This Past Weekend - #607 - Young Amish Male

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Theo is joined by a young Amish man from Minnesota who is currently on Rumspringa. They talk about the Amish way of life, how the process of Rumspringa works, and some of the unique experiences he’s had dipping his toe out into the world. ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ  Mando: Go to http://shopmando.com and use code THEO to get 20% off sitewide. ShipStation: Upgrade to ShipStation today to get a sixty-day free trial at https://www.shipstation.com/theo. Perplexity AI: Ask anything at https://pplx.ai/theo and download their new web browser Comet at https://comet.perplexity.ai/ ------------------------------------------------- Music: “Shine” by Bishop Gunn Bishop Gunn - Shine ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: [e-mail] Hit the Hotline: [phone] Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers Producer: Trevyn https://www.instagram.com/trevyn.s/  Producer: Andrew https://www.instagram.com/bleachmediaofficial/  Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Amish. He's an Amish. He's an Amish person. And he's on Rum Springer right now. And we're excited to learn about what it means to be Amish and what it's like and how things are going for him today. Today's guest is Amish. And his name is Timothy. All right, sitting here with an Amish dude, basically. Yeah. And you're 100% Amish. 100% Amish. Born and raised.

I can speak Pennsylvania Dutch, still Amish, and still living at home. Pennsylvania Dutch, it's called? Yeah, so Pennsylvania Dutch is like a dialect of German. It's quite a bit of different from German, but... It's quite a bit of different from German, you said? Yeah. But it's a dialect. like from it and so if someone would be talking like like german you can kind

understand them but like most of the words you can okay yeah so do people do like would your parents speak German and Pennsylvania Dutch no just Pennsylvania Dutch in English and would your grandparents possibly speak German or your great grandparents no they they were all Pennsylvania Dutch so okay understood but it's kind of a branch of it's a lot of the people there have German lineage yeah they do like I I think every Amish is like Swiss German because most of them came from that area. And funny thing is, in school, like on Fridays, we learn like, so that's basically the day where we read German, spell German. And also every morning in school we also sing like three hymns out of a, it'd be a little book with like red pages where we sing German hymns out of.

Now, the funny thing is, like, I can kind of read Sherman and I can spell German, but I do not understand, like, the chairman that I'm reading and spelling. Some of it, I can, but most of it, I can't. So you can comprehend a little bit, but you couldn't really then recite it. Yeah. Well, because sometimes for, like, Christmas and stuff, we had to, like, there was also a green German book, which when you're lower grades, like, fifth and under, you read out of that, where there's like bigger paragraphs in the back where it's all German and sometimes for like

well most every time actually for Christmas and stuff we had to learn memorize all of those and I guess I wasn't the greatest because I I kind of I guess lost interest for it if I if I didn't understand it I guess oh yeah yeah yeah that's probably ADD or whatever do they have ADD in the Amos community so I don't even what do you know what is ADD I'm not even quite sure oh wow ADD, it's like, let me think, hmm, you ever have that feeling like when somebody's tickling you or whatever kind of? Yeah.

And you're like, you just can't even handle it. Yeah. It's like that feeling, but it's like in your brain kind of when you're trying to pay attention. So it's like you're paying attention doesn't work, you know? Oh, no, I don't think anyone has ADD that enough. I hope not, because that wouldn't be too fun to have.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I think it's like, yeah, you get to change your mind. without even doing it, you know? So if you drive a car if you have ADD, so can you focus on the road or you're like looking over to the ditch and then this car and the guy in the pipe, like the passenger seat? I think it gets a little bit testy for some people like it's too much, you know? Yeah, pull that up.

Do the Amish have ADD? Pull that up. Let's get a gander at that. That's a great question. Yeah. I've never heard of ADD before. Then you must not have it, brother. Yeah.

The Amish do experience ADD, but reported rates are noticeably lower than in the, general population and diagnosis practices may differ significantly due to cultural and lifestyle factors. Wow, that's pretty fascinating. When you're born in Amos country, are you born at a hospital? Are you born at home? What's it like? So that varies a lot too. Over the last probably 15, 10, 15 years, a lot more I've been born in a hospital. I know there's some people in our community, all of them were born at home, half of them were born in home, and then also some were born in the hospital now me and my all my brothers we were all born in the hospital so okay but

it all varies varies from family to family most of the time um are you allowed to use like municipalities like a hospital and like a public park and those sorts of things like where does the line differ between if you're amish and you just straight up to supposed to be at the house you know like using chalk and just eating butter you know out of each other's hats yeah and then the line where you're supposed to be able to like go to public parks and go to like non-amish events and stuff. Oh, so, like, me going to your concert, like, that would, that would not be, like, that keep that on the down low.

But Sam Amish, I know Sam Amish, they go to, like, Def Leopard concerts and when they're, like, around my age, you know, like, 80s rock. Damish, like, that, like, party and stuff, they like 80s rock. They do? And then, I'm not sure how you call them music, but it really bumps when you turn it all the way up. That 80s rock? No, it's like some, I wonder if, like, it's like, when, it's like, it's like, it's like,

Like boom, boom, boom, boom. Is it kind of darker artists? Do the artist... You mean like the suicide boys? Oh, suicide boys are great. It's not the suicide boys. It's more like David Ghetto. Like, I think I said that.

David Guetta? Guera, yeah. Oh, I see what you're saying. Oh, like EDM, house, that sort of stuff. I don't never know what you call it. But yeah, if you turn that stuff all the way up, it really shakes something up. Like, if you have like a big, like, stereo system in like a building, That building starts shaking.

Yeah. So that's pretty cool. And the Amos, they really feel that. You can really feel your barn raise when you hear that, huh? Oh, yeah. But, like, that stuff we only do in the weekends. That stuff is kind of like, no. That's secret.

Yeah. Hell yeah. So. Do the Amos listen to Morgan Wallen ever or no? Yeah, dude, I have a buddy, actually, my coworker, Atle. He lost Mark and Wurton, and he's in Rome Springer, too. So he wants to go to his concert one time. So that would be fun.

You know, I thought you're a concert. It was pretty cool, too, the music that they played in the beginning. Yeah. I've never really heard that music before, but it was like, I was jamming out to it, and it was really, really fun. Thank you, dude. Yeah, we play a lot of times at our shows. There I am right there with your hat you brought to me.

That was in Seattle. In the beginning of the shows, we play a band. It's called New Orleans Jazz Vipers. Oh. And it's just like some good kind of jazz New Orleans music. I think it puts people in a mode of like they're going to, you know, some type of artistic. like brain space instead of just some like music you hear all the time you know yeah yeah it's like

i was i was kind of surprised like or not really surprised but i never really i never really hurt that music before yeah it's great man that's a great band i've i've uh i happened upon them in new Orleans a while back and ever since then i've just enjoyed listening to them yeah so that's their horns and stuff yeah wow and that's that's what makes all the like the great sounds yeah they do a great job do you guys have instruments um in your Amish village? Is it called a village? So it'd be considered a district.

A district would be like different parts of church because there can be one big community, but there can be like four to 12 different districts of like the church where the rules are like a little bit different here and there, but like mostly be called a community. A community. Yeah.

So the areas you live in kind of delineate where you go to church at? Yeah, kind of. More, yeah. Can you go to any church or if you live in a certain area, you kind of go to a certain church because it's close. So in the area, you always, if damage moves somewhere, it's usually for a certain church in a certain area. And we don't have church, like, houses and stuff. Like, not like, I've seen, like, like, really big churches.

They were like, they went almost like up to the sky and stuff. Yeah, they got some churches that are trying to do a lot. They're like, do you need all that? Yeah, like, those things are really high. So all of our church happens at our homes. Oh. Yeah. So we take turns taking church.

So different weekends, different families will take church? Yeah. And another thing that Dalish do is we have church every other weekend. So how it works is church here, and then that gives them enough time to, you know, move church to the next place. And you have to pick up all the books, pick up all the books. all the benches, and then move it over to your place. You also have to make all the food. And then people come and help you.

I see. So it's part of the culture is like it's kind of exciting when you get to have church at your place because everybody's coming there. Yeah, well, it can be. But it also, it's a bit of like, oh, man, church is at our place. We've got to get ready. Oh, we got to clean up.

Yeah, you got to clean up, get ready. Be on our best behavior. Yeah. Trim the cat. Well, our cats actually stay in the barn because damage don't really have cats. in the house. Dude, our cats, they're, like, self-sufficient.

They're kind of Amish, too. But, like, we put dog food there. I think they might sneak a little bit of that. I could see some of them sneaking a little. But sometimes I see cats coming up to pasture. They've got, like, a chipmong, or a bird. I don't think they're, I don't think they're big enough or fast enough to catch a squirrel.

I am alarmed at how many, how many regular people. What do you call regular people, non-Omish? So if we're, if we're talking English, we call regular people English people. Okay. But if you're talking in Pennsylvania, Dutch, if you want a literal translation of it, it's, we call them Hojilat, which a literal translation is high people. But what it means, what that means is like... People that are allowed to get high. That are not Amish. But we have like a neighbor. That guy's from like Australia. Like I think it's called Land Down Under stuff. Like basically where all the kangaroos live. Oh yeah. There's kangaroos sharks. There's definitely, there's

just people that'll drink beer. There's a couple of Down syndrome guys down there who drink beer out of the oven. That's crazy. And I even saw some guys like they drink, they take off their shoe and they like pour like some stuff in their shoe and they're right out of. Yeah. It must have special feed or something. Yeah, I think they must have. Look at these guys right here and they're Australian.

Oh, wow, what are they doing? Look at this. He pulls a hot beer right out of the oven. Whoa. That's pretty cool. He starts chugging it at one point. He doesn't care. Oh.

But these guys are Australian. Oh, wow. So they're a bit shorter, too. Yeah, a lot of rugby head-to-head. That'll keep your spine down. Yeah, especially if you're like, I thought if you'd be upside down, like, on the bottom side of the world. Your spine would like, go. Not these guys.

Wow. I think they missed a column, dude. L5S none, dude. These guys missed something. Yeah. Something like that. So non- Amish people you call them. Call them Hohelair.

