TPW 607 – A Conversation with a Young Amish Male on Rumspringa

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M Bobby, we’ve added some merch from when Bobby didn’t wasn’t helping me figure out how
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to talk to him or whatever. We have a Bobby collab that is loose now on the
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vonstore.com. You can check it out. And we sprinkled in some other new items and restocked some old classics. Again, it’s
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thetore.com. And uh thanks so much for your support. Moair.
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Today’s guest is our young friend from Lanesboro, Minnesota. Uh he’s Amish.
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He’s an Amish. He’s an Amish person and he’s on Rumspringer right now. And we’re
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excited to learn about uh what it means to be Amish and what it’s like and how things are going for him today. Today’s
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guest is Amish and his name is Timothy.
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[Music] And I will find a song I’ve been
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singing. [Applause]
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[Music] All right. Sitting here with an Amish dude, basically.
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Yeah. Um, and you’re 100% Amish. 100% Amish. Born and raised. I I can
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speak Pennsylvania Dutch. Still Amish. And still Still living at home. Pennsylvania Dutch, it’s called. Yeah.
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So, Pennsylvania Dutch is like a it’s like a dialect of German. It’s it’s quite a bit of different from German,
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but it’s a quite a bit of different from German, you said. Yeah. But it’s a dialect from it. And
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so, if someone would be talking like like German, you can kind of understand them, but like most of the words you
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can’t. Okay. Yeah. So, do people do like do your parents speak German and Pennsylvania Dutch? No, just uh Pennsylvania Dutch and
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English. And would your grandparents possibly speak German or your great-grandparents? No, they they were all Pennsylvania
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Dutch. So, okay, understood. But it’s kind of a branch of it’s a lot of the people there have German lineage.
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Yeah, they do. Like I think every every Amish is like Swiss German because most
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of them came from that area. And funny thing is in school like on Fridays we we
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learn like so that’s basically the day where we we read German spell German and
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and also every morning in school we also sing like three hymns out of uh it’d be
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a little book with like red pages where we sing German hymns out of. Now, the
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funny thing is like I can kind of read German and I can spell German, but I do not understand like like the German that
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I’m reading and spelling. Well, I some of it I can, but most of it I can’t. So, you can comprehend a little bit, but
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you couldn’t really then recite it. Yeah. Well, because sometimes for like Christmas and stuff, we had to like
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those there’s also a green German book which when you’re lower grades like
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fifth and under, you read out of that where there’s like big par like bigger paragraphs in the back where it’s all
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German and sometimes for like well most every time actually for Christmas and stuff we had to learn memorize all of
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those and I guess I was I wasn’t the greatest cuz I I kind of I guess lost
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interest for it if I if I didn’t understand it, I guess. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s probably ADD or whatever.
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Do they have ADD in the Amish community? So, uh I don’t even What do you know? What is ADD? I’m not even quite sure.
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Oh, wow. ADD. It’s like, let me think.
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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
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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 your your
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paying attention doesn’t work, you know? Oh, uh, no. I don’t think I I don’t
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think anyone has ADD that I know of. I hope not, cuz that that would be too fun to have.
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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,
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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 p like the
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passenger seat or 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
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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.
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Then you must not have it, brother. Yeah. The Amish do experience ADD, but reported rates are noticeably lower than
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in the general population and diagnosis practices may differ significantly due to cultural and lifestyle factors. Wow,
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that’s pretty fascinating. Um, when you’re born in Amish country, are you born at a hospital? Are you born at
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home? What’s it like? So that varies a lot too. Over the last probably 15 10 15 years. A lot more have
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been born in a hospital. I I know there’s some people in our community all of them were born at home. Half of them
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were born at home. And then also some were born in a hospital. Now me and my all my brothers, we were all born in the
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hospital. So Okay. But it all varies varies from family to family most of the time. Um, are you
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allowed to use like municipalities like a hospital and like a public park and those sorts of things? Like where does
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the line differ between if you’re Amish and you just straight up supposed to be at the house, you know, like using chalk
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and just eating butter, you know, out of each other’s hats and then the line where you’re supposed to be able to like
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go to public parks and go to like non- Amish events and stuff. Oh, so like like me going to your
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concert like that would that would not be like that. keep it keep that on the down low. But Samish I know Samish they
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go to like de leopard concerts and when they’re like around my age you know like
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‘ 80s rockish likeish that like party and stuff they they like8s rock country
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and then I’m not sure how you call the music but it really bumps when you turn it all the way up that ‘8s rock. No, it’s like some I
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wonder if like it’s like when it’s like like boom boom boom. Is it kind of darker artists? Do the dark do the artists?
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Uh not you mean like like the Suicide Boys or Oh, Suicide Boys are great. It’s not the Suicide Boys. It’s more
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like like David Ghetto like uh I think I said David Gua. Yeah. Oh, I see what you’re saying. Oh, like
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uh EDM house, that sort of stuff. I I don’t never know know what you call it, but yeah, if you turn that stuff all
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the way up, it really shakes something up. Like like if you if you have like a big like stereo system in like a in like
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a building, that building starts shaking. Yeah. So that’s pretty cool. And the Amish, they really feel that. You can feel really feel your barn raise
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when you hear that. Huh. Oh yeah. But like that stuff we only do in the weekends. That that stuff is kind
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of like No, that’s secret. Yeah. Hell yeah. So do the listen to Morgan Wallen ever
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or no? Uh yeah, dude. I have a buddy actually my coworker at he lost Mark and Wallen
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and he’s he’s in Rome Springer, too. So he he wants to go to his concert one time. So that that would be fun, you
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know. I thought your concert was pretty cool, too. The music that they played in the beginning. Yeah. I’ve never really heard that music
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before, but like it was like I was jamming out to it and it was really really fun.
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Thank you, dude. Yeah, we play um a lot of times at our shows. There I am right there with your hat you brought to me. That was in Seattle.
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Um 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
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jazz New Orleian music. I think it puts people in a mode of like they’re going to, you know, some type of artistic like
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brain space instead of just some like music you hear all the time, you know? Yeah. It’s like I was I was kind of
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surprised like or not really surprised, but I never really I never really heard that music before.
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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
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since then I’ve just enjoyed listening to them. Yeah. Um, so that’s their horns and stuff. Yeah. Wow. And that’s that’s what makes all
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the like the great sounds. Yeah, they do a great job. Wow. Do you guys have instruments um in uh in
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your Amish village? Is it called a village? So, um it’d be considered a district. A
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district would be like different parts of church because there can be one big community but there can be like four to
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12 different districts of like the church where the rules are a little bit different here and there but like mostly be be
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called a uh a community. A community. Yeah. So the areas you live in kind of
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delineates where you go to church at? Yeah. Kind of. Or Yeah. That can you go to any church or if you live in a certain area you kind of go to a
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certain church cuz it’s close. So in the area you always if the Amish move somewhere it’s usually for a certain
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church in a certain area and we don’t have church like houses and stuff like
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not like some I seen like like really big churches they were like they were went almost like up to the sky and
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stuff. Yeah. They got some churches that are trying to do a lot like do you need all that? Yeah. Like those things are really high.
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So all of our church happens at uh uh at our homes like
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Oh yeah. So like so we take turns taking church. So
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so different weekends different uh families will take church. Yeah. And another thing that Dish do is
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uh we have church every other weekend. So So how it works is church here and
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then that gives them enough time to you know move church to the next place. Then
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you have to pick up all the books, pick up all the benches and then move it over
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to your place. You also have to make all the food and then people people come and help you. Oh, I see. So, it’s part of the culture
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is like it’s kind of exciting when you get to have church at your place cuz then everybody’s coming there. Yeah. Well, it it it can be, but also
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it’s a bit of like Oh, man. Church is at our place. We got to get ready. Oh, we got to clean up. Yeah. You got to clean up. Get ready.
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Be on our best behavior. Yeah. Trim the cat. Trim the cat. Well, our cats actually stay in the barn cuz the Amish don’t
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really have cats in in the house, dude. Our cats, they’re like self-sufficient. They’re kind of Amish, too. But like we
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put dog food there. I think they they might they might sneak a little bit of that. I could see some of them sneaking a little.
