amish. I read that you can. It is possible to be accepted even though you were not born and raised Amish, but it doesn't happen very often at all because, A, they're not looking to recruit. They don't proselytize, go door to door, like some Christians do.

So chances are you're not going to 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. Sure. Or unless they're Harrison Ford. Yeah, or unless they're here. Did he join? Is that what happened? Yeah, I think in the end, if I remember correctly,

he joins. 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 70 minutes. Has it? Has it been that long? It's close.

Because I had one other thing about the funeral. Oh, what is it? Well, the funeral is much like you would think. It's a plain wooden box. And they do utilize the services of an embalmer. But there are no flowers. There is no singing even at the funeral. They actually quote lines from hymns.

They speak them only. Wow. And but they do not, they wear white at funerals usually. And they do not praise the dead, just respect. So even in death, there is 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 churn butter. With the best of him. And he did. No, that'd be too much idolizing. Let me say this real quick too, Chuck. One of the coolest photos I've ever seen in my entire life was taken at a funeral of a person whose house was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Yeah. And this is like a couple years after. And it's the Amish couple, who I guess had made friends with the person, was attending the funeral. Really? Among all the English and everybody else is just dressed normally, and there's this very solemn, steadfast Amish couple, youngish Amish couple in their 30s,

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 leave that up to the individual. Right. So like they will, if someone has an accident,

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. Sure. And the Amish have that in aces.

Yeah. This is just a small bit, though. Like the Lancaster County Amish are like 10% of the Amish. And this is really who we've been talking about. Yeah. There are other sects or other. It's all local. The Ordung 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. Right. We were talking about the Lancaster County Amish the whole time.

Right. It's like Memento. Well, I thought you were going to say M Night Shyamalan because he had that stupid movie, The Village. I thought that twist was pretty cool, but I don't know if the whole movie was worth working up to it. That was awful. Yeah.

So Chuck, that's it. OK. 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 the. I'm tired of Jerry staring at me like this.

It's making me nervous. I'm going to call this email. My father-in-law Kurt, Josh and Chuck, conducted a primitive tribe contact in the early 80s. So this is about the unknown people. His stories are really wild. This is an oblivion portion of the Amazon rainforest. Anyway, they got attacked by Yukua natives

who saw past the banana and other offerings. So I guess they offered banana and they were like, not so much. Yeah, we've got tons of that. His translator took a six foot arrow in the back. And I think that's called a spear. Well, that's what I was going to say. And you would think so, buddy, but 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, a six foot arrow. Kurt still has one of the other arrows retrieved 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.

He tribes people. They lived in Little Hut. Wait, this guy married a tribes person? No, no, no. He was just doing work there. Oh, good. They lived off the land in Little Hut and worked to build an airstrip to fly supplies

for an outpost. Very unamish. My mother-in-law can prepare a wild chicken. Very amish. And she and Kurt 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 going to read crystals, because Ryan's is much more interesting. So he made up the two-man bow? No, she just said it sounds way more Indiana Jones than it really was, and it was really like this. But 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 and time for Valentine's Day. You can send it in an email to StuffPodcast

at HowStuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. Want more HowStuffWorks? Check out our blogs on the HowStuffWorks.com homepage. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? You're ready to travel in 2023,

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