Hoi Lair's. Hoi Lair's. Hoi Lair. There you go. You're almost Amish now. Oh, welcome. You're welcome. It's not offensive, though.

Hoi Ler? No, no, no, not at all. That's, that's, it's a, it's a, it's not a, like, Dalmish don't see it as offensive. It's just a term to describe something. Like, our horses, you know, some are standard bread, you know, and then some are brown, some are black. We even have some, like, white horse with, like, black spots on them. Oh, yeah.

So we're getting a lot of that. Outside of Atlanta, we get a lot of that. Yeah. Where's the land? Atlanta. Have you heard of it? Oh, Atlanta, like, Georgia. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I've heard of it. I've never been there. I heard they, like, that's close to where, like, the Dukes of Asset were made, I think. Yeah. I think it is, actually. I love the Dukes of Hazard. I do, too.

Yeah. I used to have the DVD player. I don't have it anymore. I used to have a little DVD player. Really? And then, yeah, I watched a little bit Duke's of Hastert. But the only bad part was the DVD player, it was. It was before I had a battery and stuff

I had to go charge it somewhere else And just before I had a bat Like all prepared, you know That way I don't run out of power I used to watch I watch some a lot Because I was Amish We have the ones that are in Roomspringer

We have like We have DVDs and stuff Dude Mike Coler Gratley He's pretty He's pretty stacked when it comes to DVDs Because he's got like a drawer Full of like all kinds of movies Is he allowed to have it or not?

Not really but like his parents I think they kind of know but they don't like they don't bother got it so but he had some different things he had dukes of hazard yeah well I don't know if he had dukes of acid but he had like lots of different other different ones like like smoking the bandit like grumpy old man oh yeah well those are those are really funny and I think he's like he wants to get or like fast and furious too oh he's trying to get wild huh yeah like he's pretty crazy It sounds like it If he's trying to do all that

That's a lot What about Little House on the Prairie? Do you guys ever watch that? I've seen a little bit on that Like a couple hotties on there Yeah like the ones They almost You mean like the like Laura?

I mean that's a child But I mean yeah I don't mean who The mom I'm talking about the mom Oh the mom Yeah Carolyn Oh yeah

He's cute Yeah kind of But she's like really old now She's getting older probably But who knows what could happen You know they're doing a lot of like There's a lot of biohacking and stuff now But I'm just seeing a lot of beautiful ladies on here.

Yeah, definitely. And now with this something in Amish culture, if you see these dames, these young ladies, is that something you're attracted to growing up? Because they almost have, they almost have like a little bit of an Amish feel to them. Yeah. What do you mean like a, like a settler? Like would this be a girl? Like if you'd have seen this when you were 12 or something and you look at Mary Ingalls right here,

the older sister, you'd be like, oh, she's cute. Yeah, I would. And that's okay. Yeah, that's okay. Okay. Yeah, I'm just curious because we grew up watching this and it was great. They're remaking this right now. They're making a new season.

That's pretty cool. I know. Dude, the one guy is white hair on his beard. He must be getting old. Yeah, that guy, he's actually, I think that guy's deceased. But you mentioned being on Rumspringer, right? Yeah. So you're on Rumspringer right now?

Right now, yep. Okay. How does Rumspringer start? How long does it last? Who gets to go on it? Okay, so pretty much everyone goes on it. Now, I've heard of where, like, families, Like, didn't let their kids go on it.

But, like, that has happened. But, like, they, when that, sometimes when that happens, like, the kid just leaves and, like, he becomes, becomes English. And. Oh, because they feel they can't, they're not allowed to, that the family's not following the rules? No, everyone can go in room, like, room spring. Everyone does it every single, now every single, like, every single community that does

room springer, like, like, they usually go on. Because what happens is around 16, 16.5, you go, you join Rome Springer, which we call the Junga. The Yuma? Yeah, which basically means the, what was it? Like young people. The youth? Yeah, youth. There you go.

That'd be a better word for it. So you're picking up. The Yua? Yep, the Yua. Makes sense. Yep. So that's when you go to like Singin's after church. Now, I never really went to one.

Because when I went on Roomspringer, the church was kind of already going down. Because our church kind of, it's kind of split up now. Actually, our bishop kind of, he kind of booked out. He kind of decked out. No. Yeah. So right now there's, we still have church, but it's like only like an hour and like an hour and a half. And so there's a lot of Amish around us.

They're still Amish. And then, but they're not a member of church anymore. Because when it opens in the Swartz and True Bramish, Wait, wait, when what opens? Like, so when the church doesn't come to agreement for, like, for a while, and then it's kind of, it's kind of like a rule that they have to open the doors, and then whoever wants to go can, you know, get out of the, no longer be a member of a church and doesn't require to have to follow the rules. Now, that's only, that's only when you're, like, joined the church already. Okay, so members of the church, if the church is, if for some reason there's some problem within that church where they're not able to, like maybe obviously there was a problem with the bishop you're saying? Well, like the people in the community and the bishop and like the, like there was.

There's an argument? Yeah, they were not agreeing on the same things. Okay, understood. So there was a disagreement. Yeah. And so the bishop left. Yeah, well, that's actually, this is a very rare thing to happen. The bishop just like, it was month.

It was probably over a year of, like, this stuff happening, but it was usually, like, the, like, the smallest things, and I think it, like, annoyed some of the, like, the people in there. The congregation? Yeah, like, some of the members, because I know, I know if a guy, like, they came to his house because he's certain, because the curtains on his window were, like, not the right shade of blue or, or even the reflectors on the buckies, because our buckies don't have that many reflectors, not compared to, like, buggies in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. because they got like that big... Big reflector plate? Yeah, like that triangle thing on. It's flashy, huh? Yeah, it is flashy.

And yeah, we don't have that reflection. Actually, go to the left, that Bucky that's White Horse. One more right there. Yeah, right there. That's yours. That's how our Buckees look like. And there was, what was their reflector on the front or the back of a Bucky like that? And they didn't like that.

So the Bishop had too many reflectors on his buggy? No, like the members had too many reflectors on their Bucky. got, they got after him for that. Oh, the bishop got after him for it. Yeah, like the bishop, though the bishop doesn't even live in this community. He lives down there because our bishop before, he actually, actually died in a house fire, so. No. Yeah, like the whole, the whole house burnt down and. How? What happened? A candle? I don't know. I don't think it was a candle. I think it was something with a stove in the washhouse, and this was a hot fire. It was 20 below, And this hot fire, I was told it was hot.

And maybe it wasn't 20 below, but it was definitely 10 below or so. And like... The fire just kept burning. Fire just kept burning. And when the people came out, the people in the red, the people like, what do you call it? The firemen? Yeah. They had to like keep the water around and sort of holes in freeze.

It was really cold. And his wife actually survived. And apparently when she came out, it was so hot. She just laid on the snow and, like, she was fine for a little bit, but she had, like, she had a little bit of burns and stuff like that. Do they think she started it or no? No, I don't think so. I, because we don't have insurance, like, we don't have life insurance and stuff, so. I think it was, I think it was an accident, but that wouldn't be too funny if she, like.

Thought she had life insurance? Yeah, that would be, wouldn't that be, like, illegal? Between the Hoheila, that happens all the time. The Hohele are always killing their spouses for insurance money. That's not very nice. That's like, that, isn't that murder? Yep. That sure is.

And, dude, not only is it murder. What? But it's murdering for money. But I guess if you don't have life insurance, you don't have to worry about it. Yeah. It's kind of nice. Yeah. So go ahead.

Kill me. You won't get anything. Yeah. That's kind of an idea. Yeah. So, yeah, like, damage, like, back in the wars, I think the government tried to force us to go to wars. But we're, like, pacifists and stuff. Like, yeah, we'll, we're, like, wrestling and stuff when we were younger and.

and and then also sometimes maybe I argue. But other than that, like, we don't, like, kill each other. The Amos are pretty peaceful. Yeah. And then, yeah, because back in, like, the wars and stuff, like, we just did, like, all the cooking and the cleaning and then, like, saving people, too. Is that true?

Let me read that right here. War War, the Amos were subject to the military draft in U.S. wars, but due to their religious beliefs as pacifists, they were usually classified as conscientious objectors and assigned to non-combatant, or alternative service roles. World War I and two, Amishmen were drafted,

but most received farm deferments or performed non-combatant services. Some were sent to army camps and suffered abuse when refusing military service entirely. And in rare cases, some were in prison for refusing all forms of service. Yeah.

Like, the Amish, and where the Amish came from, like, they went through a lot of stuff. Like, there's a book. Actually, what Amish came from was like from the Anabash. Baptist, like, those were, like, those were, like, the, like, the O. Cheese. They came all back, all the way from the Catholic Church. Really? Like the O.Gs, you're saying?

Yeah. Did the Amish have to fight to establish themselves in America? That I'm not actually very sure, but I know, like, when, when, like, when back, I think it was back in the 70s, I think that they had to fight, like, court and stuff. I think they went through a lot of, like, court stuff. But, like, for that stuff, I think they did. But also, Like, the government also agreed because this is like a free country and stuff. While not armed struggles, the Amish sometimes face legal and social battles, especially regarding education and their right to practice their faith freely. Notably, in the 20th century, they opposed laws that would force their children in a public high school, sometimes resulting in imprisonment or property laws for Amish parents. Wow, so they've had to fight to maintain their way of life.

Yeah. So there must be a lot of pride. Is there a lot of pride in being Amish? it like it varies from community community but yeah like uh there there is pride in being amish like we don't believe in being prideful but that's like something like you feel good about right see it's a little bit different than being like being like um egotistical about i guess and just having some like confidence in your in your uh group hey fellas i know a lot of y'all work hard out you out there working hard sweating out there letting that and that stank is coming out of your

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Support the show. Support your pits. And stop smelling like yesterday's lunch, baby, baby. Do you, do Amish people have to go to public school or do you go to your own school? We go to our own school. Do you have a schoolhouse? Yeah, we have a schoolhouse. I sent pictures of a schoolhouse to that white building.