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But sometimes I see cats coming up the pasture. They got like a chipmunk or a bird. I don’t think they’re I don’t
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think they’re big enough or fast enough to catch a squirrel. I am alarmed at uh how many non how many
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regular people What do you call regular people? Non Amish or do you So if we’re if we’re talking English, we
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call regular people uh English people. But if you’re talking in Pennsylvania Dutch, if you want a literal translation
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translation of it, it’s we call them hoh, which a literal translation is high
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people. But what it means, what that means is like people that are allowed to get high
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that are non Amish. But we have like a neighbor that guy’s from like Australia like I think it’s called land down under
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stuff like Yeah. basically where all the kangaroos live. Oh yeah, there’s kangaroos, sharks. There’s definitely there’s just people
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that will drink beer. There’s a couple down syndrome guys down there who drink beer out of the oven. That’s crazy. And I even saw some guys
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like they they drink they take off their shoe and they like pour like like some stuff in their shoe and drink it right
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out of Yeah, it must have special feet or something. Yeah, I think they must have uh Look at
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these guys right here. And they’re Australian. Oh, wow. What are they doing? Look at this. is he pulls a hot beer
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right out of the oven. Wa, that’s pretty cool. He starts chugging it at one point. He
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doesn’t care. Oh, but these guys are Australian. Oh, wow. So, they’re they’re you know, they’re a bit shorter, too.
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Yeah. A lot of rugby headto head that’ll keep your spine down. Yeah. Especially if you’re like I
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thought if you be upside down like on the bottom side of the world, you your spine would like go.
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Not these guys. Wow. I think they missed a uh they missed a column, dude. L5S nun, dude. These guys
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missed something. Um, something like that. Um, so non Amish people, you call them hohiller.
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Hohillers. Hoer. Hoer. There you go. You’re almost Amish now.
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Oh, welcome. You’re You’re welcome. It’s not offensive though. Ho. No, no, no, not at all. That’s a It’s a
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It’s not a like Dish don’t see it as offensive. It’s it’s just a a term to describe something like our horses, you
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know, some are standard bred, you know, and then some are brown, some are black. We even have some like like white horses
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with like black spots on them. Oh, yeah. We’re getting a lot of that outside of Atlanta. We get a lot of that. Yeah. Where’s Atlanta?
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Uh Atlanta, have you heard of it? Oh, Atlanta like Georgia. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I’ve heard of it. I’ve never
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been there. I I heard they like that’s close to where like the Dukes of Hazard were made, I think. Yeah, I think it is actually. I love the
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Dukes of Hazard. I do too. Yeah. I used to have a the DVD player. I don’t have it anymore. I used
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to have a little DVD player. Really? And then Yeah. I watched a little bit Dukes of Hazard, but the the only bad
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part was the DVD player. It was before I had a battery and stuff that I had to go
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charge it somewhere else. And this before I had a B like all prepared, you know, that way I don’t run out of power.
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I used to watch watch them a lot because us Amish we have the ones that are in
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room we have like uh we have DVDs and stuff my coworker Alley he’s he’s pretty
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he’s pretty stacked when it comes to DVDs cuz he’s got like like a drawer full of like all kinds of movies.
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Is he allowed to have it or not? Not really. But like his like I his parents I think they kind of know but
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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
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of Ash, but he had like lots of other different ones like like Smoking the Bandit,
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like Grumpy Old Man. Oh, yeah. Walter. Those are really funny. And I think he’s
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like he wants to get or like Fast and Furious, too. Oh, he’s trying to get wild, huh?
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Yeah. Like he’s pretty crazy. It sounds like it if he’s trying to do all that. That’s a lot. What about
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Little House on the Prairie? Do you guys ever watch that? I’ve seen a little bit on that. Like couple hotties on there. Yeah. Like the the ones they almost uh
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You mean like the like Laura? I mean that’s a child, but I mean Yeah. I don’t even know who the mom. I’m talking about the mom.
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Oh, the mom. Yeah, Caroline. Yeah. Oh, yeah. She’s cute. Yeah, kind of. But isn’t she like really
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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
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lot of biohacking and stuff now. But I’m just saying a lot of beautiful ladies on here. Yeah, definitely. And and now would this
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would this something in Amish culture if you see these dames is that these young ladies is that something you’re attracted to growing up because this
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almost had they almost have like an a little bit of an Amish feel to them? Yeah. What do you mean like a like uh
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like a settler ver like would this be a girl like if you’d have seen this when you were 12 or something and you look at
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Mary Engles right here the older sister you’d be like oh she’s cute. Yeah I would. And that’s okay. Yeah that’s okay.
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Okay. Yeah. I’m just curious cuz we grew up watching this and it was great. They’re remaking this right now. Oh,
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they’re making a new season. Yeah. That’s pretty cool. I know. So, dude, that one guy has white hair on his
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beard. He must getting be getting old. Yeah, that guy, he’s actually I think that guy’s deceased. But, um, you
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mentioned being on Rumspringer, right? Yeah. So, you’re on Rumspringer right now? Right now? Yep. Okay. How does Rumsparinger start? How
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long does it last? Who gets to go on it? Okay. So, pretty much everyone goes on
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it. I’ve I’ve heard of where like families like didn’t let their kids go on it, but
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like that has happened, but like they when that sometimes when that happens like the kid just leaves and like he
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becomes becomes English and Oh, cuz they feel they can’t they’re not allowed to that the family’s not
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following the rules. No, the everyone can go in room like Room Spring. Everyone does it. every single now every single like every
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single community that does Rome Springer like like they usually go on cuz what
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happens is around 16 16 and a half you go you join Rome Springer which we what
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we call the the Yua yeah which basically means the what was it like young young people
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kind of the youth the youth yeah youth there you go that’d be a better word for it so you’re picking up the
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Yep the sense yep So that’s when you go to like singins after church.
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Mhm. Now I never I never really really went went to one because when I went on Room
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Springer the church was kind of already going down cuz our church kind of it’s
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kind of split up now. Actually our bishop kind of he kind of booked out. He kind of decked out. So
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yeah. So right now there’s there’s we still have church but it’s like only like an hour like hour and a half and
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and so there’s a lot of Amish around us. They’re they’re still Amish and then but they’re not a member of the church
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anymore cuz when it opens in the Schwarz and troopish Wait wait wait wait wait when what opens
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like so when the when the church doesn’t come to agreement for like a for a while
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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
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know get out of the no longer be a member of the church and doesn’t require to have to follow the rules. Uh that’s
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only that’s only when you’re like joined the church already. Okay. So members of the church if the
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church is if for some reason there’s diff there’s some problem within that church where they’re not able to uh like
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maybe obviously there was a problem with the bishop you’re saying. Well the like the like the people in the community and the bishop and like the
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like there was there’s argument. Yeah. They were not agreeing on the same things. Okay. Understood. So there was a disagreement and so the bishop left.
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Yeah. Well, that’s actually this is a very rare thing to happen. The bishop just like it was months. It was probably
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over a year of like this stuff happening, but it was usually like the like the smallest things and I think it
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like anoint some of the uh like the people in there congregation.
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Yeah. like some of the some of the members cuz I know I know if a guy like they came to his house cuz his certain
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cuz his the curtains on his window were like not the right shade of blue or or even the reflectors on the bies cuz some
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our bies don’t have that many reflectors. Not compared to like bies in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania cuz they
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got like that big uh big reflector plate. Yeah, like that triangle thing. Flashy, huh? Yeah, it is flashy. And yeah, we don’t
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have we don’t have that reflection. Actually, go to the left. That bucky that’s white horse.
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One more right there. Yeah, right there. That’s yours. That’s how our bies look like. And there were there was what was the reflector on the
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front or the back of a bucky like that? And uh they didn’t like that. So the bishop had too many reflectors on
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his buggy. No, like the members had too many reflectors on their bucky and they got they got after him for that. Oh, the bishop got after him for it.
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Yeah. Like the bishop though the bishop doesn’t even live in this community. He lives down there because our bishop
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before he actually actually died in a house fire. So, no. Yeah, like the whole the whole house
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burned down. And how what happened? A candle. I don’t know. I don’t think it was a candle. I think I think it was something
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with a stove in the wash house. And this was a hot fire. It was 20. It was 20
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below. And this hot fire, I was told it was hot. And it was And maybe it wasn’t
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20 below, but it was definitely 10 below or so. And like the fire just kept burning.