So the building in the front there, that's where, where all the horses kept. Now, since there are more kids, we had to build another, like, little shelter for the horses, so that was down there. Oh, for the horses? Yeah, for the horses.

I thought you meant the cheerleaders or something. No, we don't have cheerleaders, because that would be like, they're, like, they barely wear clothes and stuff. It looks like they're in their underwear. It's too much. Yeah, I've never loved a basketball game so much that I got in my underwear for it.

Yeah, that's right. That's a bit odd. And, like, even when they go to the beach and stuff, like, they're just in their underwear. Some of them get dressed up more for the beach even. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, like, they get more dressed down.

Yeah. Yeah. But so you go to school there, you put your horses in the front building? Yep. Okay. And does everybody have their own horse or sometimes people come in groups? Yeah, like one family usually has one horse. And then like, we have building, like a building.

And then like one through eighth grade is like we all sit in there. And then, so that's all in one room, and then there's usually one teacher. So one year, we actually, like, 25 kids and, like, one bill. And that was, like, the most we ever had. And then, and it varied from year to year. So, like, we started out with, like, 10, and then as it went up, 14, 16, 20, and then 25. And then it kind of slowed down, like, came down from there. But, yeah, like, first, that's where I went to the school, first through eighth grade,

and everyone's sitting in the same room, and then we have classes, too. Is it pretty cool? Ah, it can be if you make it, but it was, I didn't really like school when I went to school, so. And when does the school day start? So that's usually, if I remember right, it was like, it was 8.30, I think, 8.30, school starts. And then we sing like three, four hymns. And then that usually lasts 15, 20 minutes. And then we start reading, reading classes.

And then it depends on the teacher. Some like to go from eighth grade down, and others like to go. go from first grade up. So, and then after that, it's, it's recess, like 15 minutes, and then usually arithmetic classes, and then until we do arithmetic until lunch, which is like around 11.30, and school goes out, like, only, only for a little bit for like an hour. Do you go home for lunch or no? No, no.

We pack our lunch, we eat at school, we sit at our desk and eat, and then usually that takes, like, around 20 minutes. 15, 20 minutes, and then we go out and play different games, and we play, like, what was it? Oh, yeah, we played a game that we call Rapid. It's where, like, the animal rapid. Rabbit? Yeah, like Rabbit. And then, so what you do is there's a person in the middle as a ball.

Like Easter, like that little, like an Easter? Yeah, like a bunny. Oh, yeah? Yeah, we call it Haasa. Hoasa? Yep, Haasa. Oasa. That's the Amish word for rapids.

So we used to throw the ball up, and if someone threw it, so it's kind of like that, I got to get better explaining this, but it's kind of, you're doing good. So it's kind of like dodge ball, you have two base, or two base on each side, and then there's a person in the middle, and he's got like a ball. Sometimes we use a basketball, sometimes we used to tennis ball. Tennis ball was like my favorite because you could throw it better, and it wouldn't hurt as much if it hit you. Okay.

Because, so you're supposed to throw it up five times, and if you throw it up five times, and if you throw it out five times and no one runs through to the other base, then you can go on one base and count to basically do a countdown. And then if no one goes off of that base and goes through before you're done, you can just, even though they're on base, you can go touch them and, you know, get them out. Oh, they can actually physically catch them? Yeah, we catch them and take them down. But would this, would this be a game boys would play with boys?

Not everyone would play. To teach who would even help too. Oh, really? Yeah. So, like, it depends on, like, it depends how rough, like, the harder you try to get away, I guess, you were, you accepted the roughness and you're basically, you run through and try not to get caught. And then you, then someone takes you down on the ground, you crawl, you crawl for the base. It's like, it's almost like Vietnam and stuff. I've never been there, but, no, no, we've seen pictures.

We all understand exactly what it was like. Yeah. That's unbelievable, dude. So that was a popular game. Rapa? Rap it. Like the Easter Bunny. Yeah.

Rap it? Yeah. And then what did girls do? Do they play this game? Or what did girls who were definitely girls? Like some girls played this game. But what did like the real girls do? The real girls always, like we always were together.

Like we always helped each other. Oh, everybody played the same stuff? Yeah. But it like when it was like a rainy day or something, like sometimes we played board games. And then not as much, but most times like we all played with each other because we didn't know stuff yet. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because we don't get taught that stuff in school or anything.

Like, what do you mean? Like about girls, and we don't really know too much about each other, I guess. Oh, so everybody's just kind of like just all the same? Yeah, we're all kids. Oh, you're all kids, yeah. Yeah. Are you allowed to flirt at school? Like, at some point, do people feel some attraction?

Like, do you think, like... Uh, maybe. Maybe, but... So, the school I went to, I couldn't really do that because pretty much everyone I went to school was really the first or second cousin. Oh. I feel that, brother. Yeah. Cool.

So, yeah, it's like, it's a tough world. It is, brother. And, you know, that's why we got to do some of this redistricting and rezoning. Yeah, we got to, like, rezone, like move out, move in. That's what a lot of Amish been doing around us and moving out to different communities. I guess it's a good thing. Then you can, you know, spread the family tree because sometimes the tree becomes a bush. Yeah, for sure.

Like, intertwine with each other. The Amish population experience is a strong founder. effect, meaning that their gene pool originates from a small number of original settlers. Most Amish people are distantly related because nearly all Amish in America descended from a small group of about 200 to 500 founders who immigrated from Germany and Switzerland in the 18th century. The genetic closeness increases the likelihood of certain inherited conditions with some rare genetic disorders, much more common among Amish than in the general U.S. population.

Do you guys have, oh, this says cousin marriage? marriages between cousins do occur Not first cousin, second cousin does Oh yeah Yeah For sure buddy But that Like it's not really

It's not really Like Forward like hey you can marry A second cousin But it does happen But if it happens it happens Yeah it happens It happens

You're already close You might as well be closer Yeah that's right Now I don't know how Because we don't have Like any family tree and stuff You don't? No

But we do have like a big book That tells us like all Amish communities, like in certain states, like who, like basically a dictionary for for like Amish people and who's related to who. Oh, you have that? Yeah. It's basically like Google for the Amish when it comes to like finding like, oh yeah, this person's related to this or how old is this person.

And it's kind of even got their like addresses and stuff. Oh, nice. Yeah. It's like a book where you can go look and see who's who and how old. Yeah. And how many kids they have and when the kids were born. So that's pretty cool. Oh, yeah, right?

That's kind of how it is. But it's a little bit different than that. Okay. Because they put like, they like, they put like two different, was it two different names on the front, like whoever like put it together and stuff. Got it. Because some Amish, like, like, they know like who's related to everyone. It's like, it's almost like they're, like they're happy, I guess you could say. And they like they're happy?

No, they're happy. Hoppy. Like they're, it's their. Oh, it's their hobby. Like H-O-B-Y Like rapid Like rap it No

Hobby Yeah Like like Like hobby Like it's something they like to do in their For spare time Yeah Yeah

That's what it is Genealogy Put it together Yeah Oh yeah You gotta somebody's got to know Who's related Or you got to be able to ask somebody

So could there be people in your school That are your cousin You don't even know it Ah no Because everyone in the school Like They drive there with a horse and bucky So it's fairly cold

Because we have like Let me think I think it's like At least I I have a dozen schools in our, like, community. Okay. Yep. And how do you decide which school you go to?

Whichever you live closest to. That's it. Yep. Do they have, like, learn, like, we're, they were talking about, like, obviously, when cousins get together, things can get crazy. Yeah. And you might get one of the Lord's remixes out there. Yeah. Or disabled, they call out here in America.

Yeah. Mentally disabled. Yeah. Autism. I'm sure you guys are seeing it. Well, somebody will just raise a barn with their eyes, you know, just. put a nail through a four by four with their, just, with the sheer, just, you know, with just a blink of an eye.

I don't know. We have autism, but, like, we have, like, some with Down syndrome. Yeah, because my great uncle, he has Down syndrome and stuff. He's like, yeah. Yeah, he's like, he's like 57 years old. And he's awesome, huh? Yeah, he's pretty awesome because me and him, me and him, I don't, like, I, I, I just remember that I carry, like, carry wood with him, like, me and him carry wood into the, like,

wood box for a stove, and I don't know why, but apparently I used to tease. him a little bit too. I kind of feel bad for now. I thought, like, I think it was like six or seven years old. I was really young. Oh, it's okay. You were just a kid, man. You were, you were just joking around. Yeah, because I thought I was having fun, but. But he could carry a lot of wood? Oh, yeah, he could carry a lot of wood. Yeah. He was pretty cool. And he passed away? No, he hasn't passed away yet, but I heard recently, he's like, he's not doing too good anymore, but he's still, he's still, like, surviving and stuff. But isn't that, like, really, kind of old for a person with, like, Down syndrome and stuff?

That's a great question, actually, Timothy. Let me look at that up. How old do the Down syndrome get if you don't mind pulling up there? Yeah. It might be, like, because he's Amish, that he's, like... That he's clocking more time. Yeah. Because it's probably harder, probably a Down syndrome being out under the bright lights of

regular life than it is out there just slurping in the moonlight. Yeah. The average life expectancy for individuals with Down syndrome is now about 60 years. with many living in their 60s and 70s thanks to advances in medical care and social inclusion, that's awesome. McDonald's supposed to not be getting to them anymore. That McDonald's, huh?

Yeah. It was really hampering them. Well, there was a time when McDonald's, a lot of their employees had Down syndrome. Oh, really? Bring that up. And then, so it caused a lot of people to take people there with Down syndrome,

so then they were eating all this McDonald's, and it was like not good for them. No, it was like backing them up. Yeah. But McDonald's was hiring a hell of down. Wow. They had the whole... I never knew a place like that hired.

Oh, yeah. Especially now. Now there's coffee shops in America and everybody that works there has Down syndrome. Shane Gillis owns one. He's a comedian. Wow. So, yeah, I heard Shane Gillis was around the Amish too

when he was when he's younger. Yep, he grew up around the Amish. He's famous. Some people said he has Down syndrome. Some people said he doesn't. Yeah. I don't know. We had a guy on who completed the Iron Man.

which was one of the biggest physical challenges in the world, and he has Down syndrome. Chris Nickich. Oh. Bring him up. What's an Iron Man? It's like the toughest competition ever. Oh.