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The fire just kept burning and the when the when the people came out the like the people in the red the people like
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what do you call like firemen? Yeah. That they had to like keep the water around us so our hoses wouldn’t freeze. It was really cold
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and the the his wife actually survived and apparently when she came out it was so hot she just laid on the snow and like
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she was fine for a little bit but she had like actually a little bit of burns and stuff like that. Do they think she started it or no?
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No, I don’t think so. I cuz we don’t have insurance. Like we don’t have life insurance and stuff. So
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I think it was I think it was an accident. But that that wouldn’t be too funny if she like thought she had life insurance.
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Yeah. That that would be Wouldn’t that be like illegal? Between the Hohlet That happens all the time. The Hoh are always killing their
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spouses for insurance money. That’s not very nice. That’s like That isn’t that murder? Yeah.
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That sure is. That’s not very nice. And dude, not only is it murder, what? But it’s murdering for money. But
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I guess if you don’t have life insurance and you don’t have to worry about it. Yeah. It’s kind of nice. Yeah. And so go ahead, kill me. You won’t get
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anything. Yeah. That’s kind of idea. Yeah. So yeah, damage like damage like like back
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in the wars, I think the government tried to force us like to go to wars, but we’re like pacifist and stuff like
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Yeah. Yeah, we’ll we’ll like wrestle and stuff when we’re younger and and and and then also sometimes maybe argue, but
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other than that, like we don’t like kill each other. The are pretty peaceful. Yeah. And then Yeah, cuz back in like
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the wars and stuff like we we just did like all the cooking and the cleaning and the like saving people too.
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Is that true? Let me read that right here. World War I. The Amish were subject to the military draft in US wars, but due to their religious beliefs
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as pacifists, they were usually classified as cons conscientious objectors and assigned to non-combatant
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or alternative service roles. World War I and two Amish men were drafted, but most received farm deferments or
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performed non-combatant services. Some were sent to army camps and suffered abuse when refusing military service
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entirely. And in rare cases, some were in prison for refusing all forms of service. Yeah. Like the Amish the And where the
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Amish came from like like they went through a lot of stuff. Like there’s a there’s a book actually
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where Amish came from was like from the Anabaptist. Like those were all like those were like the like the OGs. They
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came all the all the way from the Catholic church. Really? Like the OG’s you’re saying? Yeah. Did the Amish have to fight to establish
21:43
themselves in America? uh that I’m not actually very sure, but I know like when
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when uh like when back I think it was back in the 70s I think that they had to
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fight like court and stuff. I think they went through a lot of like court stuff, but like for that stuff, I think they
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did. But also like the government also agreed because this is like a free country and stuff. And um while not
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armed struggles, the Amish sometimes faced legal and social battles, especially regarding education and their
22:13
right to practice their faith freely. Notably in the 20th century, they opposed laws that would force their
22:19
children into public high schools, sometimes resulting in imprisonment or property laws for Amish parents. Wow. So
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they’ve had to fight to to maintain their way of life. Yeah. So there must be a lot of pride. Is there a lot of pride in being Amish?
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It like it varies from community to community, but yeah, like uh there there is pride in being Amish. Like we don’t
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believe in being prideful, but that’s like something like you feel good about, right? See, it’s a little bit different
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than being like being like um egotistical about and just having some like confidence in your in your uh
22:50
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baby. Baby. So, do you are do Amish people have to go to public school or do you go to your
24:20
own school? We go to our own school. Do you have a school house? Yeah, we have a school house. I sent pictures of at the schoolhouse too. That
24:27
white building. So, the building in the front there, that’s where uh where all the horses kept. Now, since I’m more
24:34
kids, we had to build another like little shelter for the horses. So they that was down there and
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Oh, for the horses. Yeah, for the horses. I thought you meant the cheerleaders or something. No, we don’t have cheerleaders cuz that
24:45
would be like they’re like like they barely wear clothes and stuff. It looks like they’re in their underwear.
24:50
That’s too much. Yeah, I’ve never I’ve never loved a basketball game so much that I got in my underwear for it. Yeah, that’s right. That’s that’s a bit
24:57
odd. And like even when they go odd when they go to the beach and stuff like they’re just in their underwear.
25:03
Some of them get dressed up more for the beach even. Yeah, it’s crazy. Yeah. Like they get more dressed down.
25:09
Yeah. Yeah. But but so you go to school there, you put your horses in the front building. Yep. Okay. And does does everybody have their
25:16
own horse or sometimes people come in groups? Yeah. Like one family usually has one horse and then like we have building
25:23
like a building and then like one through 8th grade is like we all sit in
25:29
there then. So that’s all in one room and then there’s usually one teacher. So one year we actually had like 25 kits in
25:36
like one building. That was like the most we ever had and then and it varied from year to year. So like we started
25:44
out with like 10 and then as it went up 14 16 20 and then 25 and then it kind of
25:50
slowed down like came down from there. But yeah like first that’s where I went to school first through 8th grade and
25:56
everyone’s sitting in the same room and then we have classes too. Is it pretty cool? Uh it can be if you
26:02
make it, but it was I didn’t really like school when I went to school. So what and what when does the school day
26:08
start? So that’s usually if I remember right it was like was 8:30 I think 8:30 school
26:15
starts and then we sing like three four hymns and then that usually lasts 15 20
26:21
minutes and then we start reading reading classes and then it depends on the teacher. Some like to go from eighth
26:27
grade down and others like to go from first grade up. So, and then after that it’s it’s uh it’s recess like 15 minutes
26:36
and then usually arithmetic classes and then till we do arithmetic until lunch
26:43
which is like around 11:30 and school goes out like only only for a little bit
26:48
for like an hour. Do you go home for lunch or no? Uh no no we we pack our lunch we eat at school. We sit at our desk and eat and
26:55
then usually that takes like around around 20 minutes, 15 20 minutes and
27:00
then we go out and play different games and we play like uh what was it? Oh
27:06
yeah, we played we played a game that we call rapid. It’s where like the like the animal rabbit.
27:12
Rabbit. Yeah, like rabbit. And then so what you do is there’s a person in the middle as
27:17
a ball like Easter like that little like a Easter. Yeah, like a like a bunny like so. Yeah, we call it hassa.
27:24
Hasa. Yep. Hasa. That’sa. That’s the Amish word for rapids. Rapids.
27:29
So, we used to throw the ball up and it was if someone threw it. So, it’s kind of like that. I got to get
27:36
better explain this, but it’s kind of like dodgeball. You have two base or two base on each side and then there’s a
27:41
person in the middle. He’s got like a ball. Sometimes we use a basketball. Sometimes we use the the tennis ball.
27:48
Tennis ball was like my favorite because you could throw it better and it wouldn’t hurt as much if it hit you.
27:54
Okay. Cuz you So you’re you’re supposed to throw it five up five times and if you throw it up five times and no one runs
28:00
through to the other base, then you can go in one base and count to basically do
28:05
a countdown. And then if no one goes off that base and goes through before you die, you can just even though they’re on
28:11
base and go touch them and you know get them out. Oh, they can actually physically catch them. Yeah, we’ll catch them and take
28:17
them down. And but would this would this be a game boys would play with boys or Everyone everyone would play. The
28:22
teacher would even help too. So really Yeah. So like it depends on like
28:28
it depends how rough like the the harder you tried to get away. I guess you you
28:34
accepted the roughness and you were basic you run through and try not to get caught and then you then
28:40
someone takes you down on the ground. You crawl you crawl for the base. It’s like it’s almost like Vietnam and stuff.
28:46
I’ve never been there, but No, but no, we’ve seen pictures. We all understand exactly what it was like. Yeah.
28:51
Um that’s unbelievable, dude. So that So that was a popular game. Rappa. Rap it. Like
28:57
like the like the Easter Bunny. Rap it. Yeah. And then what did girls do? Do they play
29:02
this game or what did girls who were definitely girls? Like some girls played this game, but what did like the real
29:08
girls do? Like the real girls always like we always were together. Like we always we always helped each other play.
29:13
Oh, everybody played the same stuff. Yeah. But it like when it was like a rainy day or something like sometimes we play board games and then not as much
29:21
but most times like we all played with each other cuz we didn’t know stuff yet. Oh yeah. Yeah.