There he is right there. Wow. What are the conditions of an Iron Man, just so we're clear on it? Is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation, consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride

and 26-mile run completed in that order Wow Think you could do it? No, I'd have to I'd have to like built three barns in a day And like Like run up and down to the house a couple of times

Oh, you'd have to jack and jill a million gallons of water, dude Yeah, even if I had down syndrome I don't think I could do it No It'd be really hard to do it Like even though I think you'd even be hard for the Amish people Because first we need to learn how to bike Yeah.

Yeah, because we can swim because, like, the rivers and stuff. Are you allowed to have bikes or no? Like, we can sneak them. Oh, you sneak them, huh? Yeah, but, like, the Amish over in, like, Indiana and Ohio and in Pennsylvania, they got, like, scooters and stuff. Uh-uh. Yeah, they do it.

But they got, like, the low riders, like, the ones that are really close to the ground. Oh, yeah, the Amish. Yeah, the Amish. Yeah, that you, like, stand on and stuff. Yeah. Not the ones that you, like, sit on. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, like those.

So, not the motorized ones. No, not the motorized or the ones with, like, pedals and stuff. stuff. Yeah, they had them one, they had one amissued oral farming on one of these, I think. Oh, like was he doing it on the, on the horse or like the scooter? I think the scooter. Oh. And they have a lot of Mexican Amish too now, the Amish, they call him.

Yeah, I saw like, there were a couple, like Mexican Amish. I was like, because I read like a couple years ago, there was his Mexican Amish guy. He popped up, like he was, he looked fully Mexican, he looked like he came from Mexico. And yeah, I think someone must have adopted him. It sounded like that. like he could speak like he could speak like the Mexican language and then

he could also speak like Pennsylvania Dutch too hell yeah yeah I love that man yeah dude and that must be the craziest if you're Mexican because then you're like holy shit I still have to do all this construction myself you know like if you're Amish Mexican people expect you to build stuff

faster than anybody yeah because Mexicans and Amish we go back and forth like we look who can build the fastest if you have both yeah Now, when it comes to sheet rocking, I have to say Mexicans are definitely faster because they got them long, like those metal things that I think they're called stilts. Oh, really? So they're good at sheet rocking? Yeah, I saw a video of them. They like held their tape measure and then walked over and the one guy, real tall looking guy, if he had like long legs, he was on stilts and stuff. He just had almost touched the ceiling.

Tell me about this. When you go to Rumspringer, how do you go? Is there a day that you go? What happens? hit what age and how does it start? It's kind of just, it's kind of spontaneous when it happens. You're like roughly, roughly 16 and a half when it happens and your parents are like, like, you can go and then you kind of just go like one night. Do they sit you down at dinner and tell you to, is it like an announcement at school? Is it at church? How does it happen that they say, we're going to allow you to go to Rom's Pringer?

It's not real an announcement. It's just kind of like, hey, you can go there and then you probably have a couple rules. You know, don't do this, don't do that. you're probably going to do it anyway. Really? Yeah. And so is there a moment than an actual day that you leave?

Like, do you say goodbye? Oh, no, no. So when Rumspringer happens and you go to the Yon, like you still live at home and stuff, you're still Amish, and then you just do stuff on the weekends that you're not supposed to.

When do you go back to your Amish country, like when do you go back to your district, to your home? So when you're in Rumspringer, you're always at home. So don't, like the, like, so what happens? If you want, you're in Roomspringham for like, it's usually around four to five years.

It always depends. And then when you get baptized, it's usually when you have a girlfriend and then you want to get married. So that's the reason you get baptized is to get married. And then at the same time, you also becoming a member of the church. Okay. So, so you hit about 16 or something. Yeah.

And your parents say that you can go now. Yep. And that means on the weekend, you can go do what you want? Yeah, kind of. And if they don't hear too much about it, you're fine. Then you're doing fine. Yeah, because sometimes you can be like, hey, you can't go this time. Okay.

Yeah. And now do some people choose to stay out in Rumspringer and not come back to the church? Do you have that option or that's not an option? Yeah, where people leave and become ex-Somish, yeah. And that can happen. Yeah. And then when, like, Rome Spring ends, it's roughly around 20 to 21. That's usual when people get married.

Or sometimes, you know, like all of a sudden they realize they have a kid. And then, so that's not really not really a good idea, like to have a kid before you're married. So, like, they either get quickly married or, like, my cousin, like, his, his, my cousin Frank, like, he, he was, he was Amish? No, like, he, like, his parents, like, they realized they had him that when they were still, like, on Roomspring and Amish, so they just left. Wow. Yeah. So your cousin, his parents were both on Rumspringer. Yep.

Both Amish. Yep. They, one of them got pregnant, the woman. The woman, yeah. And then they realized at that point that they had to leave, would they have been welcome back into the church or no? Like, so what happens? If that happens, either you would leave or you, like, almost come married right away

because that has happened a couple times. That actually happened for my parents to quickly get married. Okay, so you have to make that quick choice. Yeah. Now, if you decide to leave, are you shunned? Are you allowed to come back? What is it like? Like, once you decide to leave?

So if you leave and you're already a member of the church, you'll get shunned from it. And then if you're not a member, like on Rome Spring, if you leave, it varies on the parents a lot, like on my dad's side. Like, they wouldn't really, for the longest time, they wouldn't really be happy or wouldn't really talk to their kids when they came and visited. They once that are ex-Amish.

On my mom's side, they were like that for a little bit too, like in the first. But on my mom's side now, when the ex-Omish kids come back, they're like now 40 and stuff 30 40 and maybe even older like they come back they're welcome like all that stuff but my on my dad's side they're just a little bit a little bit iffy but they're way better than they were i see so they're coming around a little bit more than they used to yeah but probably in your grandfather's generation if somebody was shun they might not talk to them yep that's how it is when you get when you get shun you're not supposed to well you can talk to them but you're not supposed to like help them out in any way like you can't accept money

from them and you can't you can't you're not supposed to get a ride from them to a ride like a like let's say they were driving the ones that left they were driving and stuff you're not supposed to like like right with them oh yeah if they can't even stay on the path to heaven how are they going to keep you on a path when they're trying to take you somewhere yeah they're going to like take you off the road or something yeah they're literally they're literally going to take you off the road you know i never expected to be a business owner you know at first we just were podcasting and and then things just evolved. You know, one of the toughest points for us

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Have you ever had this before? No, not this, no. Is it good? Yeah. Yeah, it's grape. I saw it, it's grape, so it's like really good. I'm going to have to try this stuff. Can you have a little bit?

Yeah. No alcohol. No, okay. So what does they have? It's like water? Ooh, mine's cherry cola flavored. It's like spicy stuff. It's like a little bit of ADD kind of.

Oh, dude, this stuff actually tastes like, like the grapes that you squeeze out of the, like, not the grapes that you eat from the store, but like the Amish grapes that you can buy. Like the ones that you squeeze out of the, what do you call that, the skin? Have you ever had those grapes where you just squeeze them out and you swallow them? Uh-uh. Yeah, it tastes just like this. Really? Yeah. Let's get a look at those Amish purple grapes.

Yeah, they're, they're, yeah, that's how they look. And those, you know how the stores, like, they have no seats in them? Like these have like a seed in them, you just squeeze them out, and then you swallow them. Because if you try to eat them, like chew on them, like, you just bite into the seat and stuff. Oh, you just squeeze them out and so they... This actually tastes exactly like that, so it must be very natural. Yes, sir. It's the best, man.

It's very good. That'll get you home, brother. That'll get you home. Yeah. So I saw that there's, does have caffeine in it? Yeah, it has a little bit of caffeine. So I'll be, like, moving around. Yeah, you'll be feeling.

something. Yeah. What has your Rumspringer experience been like? It's been crazy. I've done the first, like, year and a half, I didn't do too much because I wasn't 18 yet. But like this summer, I've done so many crazy things. Actually, last summer, I got to drive

like a Corvette. That was crazy. Like, these two girls, like, they let me drive their Corvette. It's a lot of fun. Oh, yeah. Where'd you meet them? Through my uncle, my ex-Somish uncle, I met him through them. Yeah.

And, dude, I actually was at their wedding, like, the one with the black hair. I was at their, like, her and her husband's wedding. It was pretty cool. Yeah. And, yeah, so I got to drive a Corvette. That thing was really fast, too. Like, you stump on the pedal a little bit. It was, like, a horse with, like, like, some special oats or something.

Oh, yeah. Like, put some Celsius in their water. Oh, yeah. That thing has been eating, uh, yeah. Diesel-dipped carrots right there. homie, that horse has got it. Oh, that's a dull. They were like, well, I think it was overcrowded

because there's only like two seats and then she's like sitting in the middle and stuff. Hey, that's fine though, dude. You've got to have at least one chick hanging out of a corvette, dude. That's Rumspringer. Yeah, that is Rumspringer. And then we, we, uh, they wanted to get a couple videos

because they thought that was pretty cool. Oh, it's amazing, bro. It's great to see you out there just trying some different things. Yeah. What other things did you try that you found that you liked and didn't like out there. Ah, uh,

was it? Oh, yeah. I also got the other, uh, weekend I got to, went to like, it was old Claire,

Wisconsin. There was like, uh, like an air show where they had like the blue angel airplanes at all kinds of airplanes. Nice. And then they also like, you get to pay a little bit.

Well, it was actually quite a bit. It was like $200 for like one helicopter right. And I was like, you know, this might be like a week or two of wage is like a, of me working. but like I want to go on a helicopter right so I was kind of scared to like hold my phone out

because uh because like the helicopter's open and stuff like what happens if you drop it and stuff but it's really smooth too and when we took off and like we took off and stuff it was like it was really crazy it felt like we were like I felt like I was on a like on a piece of plywood and I just started going up it was like it was crazy and it felt really crazy that's actually athlete right there. Oh, nice brother. He's still Amish at home. He bust his like, bust his, like cut his hair and stuff. Wow, that's exceptional, bro. You got out there. You just felt like a bird, huh? I did feel like a bird. And this guy, I think he, I think he gave a little bit of longer right because we're Amish and stuff. And he, we like went sideways on the, we went sideways on the, like on the

above the lake and stuff because like if hit water really far off, it's like pretty much like concrete, I think. We went sideways and almost felt like I was falling off, but I had my trusty seat ballot on and stuff, so we were pretty good. So that was crazy, right? But it was actually kind of smooth. You know, I was actually more scared when I was, like, a couple weeks later, I was probably like a month later.

It was right after I went to your concert. Your concert was, like, really crazy. Oh, did you have fun? Could you understand a lot of the material? I did, yeah. Like, some of it I didn't understand. Like, the ball of guy was there, the guy that his parents were, like,

from the Middle East was there. They were pretty cool. And then you came out, and then, I thought it was really funny. This was actually, you know, before the show, I was jamming out. I was with my cousin Frank. And he was, like, we were, I was just chaming out through the music. Yeah, because people don't understand. This is where we met.

We met after a show. Yeah. And I was like, dude, we've been trying to have an Amish person on. And then he or God just put us right together, brother. Yeah, God is great. He works in mysterious ways, it seems like. He's the magician, man. Yeah.

Yeah, and I said, you know, Theo Vonnard would probably, I wanted to give you, like, wear an Amish hat. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Did you give me that hat or not? No, I, that was, it was my hat. It didn't really fit.

Actually, actually, I have a little bit of surprise for you. Hey, Frank, you want to bring that over? Dude, I got, so what I did over last week, me and your, uh, me and your, some of your strong connections were talking. Mm-hmm. And they didn't quite know what size your hat was. So it's a bit off an odd thing to, like, knowing stuff.

Yeah, and it's an odd thing to ask a man. Yeah, it is. But I wanted, we got an estimate size, and I want to give you this hat. So now you can be like, you can be like part of the Amish Mafia. Oh, that's cool, dude. Yeah. Thank you so much. And a hat size, that's just like the waist for your head, you know?

Yeah, it is. You don't want to admit your little fat above the ears, you know? Yeah, right. This has a band in it was just the front of the band. That's the front, yeah. All right. So that way you always wear the hat right. Does it fit?

Oh, it's a bit loose? Is it a bit loose? Perfect. Dude, perfect. I'm glad I got you the right size. Donke. You're welcome. That means you're welcome.

Does donkey mean thank you? No, dengue. Dangy. Yeah, the same thing in German. Like, thank you and Sherman in Pennsylvania, Dutch is the same thing. Dangy. Yeah. Heck yeah, dude.

Yeah, and now you're part of Amish. You just need the rest of the clothes. I feel great, man. Do you think I would make a good Amish person or not? and be honest with me. Well, do you, like, break a lot of rules and stuff? I don't know, really. I don't think so.

Yeah. Like, if you don't really break any of the rules, you make a pretty good Amish. I could get my mom to get you some Amish clothes for you. Maybe for Christmas I'll exchange something with Dan. I could send you something that would be, that your community would accept as well. Yeah.

Are you allowed to accept gifts from people that are not Amish? Yeah, I accept gifts from people that are not Amish. Do your parents allow you, too? Is that okay? Yep. Because they sometimes, like, we all, we had sometimes a guy from around Christmas time, sometimes a guy, like, brings some stuff. And then we, like, he's done it for a couple years, and he, like, gives all the younger kids

some presents and stuff. Oh, that's nice? Yeah, it's very nice. Oh, I know you had mentioned before your parents said, is some stuff not to do during around spring? Like, what was some of that? They didn't really say too much, but they tell me, like, when, uh, when I do something that they think, didn't think was.

How'd I say it was like Like probably not the best thing to do Like appropriate? Yeah Like not probably like Because sometimes I do wild stuff You know like Go on the Walmart

Right in a scooter Yeah But that came around And But I mean Did they have advice against like sex drugs things like that No not like any

Like any sex stuff That doesn't get talked about You just kind of You kind of have to do like Door to explore You just kind of have to You know go out on the jungle And see

see what bites. Damn. So, yeah, we went to Walmart. Oh, something will bite at Walmart, dude. Yeah. I was looking at the TVs. They're like $1,000. Crazy.

That's like a third off a Bucky. And a TV doesn't even go anywhere. It just, like, sits somewhere. I'd rather just play charades with my buddy like you guys probably do a lot. Y'all play charades a lot? I'm not even quite sure what that is. Oh, it's where someone, like, you write down some movies or TV.

Oh, shoot, you don't know a lot of movies and TV shows. charade is like somebody acts something out and you have to guess what they're acting out like they impersonate something oh you like pretend so like let's say I was pretending to be the bishop I'd be like like

go down here and then big angry look maybe scratching your beard maybe going like this or something like this yeah yeah like sound like that no I've never I've never played that but I kind of know what you mean yeah yeah

Um, but you guys don't talk about sex within the Amos community much, like at school and stuff, there's not a class that teaches you about it? Not in school, no. So, like, will a dad kind of take his son and have like a birds and the bees talk? Like in, in holler, hurler, hohieler. It's kind of the birds and the bees. Like, the dad will take you and talk to you about how things work, you know? Yeah, no, no. Like, all of that stuff, you actually have to, like, figure out and stuff. Okay. But, like, since you got phones and stuff, you can kind of, you know, you kind of, you kind of, you kind of, you kind of. But you can figure it out. Like. But there's some stuff you, I mean, but you, you're not allowed to look at pornography on your phone and stuff. No, you're not supposed to, no.

Yeah. No, I stay away from that stuff. Yeah, it's bad. It is very bad. Yeah. Yeah. Since you got into Rumphrey and can you get a girlfriend and stuff like that? Or like, what are you allowed to do?

Yeah, I can get like a girlfriend, like all that stuff. But does she need to be Amish? Preferably, yeah. But like if I were to get a, like a girlfriend that was not Amish, she would you have to be kind of. Amish or I would have to like leave like that Amish. Do you think that there are a lot of women out there who are willing to become Amish? Does that happen a lot? I know I know of one case where that is happening and you know I don't know how often it happens

but it's it's rare where like actually goes through. I know a lot of people want to become Amish but they're they're not ready to make the like the final like the final step towards it. So but yeah. What's the thing that keeps him away from that? makes people afraid to take that final step, do you think? I think it's a loss of, like, your phone, the lights on the ceiling, the fans on the ceiling, like the vents and holes in the ceiling, like all of that stuff, I think,

and then like the couch, the TV, and then whatever else, you know, like, whatever else Hohele used. If you have an Amish wife, does a wife have to provide, like, food and sexuals and stuff for the husband, Or is it just, is it always negotiable? Or does the wife have like a responsibility for kind of food and sexuals and stuff? Yeah. So the way, like, it's everyone kind of accepts like their, like, it's just, how did I say this? It's like normal and you like, it's where, it's kind of like, it's where it's everyone has a mutual understanding of like what they have to do. Right.

Because like the woman, you know, cooks, cleans, you know, takes care of things around the house. And then like if she needs out. she'll ask like the husband for like help and then usually the husband's you know gone most today working like either building houses plowing the fields or cutting like lumber or making cabinets or even polishing cabinets stuff like that like they help each other when they're when they're like at like at home like if if it needs but yeah like the like the wife just cooking cleaning taking care of the kids got it and then stuff in the garden too Right here it says Amish women mainly focus on housekeeping, child rearing, gardening, and food preparation.

Many manage home finances, have their names on property deeds, and control the family checkbook. Women nurture the spiritual life of the children and are active in maintaining Amish cultural practices. Yeah. So women have a pretty strong voice in the Amish community. Yeah. Well, I'd say so, yeah. Yeah. Are Amish women good cooks?

Like, do they make some cool stuff? Or what are some good Amish meals? Oh, yeah, like, Daumish, I'd say make some of the best food, like, especially Grandma. But she had a lot of experience in the, like, in the field stuff. Or it's how you mean, like, she has a lot of experience in, like, the field of cooking and stuff. Like, her breadsticks, they're like out of this world. Are they? They're really good.

And then my mom's... What do you put on them? Ah, I'm not even quite sure. Can you put butter on them or not? Yeah, butter. Yeah, it looks exactly like that. And can you put a little bit of salt on them? Do you have salt?

Ah, no, we don't put salt on. They're like, they're garlic breadsticks. Oh, they already have garlic on them. Yeah, and they're, and they're just, they're really good. And my favorite meal, like, let's say we're doing a lot of stuff, like building something or like a frolic where, like, the whole community comes together. A frolic it's called? Yeah, that's like when the whole community comes together and built something like a barn. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, and then, like, they'll make, they'll make, either some chicken or some burgers with mashed potatoes, corn, and, like, I think you would call, like, Like, it's like, like, uh, mac and cheese. Oh, yeah. And then you put some, so what we do with our food's, like, hot, we put some applesauce on it, mix it up. Really? Yeah. And then it's nice, cool. And then pork and then pork and beans.

Oh, if the food's hot, you'll put applesauce on it? Yeah, to, like, cool it down and stuff. So, like, that's, like, one of my favorite meals. And then even better, like, if you have steak and stuff, like, if you have steak, that's really good. Yeah. And do you have dessert, too? Oh, we have, we have pretty good. dessert too, like pies.

Oh, I bet Amish pie is good. Yeah, they have sugar or don't you? Yeah, they put sugar in them. I'm not sure what they all put in it because I know how to make scramble eggs and that's about it. Same. Yeah. And, yeah, they put, what is it, like, what's a popular pie that you have or a popular dessert? A popular pie is a shoefly pie is one of them.

And then peanut butter pie. Shoefly pie, what is it? Yeah. Yeah, that, I've not had it. I've not really, we don't have it very often, but another pie that's really good. It's mince pie, like, uh, pumpkin pie. That's really good. That's really good.

God, that's a good one. Like, I won't that. Like, that stuff is pretty good. Yeah, that's my cousin right there. Oh, really? I've seen this woman before. She's Amish. Yeah, no, she's ex-Omish.