29:26
Yeah. Cuz we don’t get taught that stuff in school or anything. Like what do you mean? Like the uh about girls and we don’t
29:34
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.
29:39
Yeah. Are you allowed to flirt at school? Like at some point, do people feel some attraction? Like, do you think like
29:45
uh maybe maybe So, the school I went to, I I couldn’t really do that because uh
29:51
pretty much everyone I went to school with was either first or second cousin. Oh, I feel that, brother. Yeah.
29:57
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
30:04
and reszoning. Yeah, we got to like re like reszone like move out, move in. That’s what
30:09
that’s what a lot of Amish been doing around us and moving out to different communities. I guess it’s a good thing
30:14
then you can you know you know spread the family tree cuz sometimes the tree becomes a bush.
30:20
Yeah. For sure like intertwin with each other. The Amish population experiences a strong founder effect meaning that their
30:26
gene pool originates from a small number of original settlers. Most Amish people are distantly related because nearly all
30:33
Amish in America descended from a small group of about 200 to 500 founders who immigrated from Germany and Switzerland
30:39
in the 18th century. The genetic closeness increases the likelihood of certain inherited conditions with some rare genetic
30:45
disorders much more common among Amish than in the general US population. Do you guys have um Oh, this says cousin
30:53
marriage. Marriages between cousins do occur. Not first cousin, second cousin does.
30:58
Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure, buddy. But that like it’s not really it’s not really uh like uh forward like, “Hey,
31:07
you can marry your second.” But but it does happen. But if it happens, it happens. Yeah, it happens. It happens. You’re already close. You might as well
31:13
be closer. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. I don’t know how cuz we don’t have like any family tree and stuff.
31:19
You don’t? No, but we do have like a big book that that tells us like all Amish communities like in certain states like
31:27
who like basically a dictionary for for like Amish people and who’s related to
31:32
who and Oh, you have that. Yeah, it’s basically like Google for the Amish when it comes to like finding
31:37
like, oh yeah, this person’s related to this or how old is this person and it’s
31:43
kind even got their like addresses and stuff and so Oh, nice. Yeah. It’s like a book where you can go look and see who’s who and how old.
31:49
Yeah. and how many kits they have and when the kids were born. So that’s pretty cool. Oh yeah, right. That’s kind
31:54
of how it is, but it’s a little bit different than that. Okay. Because they put like they like they put
32:00
like two different was it two different names on the front like whoever like put it together and stuff cuz some cuz some
32:06
Amish like like they know like who who’s related to everyone. It’s like it’s almost like
32:12
they’re like they’re happy I get I guess you could say. And they they like like they’re happy. No, they’re hobby.
32:17
Like hobby. Like their It’s their Oh, it’s their hobby. Like h O B Y.
32:23
Like rap. Like rap it. No. Hobby. Yeah. Like like like hobby. Like it’s something they like to do in
32:29
their spare time. Yeah. Yeah. That’s what it is. Genealogy. Put it together. Oh yeah. You got to somebody’s got to know who’s
32:35
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.
32:41
Uh no. Cuz everyone in the school like they drive there with a horse and bucky. So, it’s fairly close cuz we have like
32:48
Let me think. I I I think it’s like half at least a half a dozen schools in our
32:53
in our like community. Okay. Yep. And how do you decide what school you go to?
32:58
Whichever you live closest to. That’s it. Yep. Do they have like learn like we’re they were talking about like obviously when
33:04
cousins get together things can get crazy and you might get get one of the Lord’s remixes out there or disabled they call
33:12
out here in America. Mentally disabled. Yeah. Um, autism, Amishism. I’m sure you guys
33:17
are seeing it. Somebody will just raise a barn with their eyes, you know, just put a nail through a 4×4 with their just with their
33:24
with just, you know, with just a blink of an eye. I don’t know if we have autism, but like we have like some with Down syndrome.
33:31
Yeah, cuz my great uncle uh he has Down syndrome and stuff. He’s like Yeah, he’s like he’s like 57 years old. So,
33:37
And he’s awesome, huh? Yeah, he’s pretty awesome. cuz me and him uh me and him I don’t like I I just
33:43
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
33:49
why but apparently I used to tease him a little bit too. I kind of feel bad for him now. I thought like I think it was
33:55
like 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.
34:01
Yeah, cuz I I thought I was having fun. But but he could carry a lot of wood. Oh, yeah. He could carry a lot of wood
34:07
and he was pretty cool. And and he passed away. No, he hasn’t passed away yet, but I
34:12
heard recently he’s like he’s not doing doing too good anymore. But but he’s still he’s still like surviving
34:18
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,
34:23
Timothy. Let me look that up. How old do the uh how old do the down syndrome get, if you don’t mind pulling that up there?
34:29
Yeah, it might be it might be like because he’s Amish that he’s like
34:34
that he’s clocking more time. Yeah, cuz it’s probably harder probably a Down syndrome being out under the bright
34:40
lights of regular life than it is out there just slurping in the moonlight. Yeah. The average life expectancy for
34:46
individuals with Down syndrome is now about 60 years with many living into their 60s and 70s thanks to advances in
34:53
medical care and social inclusion. That’s awesome, dude. McDonald’s must not be getting to them anymore. That McDonald’s, huh? Yeah,
34:58
it was really hampering them. Well, there was a time when like um McDonald’s a lot of their employees had
35:05
Down syndrome. Oh, really? Bring that up. And then so it it caused a lot of people to take people there
35:11
with Down syndrome. So then they were eating all this McDonald’s and it was like not good for them. No, it’s like it was like backing them
35:17
up. Yeah. Um but McDonald’s was hiring a hella down. Um Wow.
35:24
They had the whole I never knew like places like that had uh
35:29
Oh, yeah. Especially now. Now there’s coffee shops in America and everybody that works there has Down syndrome.
35:35
Shane Gillis owns one. He’s a comedian. Wow. So yeah, I heard Shane Gillis was around Amish, too, when he was when he
35:41
was younger. Yep. He grew up around the Amish. He’s famous. Some people said he has Down syndrome, some people said he doesn’t. I
35:46
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 and he has Down syndrome.
35:53
Chris Nick. Oh, bring him up. What’s What’s an Iron Man? It’s like the toughest competition ever.
36:00
Oh, there he is right there. Wow. What are the conditions of an Iron Man?
36:06
Just so we’re clear on it. is one of a series of long-distance
36:11
triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corpor Corporation consisting of a 2.4 mile swim,
36:19
112 mile bicycle ride and 26 mile run completed in that order.
36:25
Wow. Think you could do it? No. I’d have to I’d have to like build three barns in a day and like like run
36:32
up and down to the house a couple times. Yeah. Oh, you’d have to jack and gel a million gallons of water, dude. Yeah.
36:38
Even if I had Down syndrome, I don’t think I could do it. No, it’d be really hard to do. Like even though I’m like I I think it even be
36:45
hard for the Amish people because first we we need to learn how to bike. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz we can swim cuz like the
36:50
rivers and stuff. Are you allowed to have bikes or no? Like we can sneak them. But Oh, you sneak them, huh? Yeah. But like the Amish over in like uh
36:57
Indiana and Ohio and even Pennsylvania, they got like scooters and stuff. Uh-uh. Yeah, they do it. But they got like the
37:03
low riders, like the ones that are like really close to the ground. Oh, yeah. The Amish. Yeah, the Yeah, that you like stand on and stuff.
37:10
Not the ones that you like sit on. Oh, I see what you’re saying. So, not the motorized ones.
37:15
No, not not the motorized or the ones with like pedals and stuff. Yeah, they had them one ar they had one
37:21
shoot or farming on one of these, I think. Oh, like was he doing it on the on the horse or like the scooter?
37:27
I think the scooter. Oh, and they have a lot of Mexican Amish too now. The Amish they call them.
37:33
Yeah, I saw like there were a couple like Mexican Amish. I was like cuz I read like a couple years ago there was
37:39
this Mexican Amish guy. He popped up like he was he looked fully Mexican. He looked like he he came from Mexico and I
37:45
think someone must adopted him. It sounded like that and like he could speak like like he could
37:50
speak like the Mexican language and then he also speak like Pennsylvania Dutch too.