Oh, she's ex-Omish? She used to be Amish, yeah. So she's my, she's my cousin, actually. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I got, I guess, famous cousins, too. What are the fears of having a girlfriend that's not omic? Just that they won't understand the religion and the culture?

Like, the biggest fear would be, like, the church or, like, the parents would find out. That's definitely the biggest fear. But is it okay? If she decides to join the church, it's okay? Yeah, it is okay. But, like, for that, that rarely ever happens. It's like, it's almost as rare as, like, the bishop leaving the community. Got it.

Would she be welcome if that happened? Yeah, if she was fully Amish, yeah, she would be welcome. Now, she might get a little bit of looks in the beginning, but yeah, as long as she's fully Amish, that would be good. Dude, she deserves the looks probably. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You can handle a little bit of looks out of the gate. Can Amish people tickle each other or not?

Is that allowed or not? Yeah, like, like when we were little kids, we used to tickle each other. Yeah. Yeah, but I don't really tickle anyone. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think people should keep doing it, but I'm just, making sure it's allowed when you're kids. Yeah.

And do they play hide and go seek? Like what kind of stuff do people do to pass the time? Like either ride horses, the ponies, like pony cards, and then also hide and seek, that's pretty fun. And then, oh yeah, we play board games or just play with cars, play with blocks. I used to play like underneath the porch or in the garden. And I used to, we used to have a lot of, like, cars and stuff. And I used to like pretend that it was like a whole world there in the garden.

So mom didn't really like when I played in the garden when it was like all the corn was up, the potatoes. Like I actually like playing when it was corn, corn was up. And then the potatoes because it was like, it was way more possibilities for imagination. You're going to have a place here, a place there. Yeah, just more creativity going on. Yeah. But if it was the garden didn't work out or either that or just play. under the porch.

Like, the porch was like... Oh, yeah. Like three feet high. So the older I got, the more I hit my head on, up on the porch. That's when it's time to get out. Yeah. That's when I say, you know, if I do play in, like, when I do play with cars and stuff, and out in the dirt, like, the garden's the place to be.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And do people start dating within the Amish culture at a certain age? Or is it kind of taboo? Or how does it work? Like, is there a dance, like, at school where you can invite a girl to a dance? Like, how does dating? and that sort of like adolescent attraction kind of stuff like that

where you're trying to get, you know, you're trying to, you know, meet a girl or if you have a first kiss, what's that, how's that whole universe in the Amish culture? So, like, our school only goes until eighth grade, so we're out of school in, like, 13 or 14. You're done with school completely? Yeah, completely done, and then you go to work. Dang.

Yeah, so we didn't, I don't even know what high school is or public school or, like, I've never been there, never ever. I want to go one day. High school is just doing drugs and try not to die of driving while intoxicated. Yeah, like if that never happens for us, like our horse will just take us home. Right. Yeah. That's a Tesla.

You basically have an original, you kind of have like one of the self-driving cars. Yeah, because if you fall asleep on your horse, you know, might not be the safest way, you know, because you might, you know, go a little bit over on the road. But as long as the people with, like, steering wheels and stuff, they'll be, as long as they're, like, okay and stuff, the horse will, like, go home. And like, so the way it works for, like, dating, if you're like, what is it? So, like, 16 and a half, like, some, it depends on the parents. Like, my mom and dad, like, they weren't really allowed to, like, become, like, official boyfriend and girlfriend until, like, until they were 18. Yeah. But, like, in our community, like, right now, like, like, it basically happens whenever now, like, as soon as you join, like, the room spring.

Like, you can't. And usually the way you meet and hang out is through singing, like, after church, or at, like, weekend parties. That's used how it is. So weekend parties, are those, do those happen in your district, or those happen off of property? That, it all the, it varies where the Amish parties. Sometimes it happens when the, like, sometimes when the parents aren't home, we go to, like, we go to, like, their place and party there. So at Amish parties, will people just, like, are people drinking and stuff like that? It's a little bit more, like, freewheeling? Yeah, you're like drinking and then like even like the vapes things popped up too like Do Amish like to vape or not some do yeah yeah I knew it yeah some do I knew it too but also like cigarettes and then sometimes we go like oh a pipe too a lot of Amish look like they would smoke a pipe older ones too but they like the ones that are the younger ones usually don't they usually stick to cigarettes

and stuff like that but sometimes like we'll we'll go to like an ex-aish person's house and party up there and it's a lot of fun it is and when do you if you're doing rumspringer when do you have to be back at home like do you leave on friday you have to be back on sunday night or what is it rules kind of now it depends it varies from family to family let's see you have church tomorrow you probably want to be home like you know before the morning so you get a little bit of sleep or there's not not church you can come home or you can't just it just like depends but usually like when i when i do it i usually don't come home until like later sunday Okay.

Yeah. And do they drug test you or whatever if you're Amos? Do you have to get drug tests? No, no, we don't have to do any, like, drug tests. Really? Yeah, like no tests and stuff. Damn. Because y'all got y'all's own year-long Halloween going on out there in the fields.

I'm like... Yeah, like sometimes in the woods, the field, like, just depends where the spot is. Yeah. Yeah, but now, like, all the Amish that, like, party and stuff, like, our number one way of, like, talking to each other is to, like, Snapchat. They've really taken over Snapchat? Yeah, like, if they've been Amish, like a young Amish person that is roughly my age, if they have a phone, like a smartphone, they have Snapchat. Yeah, so.

When was the first time you saw a phone or a screen, do you remember? I think it was one time, it was not the first time, but I remember this one time when one of my ex-Omish uncles was at our place with his girlfriend, and she let me look on her phone, and I was sitting right beside her, and she, She grabbed out her phone. She, like, started texting someone. And she was flying through, like, the keyboard and stuff. You were, like, swiping, little lines, and all of a sudden words popped up.

Like, it was, like, it was like, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. The words, like, almost as fast as you can, like, talk. And so. I was, like, really surprised. So that's, like, that's, like, the, like, I'd say, like, the first, some of the first memories. I've seen a phone. What things are forbidden in you guys' culture, kind of? A lot of things are like electricity, like having a smartphone, we're allowed to have like phones for like our businesses, like phone checks and stuff.

And then TVs, what else, like pretty much anything that like doesn't have like that requires like electricity and stuff. And also like certain certain color of like shirts, dresses. If it's too bright, it can also be like, like, you can, the bishop or deacon will talk to you about it. Oh, yeah. About it, like, being the wrong color. Too flashy. Yeah.

And also if your haircuts, like, way short. So my, my haircuts, like, like, okay, because my mom gives me a haircut every time. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so I've never actually had a different kind of haircut. Oh, yeah, beautiful. Yeah, so I almost have a mullet. You could have probably have an Amish haircut, too. Oh, yeah.

I think I have a little bit. Yeah You just like the hair in front of the ear, girl You know I could have been Amish Block a little bit off the sound Like to the ear and stuff Yeah

I would have enjoyed being Amish I think man Yeah How are regular people and Amish people Different from each other Have you gathered? How do they seem different from each other? So like The main thing I've noticed

Is like A lot of Amish Or When they're in public It seems like They're like bit more respectful, I guess. Another thing that's big, I guess,

like, so if we did something that was big and wrong, like, a long time, my little brother, he stumped out lots of corn down in our cornerfield, and he got a spanking from that. Like, that's, I guess that's the difference because I see a lot of kids don't, like, I guess they don't get spankings anymore. Yeah, they don't do it anymore.

Yeah. They should. I mean, I don't think kids should get abused, but sometimes you can spanking is okay, I think. Yeah, because this is like, like getting beat up and then because like because we never got like beat up or anything

but like if we did something bad we got like like three cracks was like a like a bell or something but we never got abused and stuff so like just I guess discipline so discipline is something that seems stronger in the Amish community

what are some crimes that they have are there any crimes that are popular in Amish land I'm not quite sure maybe maybe like taxes sometimes because I don't, some people don't, like, file taxes and stuff, like, because the only tax that we get, like, that are we free from that damage don't get taxed, it's, like, Social Security tax. So when we get old, the government doesn't, like, pay us and stuff. Oh, they don't, so you don't want it to pay into that.

No. Wow, I wonder why not. When you join the church, you get, like, the bishop and the government, I guess, work together to where you're, like, exempt from the social security tax. But that's, like, the only tax that I know off that you're, like, exempt from. Other than that, like if, but if you don't file taxes, because I know some don't. Mm-hmm. But other than that, we have to pay all the other taxes. The Amish are exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes, FICA, if they formally reject benefits and file for exemption due to their belief in mutual community support.

Wow, so you guys feel like you don't need that. You support each other, huh? Yeah, a lot of Amish don't have insurance for stuff, too, and so when... Well, hell not. I don't think you could insure them, you know? But for business, I don't, I think for businesses, they somehow do what I think, but for like, let's say you, like, let's say you fall off a roof or something, you hurt yourself, and then let's say you go to the hospital, because I know the hospital, like, they, they charge quite a bit. Oh, yeah. They, they, I don't know where they come up with the crazy numbers, but.

They'll take you through the rum springer, you know? They will drag, they'll, like, drag you, dude. Yeah, it's like dragging behind the buggy. Yeah. Or, like, horse runs away, and you're trying to hang on, you're, like, scraping across the gravel and stuff. but yeah but like like all the community helps pay for that like if that would help I got it so there's a lot of community support that's a lot of any point in somebody's life so you guys might have a day where you're like missed or so-and-so needs help or miss so-and-so needs help let's go

help them yep that's how it works that's a big part of your life yeah like for example what are things you would go help a neighbor do uh like really with anything like putting away hey we've done that lots of times or like building a barn like we've done that too or or like even a house too like if they need to help like a day or so we'll come together and help each other and I know back in the day we used to help each other

like someone does hay and then everyone helps this person do hey then that person also like it's just a group effort this person this person this person like all around the community but that doesn't really happen happen anymore like you know like most

what is it oh yeah most Amish they don't they still farm a little bit but most of them do, like, construction or, like, building cabinets. Oh, it's changed? Yeah. So the Amos are farming less than they used to? Yeah, because, like, it's not as sustainable anymore. Right.

When my dad was growing up, all they do is farm and milk cows. Hmm. Like, they milk a lot of cows. So what are some popular products, like you said, like cabinets and stuff? You see a lot of those, you see cabinets, you see furnaces sometimes? Yeah. I don't know if that's a real thing or that's just something that is made up and they claim that Amish do it? Like, like, you mean?

And, like, wild-up furnaces. Now, I'm not sure quite where those come from. Like, the furnaces, because there's whaling to it. Now, they might get it from, like, a person that's not Amish. Got it. Get them from there. The biggest shift in Amish economic life in the last century has been from agriculture to non-farm businesses.

Hmm. In the early 1900s, nearly all Amish families depended on farming for their livelihood. Today, only about 10% do, with the majority now involved in various trades, crafts, retail. And then for, yeah, what are some of those? Construction and woodworking, carpentry, cabinet making, and now famous Amish furniture shops. That is a big thing now, huh?

Yeah. Quilt making, sewing-related trades. Yeah, like selling Amish food, too, and quilts and a lot of stuff like that. It's a big part of the culture up there. Yeah, it is. And how will you guys have, like, places on your property where people come and buy them, or do you take them off property and people buy them there? Usually, like, if you have a greenhouse or, like,

like a place where, where, like, the, like, where you can buy, like, food and stuff, that's usually, like, a little building on the property, so. Like a market? Yep, like, kind of like a market. Or, like, there's a farmer's market where, uh, where Amish go to, like, a town for a day and they bring all the baked goods and, you know, stuff like that. And there's also a lot of Amish places, like, a lot of places where Amish are. What's, like, tours, they offer tours, and then they bring them around.

and then it's kind of like the Amish Mall, but it's like, like the stores are like really far apart from each other like a couple miles. But yeah, they bring them around and they get to see an Amish, you know, Amish farm. I think they're called like Amish tourists and like tourists, stuff like that. Okay. And then you can like stop at the Amish place

and like buy something from like the store and stuff. Got it. Yeah. Yeah, we've been up there before and stopped at some places that I think we're having cheese and ice cream maybe even. Yeah. I'm not sure. But like usually we only like make ice cream.

through the winter because you just grab the snow out of the ground and put it in a bucket and could you make ice if you needed to yeah like if it was if we had ice or something cold that you put around the around the thing where you make ice cream because you got to crank the ice cream that like you crank and then the thing in the middle spins around the ice and oh yeah yeah so like how much ice cream is pretty good what music do you guys listen to i know you said in the beginning there's some different sometimes people will sneak in some deaf leopard but if not you guys just sing a lot? Is there a lot of Amish songs in dancing as well or no? In our community, there's not really any dancing. There's, like, the only, like, the only music

songs that are really, a louder would be, like, like, chairman hymns. But then, like, on the, then sometimes we, like, sneak out on the weekends and stuff and, and, and, uh, listening to some soldier boy or something. Yeah, like, like, uh, like, what is it, like, deaf leopard, no, panchovy, you know, a lot of Amish, like, rock, roll and then I guess house idiom music and then also like a lot of country like Garth Brooks Mark and Wallen yeah people like that but I also listen to like a little bit of rap stuff like Amish Paradise is that's a pretty good song Amish Paradise yeah hepsman who's sang that uh weird all Yankevick I did oh did he makes perfect sense that's grue yeah Amish

paradise that's a pretty I love that song that's a banger huh it is a banger yeah he looks a little bit mad there but it was a pretty good song He probably pissed his horse ran off or whatever. Yeah, something like that. Because, like, his horse was pretty good at backing all the way at the end. Yeah. Yeah. And then also, like, I like to listen a little bit of, like, rap stuff, too.

Oh, yeah? Yeah, like, Ghana. A little bit of Ghana. Oh, you listen to some Gunna? Yeah. Like, I don't really listen to what he says. I looked at the lyrics, like, a couple times. Like, the lyrics aren't the best, but, like, I like the way it sounds, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, like, the, like, like, like, you.

like the, it sounds like wind chimes, and then it just, it sounds very melodic. He's a vibe, yeah. He's got it. Yeah. What else was I thinking about? Where else can we go from here? We're almost done. Let me think about what else we can talk about. You know what I'm going to do, Timmy? I'm going to take that down and keep this up here. That's pretty cool. I'm just going to make sure that you're always here in spirit, dude.

I appreciate that. You bet, man. I want to ask you something. With the risk of people leaving the community and stuff, our family's still. very close or do they only get closer after people join the church? Does it make any sense to you? I think it does so like most of the time the like the family is very close unless like when the kids and the parents like they don't agree on stuff and then they leave. That's like the like the time when like they don't, they're not as close anymore. It depends on the person I guess and the

parents too. Is it pretty heartbreaking when that happens in the community? Yeah. It's like when I was younger I always like when someone left it's almost like it's almost like someone died not quite but it almost felt like that but since I got older I understand it a bit more and it's uh it's not as bad as like it used to be so yeah wow that's you right there yeah I was I was like really skinny when I was when I was young I'm still kind of skinny you know you look like that guy in Kingpin a little you seen Kingpin no idea what that is it's like an Amish movie it's like a historical Amish film or whatever oh I almost look like that dude yeah when he's younger Yeah.

Not now. Oh. When he's younger, but he's classy guy. He's a great guy. Yeah, he looks like a great guy, too. Oh, yeah, Randy Quaid. He's got like a big beard now. Yeah, yeah.

He's doing okay. Yeah. I'm a fan of his. What have you decided about Rum Springer and what you're going to do with your family and the church and stuff? Have you made any decisions yet? Like, not yet. Like, the final decision will probably be in like, probably within like two years or so. Okay.

And then it depends. if I leave or, you know, join the church. Well, right now you actually can't really join the church because, like, there's no bishop. You can join other churches that are, like, a little bit of ways in a different district. But, like, yeah, it'd probably be, like, two years until I, you know, like, make my final decision

because it's kind of a big decision. Yeah. Yeah. What would be the thing you think that would draw you out of the faith, that would draw you out of the church and out of the district? Uh, I would think, like,

like, if I wanted to do something, like something that would like something like something like something like something like something worldly and like they'll probably come down on me for like doing something like that I guess would drive me away a little bit because I don't know it feels a little bit like a little bit restrictive but like I guess that's the only thing I would think but but you don't feel like doing this podcast will mess up your opportunity to go back or come or leave huh no I don't think it I don't think it will Okay, good. I don't want that to happen, man.

I want you to be able to make the best choice for yourself to matter what. It sounds like a really beautiful community, is it? Yeah, it's very beautiful, I'd say. It sounds like you have a lot of, like, community, a lot of sense of togetherness, you know? Yeah. A lot of, like, do you feel a strong sense of purpose being Amish? Yeah, like, you like, kind of uphold the honor, you know, work hard, you know, the harder. you know the harder to work the better because you get you stay in shape and then the more you can

help out is always better because I love helping out people and making people stay that's like one of my favorite things to do I like doing that so yeah I think it's important you know I think that's one way we really fill ourselves up is like doing something for somebody else you know it feels good yeah it's like and you seem like you get to do a lot of that in your community so there's probably a strong sense of feeling of, like, doing good. Yeah, there is. If you guys are helping each other out a lot. Yeah.

Are siblings really close in your community, or is that kind of not? You mean the siblings? Yeah. Yeah, usually, like, the siblings are usually close, you know. Not like weird close, you know, just like brother and brother. Yeah, legally close or whatever. Yeah, like legally close. So, I usually the brothers and the sisters, they're usually to keep, like,

the sisters are closer to themselves and their brothers are, like, closer to themselves. For sure. Yeah. For sure. Here's my, here's my little brother. Oh, that's him right there,

eh? Yeah. Yeah. I, like, he, like, he doesn't,

like, he doesn't, like, he probably wouldn't care if I put his, like, phase up on, like,

social media and stuff. But, yeah, I blurt it out. I put, like, a thing over his eyes. Oh,

yeah. That's fun, though, you guys. So a lot of times in your Amish, you just driving around, hanging out,

telling stories and stuff? Yeah. Making each other laugh a lot? Yeah. like drink coffee and laugh and, like, at work, we're laughing a lot of time we talk. And, and, because, like, when you're, like, I don't know if, like, if, like, not Amish people, I don't know what they do, like, when they, like, work, do they, like, talk to each other and laugh and stuff? Yeah, they do, I think a decent amount at a lot of jobs.

Yeah. Probably jobs that are more like, if you're doing construction, things like that, contracting, things where you're building stuff, working together, where there's team opportunity. There's a lot of laughter, dude. Yeah. But if you're just sitting at a desk by yourself, you're probably just losing your mind. Yeah, that would be kind of sad, like being inside all day and, you know, under the lights and stuff. Oh, yeah.

I think there's something that's kind of like, it doesn't feel very human about it. No. Are there a lot of people on antidepressants and stuff that are Amish or no? Ah, not that I know of. There might be, like, maybe every, like here, here and maybe way over there, but not that I know of, no. Do people seem depressed a lot or not really? Uh, most of them don't. Most of them don't. But then you have, you, then you also have sometimes, uh, like people that are like, what do you call those people that are like super depressed? Like sometimes they're like super depressed. Oh, um, they're almost like, they're almost like the water when it gets rough. They're like up and down a lot.

Oh, bipolar kind of? Yeah, bipolar. Like we sometimes, like, I don't have a person that has sudden, like, it's kind of crazy. Some studies have found Amos depression rates to be one-fifth to one-tenth of mainstream society with strong family ties and community support side as protective factors. That's unbelievable. Yeah. One-fifth to one-tenth is insane, brother. I mean, that's a huge difference. Strong family ties, robust social networks, work ethic, and especially religious faith,

are seen as major mental health protective factors. Will you guys pray together a lot just with friends? Like if you see them somewhere, is that a common practice? No, like, we only do it, like, at the table. Got it. But, like, I know some families do, like, pray more than we do. We should probably do it more. Yeah.