37:56
Hell yeah. Yeah. I love that, man. Yeah, dude. And that must be the craziest if you’re Mexican
38:01
because then you’re like, “Holy I still have to do all this construction myself, you know? Like if you’re Amish
38:07
Mexican, people expect you to build stuff.” Yeah. Faster than anybody. Yeah. Cuz Mexicans and Amish, we go back
38:13
and forth. Like we look who can build the fastest. If you have both. Yeah. Now, when it comes to
38:18
sheetrocking, I have to say Mexicans are definitely faster cuz they got them long like like those metal things that I
38:24
think they’re called stilts. Oh, really? So, they’re good at sheetrocking. Yeah. They I I saw a video of them. They
38:30
like held their tape measure and then walked over and the one guy real tall
38:35
looking guy if he had like long legs. He he was on stilts and stuff. He had almost touched the ceiling. What? Um tell me about this. When you go
38:42
to Rumspringer, how do you go? Is there a day that you go? What happens? You hit what age? And how does it start?
38:49
Uh it’s kind of just it’s kind of kind of spontaneous when it happens. You’re like roughly roughly 16 and a half when
38:55
it happens and your parents are like like you can go and then you kind of just just go like one day.
39:01
Do they sit you down at dinner and tell you? Do is it like a an announcement at school? Is it at church? How does it
39:06
happen that they say we’re going to allow you to go to Rum? Uh it’s not it’s not really an announcement. It’s just kind of like,
39:12
hey, you can you can go there and then you probably have a couple rules, you know, don’t do this, don’t do that, but
39:18
you’re probably going to do it anyway. Really? Yeah. And so is there a moment that an actual day that you leave like do you
39:23
say goodbye and Oh no no no. So when Rome Springer happens and you go to Rioa like you
39:28
still live at home and stuff you you’re still Amish and then you you just do stuff on the weekends that you’re not
39:34
supposed to. When do you go back to your Amish country though? Like when do you go back to your district to your to your home?
39:41
So when when you’re in Roinger you’re always you’re always at home. So don’t like the like so what happens if you go
39:48
you’re in room spring for like it’s usually around four to five years it it always depends and then the when you get
39:55
baptized is 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
40:02
the same time you’re also becoming a member of the church. Okay. So you hit about 16 or something
40:07
and your parents say that you can go now. Yep. And that means on the weekends you can go do what you want.
40:12
Yeah. Kind of. And if if they don’t hear too much about it, you’re fine. Then you’re doing fine. Yeah. Cuz sometimes you can be like,
40:18
“Hey, you can’t go this time.” Okay. Yeah. And now do some people choose to stay out in Rome Springer and not come back
40:25
to the church. Do you have that option or that’s not Yeah. Where like people like leave and become exams. Yeah.
40:30
And you that can happen. Yeah. And then when like Rome Spring ends, it’s it’s roughly around 20 to 21.
40:36
That’s usually when people get married or sometimes, you know, like all of a sudden they realize they have a kid and
40:41
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
40:48
quickly married or like like my cousin like the his my cousin Frank like uh he
40:57
he was Amish. No, like he like his parents like they realized they had him
41:03
that when they were still like on Roomspring and Amish, so they just left. Wow. Yeah. So So your cousin his his parents were both
41:11
on Rumspringer. Yep. Both Amish. Yep. They one of them got pregnant. The woman
41:16
The woman. Yeah. And then they realized at that point that they had to leave. Would they have been welcomed back into the church or
41:22
No. Uh like So what happens if that happens? either you would leave or you like
41:27
almost become married right away cuz that has happened a couple times. Actually, it happened for my parents to
41:32
to quickly get married. Okay. So, you have to make that quick choice. Yeah. Now, if you decide to leave, are you
41:37
shunned? Are you allowed to come back? What is it like like once you allow once you decide to leave?
41:43
So, if you leave and you’re already a member of the church, you’ll get you’ll get shunned from it. And then if you’re
41:49
not a member, like on Rome Spring, if you leave it, it varies on the parents a lot. like on my dad’s side like they
41:55
they wouldn’t really for the longest time they wouldn’t really be happy or wouldn’t really talk to their kids when
42:02
they came came and visit once that examish on my mom’s side they were like that for a little bit too like in the
42:08
first but on my mom’s site now when the when the ex Amish kids come back they’re
42:13
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
42:20
my on my dad’s side they’re just a little a little bit iffy, but they’re way better than they were.
42:25
I see. So, they’re coming around a little bit more than they used to, but probably in your grandfather’s generation, if somebody was shunned,
42:31
they might not talk to them. Yep. That’s how it is when you get when you get shunned. Uh, you’re not supposed
42:36
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
42:43
you’re not supposed to get a ride from them, too. A ride like uh like let’s say they were driving, the ones that left, they were
42:49
driving and stuff. You’re not supposed to like like ride with them. Oh yeah. If they can’t even stay on the
42:55
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.
43:01
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43:07
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43:13
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43:20
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44:06
That’s shipstation.com/theo. First, actually, you know what? I’m
44:12
going to tap a little. I’m going to have a little sip of Celsius cuz I need a pickme up. Have you ever had this before? No, not this. No. Is it Is it good?
44:19
Yeah. Yeah, it’s grape. I saw Is it grape? So, it’s like really good. I’m going to have to try this stuff.
44:25
Can you have a little bit? Yeah. No alcohol. No al Okay. So, what does it have in It’s like water.
44:32
Oh, mine’s cherry cola flavored. It’s like spicy stuff. It’s like a little bit
44:37
of ADD kind of. Oh, dude. This stuff actually tastes like like the grapes that you squeeze
44:43
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
44:48
that you squeeze out of the h what do you call that? The skin. Have you ever had those grapes where you just squeeze
44:54
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
45:00
grapes. Yeah. They’re they’re uh they’re Yeah, that’s how they look. And those, you
45:06
know how the stores like they have no seeds in them? Like these have like a seed in them. You just squeeze them out
45:11
and then you swallow them because if you try to eat them, like chew on them like um like you just bite into the seat and
45:17
stuff. Oh, you just squeeze them out and swallow them. This actually tastes exactly like that. So it must be very natural.
45:23
Yes, sir. It’s the best, man. That’ll definitely That’ll get you home, brother. That’ll
45:29
get you home. Yeah. So So if this I saw that this does have caffeine in it. Yeah, it has a little bit of caffeine,
45:35
so I’ll be like moving around. Yeah, you’ll be feeling something. Yeah. Um, what has your Rum Springer
45:41
experience been like? Uh, it’s it’s been crazy. I’ve done like the first like year and a half. Well, I
45:47
didn’t do too much cuz I wasn’t 18 yet. But like this summer, I’ve done so many
45:53
crazy things. Actually, last summer I got to drive like a Corvette. That was crazy. Like these two girls, like they
46:00
let me drive their Corvette. A lot of fun. I Oh, yeah. Where did you meet them?
46:05
Uh through my my uncle, my ex Amish uncle Simon. I I met him through them.
46:10
Yeah. And dude, I actually was at their wedding. The like uh the one with the black hair. I was at their like her and
46:17
her husband’s wedding. It was pretty cool. Yeah. And Yeah. So I got to drive a Corvette.
46:23
That thing was really fast, too. Like you step on the pedal a little bit. It was like a horse with like
46:28
like some special oats or something or like put like put some Celsius in their water. Oh yeah, that thing has been
46:34
eating uh Yeah, diesel dipped carrots right there, homie. That horse has got it. Oh, that’s Yeah, they were like they were like
46:41
Well, I think it was overcrowded cuz there’s only like two seats and then and then the she’s like sitting in the
46:46
middle and stuff. Hey, that’s fine though, dude. You got to have at least one chick hanging out of a Corvette. Dude, that’s Rum
46:53
Springer. Yeah, that is Rumspringer. And then do we we we uh they wanted to get a couple
46:59
videos cuz they thought that was pretty cool. Oh, it’s amazing, bro. It’s great to see you out there just trying some different things. What other things did
47:05
you try that you found that you liked and didn’t like out there? Uh uh what was it? Oh, yeah. I also got the
47:12
other the other uh weekend I got to we went to like it was Oaklair, Wisconsin. There was like like an air show where
47:19
they had like the Blue Angel airplanes at all kinds of airplanes. Nice. And then they also like you had to pay a
47:25
little bit. Well, it was actually quite a bit. It was like $200 for like one helicopter, right? And I was like, you
47:32
know, this might be like a week or two of wait just like of of me working, but
47:37
like I want to go on a helicopter ride. So, I was kind of scared to like hold my phone out cuz uh cuz like the
47:44
helicopter’s open and stuff like what happens if you drop it and stuff. But it was really smooth, too. And when we took
47:49
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
47:56
like on a PL piece of plywood and I just started going up. It was like it was crazy and it felt
48:04
really crazy. That’s actually Atley right there. Oh, nice brother. He’s still he’s still Amish at home. He
48:09
he bust his like bust his like cut his hair and stuff. So, wow. That’s exceptional, bro. You got
48:15
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
48:22
longer ride cuz we’re Amish and stuff. And he we like we went sideways on the
48:28
we went sideways on the like on the above the lake and stuff cuz like if you hit water really far off it’s like it’s
48:35
pretty much like concrete I think that we went sideways and almost felt like I was falling off but I had my trusty seat belt on and stuff so we we were pretty
48:42
good. So that was that was a crazy ride but it was actually kind of smooth you know. Uh I was actually more scared when
48:50
I was like couple weeks later. It was like a probably like a month later. It was right after I went to your concert.