I think that's how we all feel. Yeah. Do you have Valentine's Day? Oh, yeah. We have Valentine's Day at school. So what happens in Valentine's Day is at school. So when that happens, we basically, we put, like, things on a paper, and we put it into a hat, and then we mix it all up,

and someone walks around. with like, and then you reach in, and you pick out a name. And if you got that name, then that's your valentine. Like, your Valentine, you got to, like, switch lunge pales. And then you also have, like, send a Valentine in with them. And can it be a boy or a girl? Yeah, it can be, like, like, either way. Got it.

Yeah, so it's, like, nothing, uh, it's like, it's probably way different from, like, like, uh, from non-Ommission public schools. Because I'm guessing, like, like, non-Ommission public schools, it would have to be, like, like a boy and a girl, right? Yeah. But in all's culture, it's just whatever. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. And the way we do it is like just the main,

the reason we do it is mainly your friends. You give you your friends of Valentine and then the, then you also switch like lunch pales and then the moms will usually put something special in there like, NX or candy bar or my mom used to buy like those things from Walmart, those like big red hearts and then send that with to him. Oh yeah, that's nice. Bums do that.

Yeah. That's a nice thing. Yeah. What other holidays? Do you have Halloween? No, we don't have Halloween, but I've had the, before I went to Roomspring, the neighbors, our non-Omish neighbors, they picked me up. And then they put me, like, in a prison costume thing, like, I'll add black and white stripes all over me. And, like, we went out and gathering candy.

Like, you just walk up through these people's houses and they have candy for you. I know. Yeah, it's crazy. Halloween's like really crazy, but a lot of them, a lot of Amish, like, don't celebrate because like, apparently that's like, uh, the occasion of, like, Halloween is like something to do with, like, the devil. I'm not quite sure. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. It's a pagan holiday. Yeah. Because they have, some people like real scary stuff in the yard. They got like snakes and then these, these dead people with like skulls and stuff. Yeah, stuff hanging from trees, deceased adults and children. Yeah. They're like bone stuff.

don't know where they get the bones to like dick them out or something it's probably something they probably have insider trading with some dog or something yeah what is something that you want people to know about homage people that are a view of them or you think that's something that's incorrect before we get out of here like a like a misconception yeah yeah so like the one of the biggest misconceptions i see all the time with like me being online and stuff it's like crazy like all of all the stuff like people people say i'm not amish i don't do i don't do this way uh there's They're actually two misconceptions, I can say. Like, number one is, like, a lot of Amish kids my age have, like, phones.

Like, they hide it from their parents and stuff. And where it's, like, they have, like, they have some electronics and stuff where they, but they have to, like, keep it on the low and stuff. And what will they do, bury it in a field somewhere? Were they hide it behind a hog or something? Like, how do you guys even? Yeah, like, hide it in the barn, like, the back of the bucky, sometimes in a culvert and hope it doesn't rain. Oof.

Yeah. So, that's one thing. Like, a lot of Amish have phones. And pretty much every Amish that has a phone that's like my age, that's not for business and stuff, is like they have Snapchat. We, like, that's how we, like, communicate. That's like our new, like, messenger pitch.

It's your Underground Railroad kind of. Yeah, it's Underground Railroad. I was thinking about, you know, starting underground Bucky races, but I first got to dig the tunnel and stuff. But, like, another misconception, you know, about the Amish is just, like, what was it? Oh, yeah, about me not being Amish because I have a, I have a, phone that that's because like another thing that's like huge like really big because like there's amish in movies and they're always they always turn on the butter yeah and basically

living without electricity now there's so many there's so many different like amish because like what you hear from me like from where I came from is will not be the same from an Amish in Indiana Ohio or like Pennsylvania it's there's so many different ones like Little different ways. Different branches of it. Yeah, a lot of different branches. And I would say, like, there's not a single community that's, like, exactly the same. There's always a little bit of rules, and there's so many different branches of it where they wear a bit different clothes, bit different hats, do things a bit differently.

Because I've had people say, like, this is not Amish, and then they, like, write a detailed description. But I guess they probably don't know better that there's, like, lots of different ones because there's, there's, like, lots. There's speechy, Schwarzen trooper, New Order, Old Order. There's so many different branches. Oh my gosh, it sounds like a bunch of people on the Warp Tour. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, so when the Anabaptist became a thing, they basically like, they were like a minority for a little bit.

Have you ever seen Back to the Future? No. Dang, boy. What? What's that? I think you would like it. And I think it's a, I think it's something that is almost appropriate. I don't think it's too crazy.

Okay. I think you could handle it. Have you ever seen Family Man? Nicholas Cage? No. Do you know who Nicholas Cage is? Uh, I'm not even quite sure. Wow.

Wow, so these are like movies and stuff? Yeah. Oh, wow. Family man's one of my favorites, dude. So what's that about? It's about this guy, and he's very, like, rich and fancy and stuff. Yeah. And then one day, he kind of, uh, something happens where he goes back into his life,

like 20 years earlier. Yeah. And he makes a different decision to stay with a girl that he was in, love with instead of leaving. He goes back in time? Yeah, he goes back in time. Like, he doesn't realize that he falls asleep. It's on Christmas.

He falls asleep on Christmas Eve, and he wakes up, and he's back in a different life he would have had if he had made a different choice to stay in love instead of to go for, like, the big job and the fancy apartment. Oh, he went for the money over people. He went for the money over people, and he had a choice. And he goes back in time, and now suddenly he wakes up and he's in a house with this lady that was in love with, but now they have, like, two kids, and they, like, they don't live in, like, he was living on, like, this fancy downtown place with, like, a butler and somebody

that would, like, chew your gum for you and just tell you what it would taste like. You don't even have to chew it. Wow. That rich. That's, like, super rich. It's too much. Yeah, I'll chew my own gum, you know what I'm saying. I want to chew my own gum, you know, drink my own water. Yeah. Yeah, stuff like that. Yeah, for sure. I want to at least do that. Let me do at least the low, low-hanging fruit. Yeah. But anyway, so then he gets that experience, and then one day he wakes back up and he's back in his original life, and he hates it.

And so he drives off from his original life to go find the girl and see what's going on, and then you figure out what happens from there. Wow, that's crazy. Almost sounds like that almost, when he went back in time and stuff, like, or like, what would have happened if he would have stayed with that girl, that's almost like, that's almost like me deciding if I want to, you know, stay Amish or, you know, leave the Amish itself.

Yeah, it's like a Rumspringer. Yeah, it's like a really hard decision. Yeah. What factors do you think will go into you choosing? What do you think are good factors to help you decide or do you think about that? I think it's what I'll all, what I will all see from like the outside world

and like I'll probably compare it to and see, you know, which one I like. You know, I like the Amish lifestyle of food and all that stuff is good. Like, the only thing, right now that I don't like too much at the rules a little bit. Oh, yeah?

Yeah, but that's what Roomspring is for you to break them. Yeah, get out there and break them, but do you have any plans to go to any special events coming up while your own Rumspringer? Any football games? Anything like that? The only special event I've coming up

is actually this weekend. I'm going to go, go on a plane for the first time. Wow. Yeah, and jump out of it. No, really? Yeah, yeah, I'm going to like, because, like, let's say something goes wrong

when you're landing, so I want to be off the plane And, you know, when it's up in the air. Yeah, for sure. And go skydiving. Dude, that's going to be sick. Are you geek? I'm, like, really excited. So this week is, I think this is a week I'll never forget.

Wow. Really, really crazy. So, yeah, no one knows this. I haven't told anyone. And so. I won't say anything, yeah. It's crazy. Let's go skydiving for the first time.

But I think don't they, like, put, like, they, like, strap a person on the back of you. They put a guy on you, yeah. I just tell them you're not interested before you guys jump. Yeah. Just say, look. I'm not interested. Yeah. I'm here for the jump.

I'm here for the jump only, yeah. Just as I don't want him getting any ideas. Yeah, no idea at all. Yeah. Like when we land, it's over. Yeah, right. That's what the plan is. And because I was thinking, I was talking to my cold, at least, I was thinking, you know, that would be a really crazy story.

You know, the first airplane right you ever go into, you just decided, you know, I don't want to, I just got to tell him out. I'm out of here. I'm out of here. Yeah. So it would be the first plane you've ever been in. and then you're out of it. I'm out of it. Wow.

And then like same way with a podcast. I said, you know, the first podcast I'd be on would be Theo Vans because you're a pretty cool dude. Well, thank you, dude. I think you are too, man. I'm really intrigued by you guys' lifestyle. I think I learned a decent amount about it today.

Yeah. You know, there probably could have been some other avenues about it that I could have asked about. Yeah. But I appreciate you coming, bro. I really do. I appreciate you inviting me.

And I admire you guys having a unique culture. I think there. There's a lot of people in the world or they're trying to get back to the roots of their culture and things that matter and mean something. So I almost feel like you guys are already there in some ways.

Yeah, in some ways, yeah. And like it, like some people, it feels like it's like not grounded anymore to family and stuff, you know. Like they're just doing like really crazy stuff. But like if you're like if you touch grass every day,

you know, like you're outside every day and like I'm, I'm outside all the time. That's why I'm, like, so dark, almost like Mexican, but I'm not. Mm-hmm. But, yeah, like, and it's really crazy. Well. I appreciate it a lot for you inviting me.

This is a really crazy experience coming out here to town, and then me sleep in 10 stories, up, up 10 stories. I know. I was like the first time I've ever slept that. Oh, you're in a hotel that's really high? Yeah. You never done that? No, I haven't. Wow.

So, and it's like my first time ever, like, staying in a big city. like this so it's it's it's like I'll never forget it that's awesome yeah well good man Timothy I appreciate it man thank you so much dude for your time thanks for coming out to my show and uh and yeah thanks for being here with us and helping us learn brother I appreciate it dude I appreciate it too dude I that's the least I could do it was nice and when I get close to it I'm coming by for some coffee soup all right yes sir with me yes you got it all right now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone oh but when I reach that ground I'll share this piece of mind I found

I can feel it in my bones but it's gonna take it.