48:56
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
49:03
understand. Like the B guy was there. The guy that his parents are like from the Middle East was there. They were
49:08
pretty cool. And then you came out and then I thought it was really funny. This was actually, you know, before the show.
49:14
I was jamming out. I was with my cousin Frank and he was like we were I was just jamming out through the music. Yeah, cuz
49:21
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 here
49:28
God just put us right together, brother. Yeah. God is great. He works. He works in mysterious ways. It seems like
49:34
he’s the magician, man. Yeah. And I decided, you know, Theo would probably I I wanted to give you
49:39
like wear an Amish hat like Oh, yeah. Yeah. Did you give me that hat or not? No, I that was it was my hat. It didn’t
49:46
really fit. Actually, actually, uh I have a little bit of surprise for you. Hey, Frank. You want to bring that over?
49:54
Dude, I got So, what I did over the last week, me and your uh the uh me and your
50:00
some of your strong connections were talking and uh I I they they didn’t quite know
50:06
what size your hat was. So, it’s it’s a bit of an odd thing to like know and stuff, but Yeah, it’s just odd thing to ask a man.
50:12
Yeah, it is. But I wanted uh we got an estimate size and I want to give you this hat. So now you can be like you
50:20
gonna be like part of the Amish Mafia. Oh, that’s cool, dude. Yeah. Thank you so much. And a hat size, that’s just
50:25
like the waist for your head, you know? Yeah, it is. You don’t want to admit you’re a little fat above the ears, you know? Right.
50:30
This has a band in it. Was this the front or the back? That’s the front. Yeah. All right. So that way you always wear the hat, right? Does it fit?
50:37
Oh, it’s a bit loose. Is it a bit loose or Perfect, dude? Perfect. I’m glad I got you the right size.
50:42
Donkey. Welcome. That means uh you’re welcome. Does donkey mean thank you? No. Dangi.
50:47
Dangi. Yeah, it’s the same thing in German. Like, thank you in uh German and Pennsylvania Dutch is the same thing.
50:52
Dangi. Yeah. Heck yeah, dude. Yeah. Now you’re Now you’re part of Amish. You just need the rest of the
50:58
clothes. I feel great, man. Do you think I would make a good Amish person or not? And be honest with me. Uh well, do you do you like break a lot
51:05
of rules and stuff? I don’t know really. I don’t think so.
51:10
Yeah. Like the like if you don’t really break any of the rules, you make a pretty good amish. I could get my mom to
51:16
get you some some Amish clothes for you. Maybe for Christmas I’ll exchange something with you and I could send you something that would be uh that your
51:23
community would accept as well. Are you allowed to accept gifts from people that are not Amish? Yeah, I accept gifts from people that
51:29
are not Amish. Do your parents allow you to? Is that okay? Yep. They cuz they sometimes like we all we had sometimes a guy from uh around
51:36
Christmas time sometimes a guy like brings some stuff and then we like he’s
51:41
done it for a couple years and he like gifts all the younger kids some presents and stuff. Oh, that’s nice. Yeah, it’s very nice.
51:47
Oh, I know you had mentioned before your parents said some stuff not to do during rum spring. Like what was some of that?
51:52
Uh they didn’t they didn’t really say too much, but they they tell me like when uh when I do something they uh that
52:00
they think didn’t think was uh how do I say it was like like probably not the best thing to do
52:06
like appropriate. Yeah. Like not probably like cuz sometimes I do wild stuff, you know,
52:12
like going to Walmart, riding a scooter. Yeah. Cuz that came around and
52:17
But I mean did they have advice against like sex, drugs, things like that? Uh, no. Not like any any like any sex stuff
52:24
that 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
52:31
see see what bites. Damn. So, yeah, we went to Walmart.
52:36
Oh, something will bite at Walmart, dude. Yeah. I was looking at the TVs. They’re like $1,000. Like
52:43
crazy. That’s like a third of a buck. And and a TV doesn’t even go anywhere. It just like sits somewhere. I’d rather
52:49
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.
52:54
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?
53:01
Charades? It’s like somebody acts something out and you have to guess what they’re acting out. Like they impersonate something.
53:07
Oh, you like pretend um so like let’s say uh I was pretending to be the
53:12
bishop. I’d be like like like my like go down here and then big angry look
53:18
maybe scratching your beard maybe going like this or something like this. Yeah. Yeah. Like something like that. No, I’ve never I’ve never played that
53:25
but I kind of know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah. Um but you guys don’t talk about sex within the Amish community much like at
53:31
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
53:37
like a birds and the bees talk like in in h
53:43
that 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 that like all of that stuff
53:50
you 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
53:57
kind of you can figure it out. Like But there’s some stuff you I mean, but
54:02
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.
54:09
Yeah, it’s bad. It is very bad. Yeah. Yeah. Um, since you got into rumor, can you
54:14
get a girlfriend and stuff like that or like what are you allowed to do? Yeah, I can get a like a girlfriend like all that stuff.
54:19
But does she need to be Amish? Preferably. Yeah. But like if I were to get a a like a girlfriend that was not
54:26
Amish, she would either have to become Amish or I would have to like leave like the Amish.
54:31
Do you think that there are a lot of women out there who are willing to become Amish? Does that happen a lot? Uh I know I know of one case where that
54:39
is happening and you know I I don’t know how often it happens but it’s it’s rare
54:44
where it like actually goes through. I know a lot of people want to become Amish, but they’re they’re not ready to
54:50
make the like the final like the final step towards it. So, but yeah.
54:55
What’s the thing that keeps them away from that makes them makes makes people afraid to take that final step? Do you think?
55:01
I think it’s like it’s I think it’s the loss of like like your phone, the lights on the ceiling, the fans on the ceiling,
55:08
the like the vents and holes in the ceiling, like all that stuff, I think. And then like the couch, the TV, and
55:14
then whatever else, you know, like whatever else use.
55:20
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
55:26
is it always negotiable or does the wife have like a responsibility for kind of food and sexuals and stuff?
55:32
Yeah. So the the way like it’s everyone kind of accepts like their like it’s
55:38
just uh how do I say this? It’s like normal and you like it’s where it’s kind
55:43
of like it’s where it’s everyone has a mutual understanding of like what they have to do, right? Cuz like the woman,
55:50
you know, cooks, cleans, you know, takes care of things around the house. And then like if she needs help, she’ll ask
55:56
like the husband uh for like help. And then usually the husband’s, you know,
56:02
gone most of the day working like either building houses, plowing the fields or cutting like lumber or making cabinets
56:09
or even polishing cabinets, stuff like that. Like they help each other when they’re
56:14
when they’re like at like at home like if if it needs. But yeah, like the like the wife does cooking, cleaning, take
56:21
taking care of the kids. Got it. And then stuff in the garden too. Right here it says Amish women mainly
56:27
focus on housekeeping, child rearing, gardening, and food preparation. Many manage home finances, have their names
56:33
on property deeds, and control the family checkbook. Um, women nurture the spiritual life of
56:39
the children, and are active in maintaining Amish cultural practices. Yeah. So, women have a pretty strong voice in
56:45
the Amish community. Yeah. Well, I’d say so say so. Yeah. Yeah. Um, are Amish women good cooks?
56:52
Like, do they make some cool stuff or what are some good Amish meals? Oh, yeah. Like the Amish. The Amish make
56:57
I’d say make some of the best food like especially grandma cuz she had a lot of experience in the like in the field
57:02
stuff or you mean like she has a lot of experience in like the field of cooking and stuff like the her bread sticks.
57:09
They’re like out of this world. Are they? They’re really good. And then my mom’s What do you put on them? Uh, I’m not
57:15
even quite sure. Can you put butter on them or not? Yeah, butter. Yeah, it looks exactly like that.
57:21
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 bread sticks.
57:26
Oh, so they already have garlic on them. Yeah, they And they’re And they’re just They’re really good. And And my favorite
57:32
meal like let’s say we’re doing a lot of stuff like building something or like a frolic where like the whole community
57:38
comes together and a frolic it’s called. Yeah. That’s like when uh the whole community comes together and built something like a barn. Oh yeah.
57:44
Yeah. And then like they’ll make they’ll make some either some chicken or some burgers with mashed potatoes,
57:51
corn, and like I think you would call like like uh it’s like like uh mac and
57:58
cheese. Oh yeah. And then you put some So what we do if our food’s like hot, we put some applesauce on it. Mix it up.
58:04
Really? Yeah. And then it’s nice and cool and then pork and beans. Oh, if the food’s hot, you’ll put applesauce on it.
58:10
Yeah. To like cool it down and stuff. So, like the that’s like one of my favorite meals. And then even better,
58:16
like if you have steak and stuff, like if you have steak, that’s really good. Yeah. And do you have dessert, too?
58:22
Oh, we have we have pretty good dessert, too. Like like pies. Uh Oh, I bet Amish pie is good.
58:28
Yeah, they have. You have sugar or don’t you? Yeah, they they put sugar in them. I’m not sure what they all put in them because I know how to make scrambled
58:34
eggs and that’s about it. Same. Yeah. And yeah, they put what is it?
58:39
Like uh what’s a popular pie that you have or a popular dessert?
58:45
A popular pie is uh shoefly pie is one of them. And then peanut butter pie.
58:50
Shoefly pie. What is it? Yeah, that I I’ve not had it. I’ve not really We don’t have it very often. But
58:57
another pie that’s really good is mince pie. Like uh pumpkin pie. That’s really good. Like apple pie. That’s really
59:04
good, too. God, that’s a good one. Like I want that. Like that stuff is pretty good. Yeah.
59:09
That’s my cousin right there. Oh, really? I’ve seen this woman before. She’s Amish. Yeah. No, she’s ex Amish.
59:15
Oh, she’s ex Amish. She used to be Amish. Yeah. So, she’s my She’s my cousin, actually. Oh, wow.
59:20
Yeah. So, I got I guess famous cousins, too. Um, what are the fears of having a
59:26
girlfriend that’s not Amish? Just that they won’t understand the religion and the culture. like like the biggest fear
59:33
would be like that that 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
59:39
the church? It’s okay. Yeah, it is okay. But like for that to h that rarely ever happens. It’s like it’s
59:45
almost as rare as like the bishop leaving the community. Got it. Would she be welcome if that happened? Yeah, if she was if she was fully Amish.
59:52
Yeah, she would be welcome. Now, she might get little bit of looks in the beginning, but yeah, as long as she’s
59:57
fully Amish, that would be good. Dude, she deserves the looks probably. Yeah. You know what I’m saying? You can you can handle a little bit of looks out of
1:00:03
the gate. Can Amish people tickle each other or not? Is that is that allowed or not? Is that uh Yeah. Like like uh like when we were
1:00:10
little kids, we used to tickle each other. Yeah. Yeah. But like I don’t really tickle anyone.
1:00:15
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think people should keep doing it, but I’m just making sure it’s allowed when you’re kids.
1:00:21
Yeah. And do they play hideand go seek? Like what kind of stuff do people do to pass the time? like either ride horses, the
1:00:27
ponies, like uh pony like pony cars and then also hide like hide and seek.
1:00:33
That’s pretty fun. And then Oh yeah, we play board games or just
1:00:38
play with cars, play with blocks. I I used to play like underneath the porch
1:00:44
or in the garden. I used to we used to have a lot of a lot of like cars and stuff and I used to like pretend there was
1:00:50
like a whole world there in the in the garden. So, mom didn’t really like when I played in the garden when it was like
1:00:56
all the all the corn was up, the potatoes. Like, I actually like playing when it was corn corn was up and then uh
1:01:03
the potatoes cuz there was like it was way more possibilities for imagination. You could have a place here, a place
1:01:10
there. Yeah. Just more creativity going on. Yeah. And but if the it was the garden didn’t work out or either that or just
1:01:17
play under the porch like the porch was like Oh, yeah. like 3 ft high. So the older I got, the
1:01:23
more the more I hit my head on up on the up on the porch. That’s when it’s time to get out. Yeah. That’s when I decided, you know,
1:01:29
if I do play in like when I do play with cars and stuff and out in the dirt, like the the garden is the place to be.
1:01:36
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And do people start dating within the Amish culture at a certain age or is it
1:01:41
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
1:01:46
how does dating and that sort of like adolescent attraction kind of stuff like that where you trying to get you know
1:01:53
you trying to uh you know meet a girl or if you have a first kiss. What’s that? How’s that whole universe in the Amish
1:01:59
culture? So like our school only goes until 8th grade. So we’re out of school and like 13 or 14. So you’re done with school completely?
1:02:05
Yeah. Completely done and then you go to work. Dang. Yeah. So we didn’t we didn’t I don’t
1:02:11
even know what high school is or public school or or like I’ve never been there. Never ever.
1:02:16
I want to go one day. Like high school’s just doing drugs and trying not to die of uh driving while
1:02:22
intoxicated and stuff. Yeah. Like like if if that happen never happens for us like our horse will just
1:02:27
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.
1:02:32
Yeah. cuz if you fall asleep on your horse, you know, it might not be the safest way, you know, cuz you might, you know, go a little bit over on the road,
1:02:39
but as long as the people with like steering wheels and stuff, they’ll be if as long as they’re like okay and stuff,
1:02:44
the horse will like go home and like so the way it works for like dating, if
1:02:50
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
1:02:56
weren’t really allowed to like become like official boyfriend girlfriend. uh
1:03:03
until like until they were 18. Yeah. But like in our community like right now
1:03:09
like like it basically happens whenever now like oh heck as soon as you join like the like room
1:03:15
spring like you can and usually the way you meet and hang out is through singings like after church or at like
1:03:22
weekend parties. That’s us how it is. So weekend parties are those do those happen in your district or those happen
1:03:27
off of property? That it it only it varies where the where the Amish party is. Sometimes it
1:03:32
happens when the like sometimes when the parents aren’t home we go to like uh we
1:03:37
we go to like their place and party there. So at Amish parties will people just like are people drinking and stuff like
1:03:43
that? It’s a little bit more like freewheeling. Yeah. You like drinking and then like even like the vapes things popped up too
1:03:51
like do Amish like to vape or not? Some do. Yeah. Yeah, I knew it. Yeah, some do.
1:03:56
I knew it, too. But also like cigarettes and then sometimes we go like
1:04:02
a pipe too. A lot of almost look like they would smoke a pipe. Older the older ones too. But the like the ones that are the younger ones
1:04:08
usually don’t. They usually stick the cigarettes and stuff like that. But sometimes like we’ll we’ll go to like an
1:04:14
exomish person’s house and party up there. And it’s it’s a lot of fun. It is. And when do if you if you’re
1:04:20
doing rumspring, 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 the rules kind of? No, it depend. It varies from family to
1:04:27
family. Let’s say you have church tomorrow, you probably want to be home like you know before the morning so you
1:04:32
get a little bit of sleep or there’s not not church. You can come home or you can’t just it
1:04:39
just like depends. But usually like when I when I do it I usually don’t come home until like later Sunday.
1:04:45
Okay. Yeah. And do they drug test you or whatever if you’re Amish? Do you have to get drug tested? No. No, we don’t have to do any like
1:04:50
drug tests. Really? Yeah. Like no tests and stuff. Damn. Cuz y’all got y’all’s own year long Halloween going on out there in the
1:04:57
fields. I’m like Yeah. Like sometimes like sometimes in the woods, the fields like just depends where the spot is.
1:05:03
Yeah. Yeah. But now like all Amish that like party and stuff like our number one way
1:05:08
of like talking to each other is through like Snapchat. They’ve really taken over Snapchat. Yeah. Like if you uh if if an Amish like
1:05:17
a young Amish person that is roughly my age, if they have a phone, like a smartphone, they have Snapchat. Dang.
1:05:23
Yeah. So, when was the first time you saw a phone or a screen? Do you remember? Uh, I
1:05:28
think it was one time, it it was not the first time, but I I remember it was one time when one of my ex-ame uncles was at
1:05:35
our place with this girlfriend and and she let me look like a look on her phone and I was like sitting right beside her
1:05:42
and she she grabbed out her phone. She like started texting someone and she was she was flying through like the keyboard
1:05:49
and stuff. you were like swiping little lines and all of a sudden words popped up like it was like it was like bop bop
1:05:54
bop the words like almost as fast as you can like talk and stuff. I was like really surprised. So that’s like that’s like the like I’d say like
1:06:02
the first some of the first memories I’ve seen a phone. Um what things are forbidden in you
1:06:08
guys’ culture kind of? Uh a lot of things are like electricity
1:06:14
um like having a smartphone. We’re allowed to have like phones for like our businesses like phone shacks and stuff
1:06:20
and then TVs. What else? Like b pretty much anything
1:06:25
that like doesn’t have like that that requires like electricity and stuff. And
1:06:31
also like certain certain color of like shirts, dresses, if it’s too bright, it
1:06:37
can also be like like you can the bishop or deacon will talk to you about it.
1:06:42
Oh yeah. Yeah. About like it being the wrong color. Too flashy. Too flashy. Yeah. And also if your haircut’s like way
1:06:49
short. So my my haircut’s like like Okay. Cuz my mom gives me a haircut every time. Oh yeah.
1:06:54
Yeah. So I’ve never actually had a different kind of haircut. Oh yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. So I almost have a mullet. You You
1:07:01
could have probably have an Amish haircut too. Oh yeah. I think I have a little bit. Yeah.
1:07:07
You just let the Just let the hair in front of the ear grow. No, I could have been block a little bit of the sound of like
1:07:13
to the ear and stuff. Yeah, I would have enjoyed being Amish, I think. Man. Yeah. How are regular people and Amish people
1:07:20
different from each other? Have you gathered? How how do they seem different from each other? So, like uh the main thing I’ve noticed
1:07:27
is like uh like a lot of Amish are when they’re in public, it seems like they’re
1:07:34
like bit like bit more respectful. I guess another thing that’s um big I guess like so if we like if we did
1:07:40
something that was big and wrong like some one time my little brother he stumped lots of corn down in our corn
1:07:46
field and and he got a spanking from that like that’s I guess that’s the difference cuz I see a lot of kids don’t
1:07:54
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
1:07:59
should get abused but sometimes the spanking is okay I Yeah, cuz this is like like getting beat up and then cuz
1:08:06
like like cuz we never got like beat up or anything, but like if we did something bad, we got like like three
1:08:12
cracks was like a like a belt or something. Mhm. That but we never got abused and stuff.
1:08:17
So like just I guess discipline. So discipline is something that seems stronger in the Amish community.
1:08:24
Yeah. What are some crimes that they have? Are there any crimes that are popular in Amish land?
1:08:29
I’m not quite sure. Maybe maybe like taxes sometimes cuz I know some people don’t like file taxes and stuff like cuz
1:08:36
the only tax that we get like that are we free from that damage don’t get taxed is like social security tax. So when we
1:08:42
get old the government doesn’t like pay us and stuff. Oh they don’t so you don’t have to pay into that. No. Wow. I wonder why not.
1:08:48
When you join the church uh you you get like the bishop and the government I guess work together
1:08:54
to where you’re like exempt from the social security tax. But that’s like the
1:08:59
only tax that I know of that you’re like exempt from. Other than that, like if but if you don’t file taxes because I
1:09:04
know some don’t. But other than that, we have to pay all the other taxes. The Amish are exempt from Social
1:09:11
Security and Medicare taxes, FICA, if they formally reject benefits and file for exemption due to their belief in
1:09:17
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
1:09:23
insurance for stuff, too. And uh so when Well, hell no. I don’t think you could
1:09:28
insure them, you know. But for business, I don’t I think for businesses, they somehow do it, I think.
1:09:34
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
1:09:40
go to a hospital cuz I know the hospital like they they charge quite a bit. Oh yeah. They they I don’t know where they come
1:09:45
up with the crazy numbers, but they’ll take you through the rum springer, you know. They will they’ll drag they’ll like drag you drag you, dude.
1:09:51
Yeah. It’s like dragging behind the buggy. Yeah. Or like a horse runs away and you’re trying to hang on. and you’re like
1:09:57
scraping across gravel and stuff. But yeah, but like like all the community helps pay for that like if that would
1:10:03
help. So I got it. So there’s a lot of community support at any point in somebody’s life. So you guys might have a day where you’re like,
1:10:10
“Mr. 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.
1:10:16
Yeah. Like for example, what are things you would go help a neighbor do? Uh like
1:10:21
really with anything like putting away hay. We’ve done that lots of times. or like building a barn like we’ve done
1:10:27
that too or like even a house too like if they need a help like a day or so we’ll come together and help each other
1:10:34
and I know back in the day uh we used to help each other uh like
1:10:40
someone does hay and then everyone everyone helps this person do hey hay then that person also like it’s just a
1:10:46
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
1:10:54
Most uh what is it? Oh, yeah. Most Amish they don’t they still farm a little bit, but most of them do like construction or
1:11:00
like building cabinets or Oh, it’s changed. Yeah. So, the Amish are farming less than they
1:11:06
used to. Yeah. Cuz like it’s it’s not as sustainable anymore. Cuz when my dad was growing up, all they do is farm and milk
1:11:12
cows. H like they milk a lot of cows. So, what are some popular products? Like
1:11:18
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
1:11:24
that’s just something that is made up and they claim that Amish do it like like you mean like w furnaces. Now
1:11:30
I I’m not sure quite where those come from that like the furnaces cuz there’s whing to it. Now they might they might
1:11:38
get it from like uh from like a person that’s not Amish get them from there. The biggest shift in Amish economic life
1:11:44
in the last century has been from agriculture to non-farm businesses. Hm. Mhm. In the early 1900s, nearly all Amish
1:11:51
families depended on farming for their livelihood. Today, only about 10% do with the majority now involved in various trades, crafts, retail. Um, and
1:11:58
then for Yeah. What are some of those? Um, construction and woodworking,
1:12:04
carpentry, cabinet making, and now famous Amish furniture shops. That is a big thing now, huh?
1:12:09
Yeah. Quilt making, sewing related trades. Yeah. like selling Amish food too and
1:12:14
quilts and like 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
1:12:21
on your property where people come and buy them or do you take them off property and people buy them there? Us. Usually like like if you have a
1:12:27
greenhouse or like a like a place where where like the
1:12:34
like where you can buy like food and stuff. That’s usually like a little building on the property. So
1:12:40
like a market. Yep. like kind of like a market or like there’s a farmers market where uh where Amish go to like a town for a day and
1:12:46
they they bring all the baked goods and you know stuff like that and there’s also a lot of Amish place like a lot of
1:12:52
places where Amish are where it’s like tours they offer tours and then they bring them around and then
1:12:58
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
1:13:03
couple miles but yeah they bring them around and they they get to see an Amish you know Amish farm I think they’re
1:13:08
called like Amish tourists and like tourist stuff like that. Okay. And then then you can like stop at the
1:13:15
Amish place and like buy something from like the store and stuff. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. We’ve been up there before and
1:13:20
stopped at some places that I think we’re having cheese and ice cream maybe even. Yeah. I’m not sure.
1:13:25
But like usually we only like make ice cream through the winter cuz you just grab the snow out of the ground and put
1:13:31
it in a bucket. And could you make ice cream if you needed to? Yeah. Like if it was if we had ice or
1:13:36
something cold that you put around the around the thing where you make ice cream because you got to crank the ice
1:13:42
cream. Got to like you crank and then the thing in the middle spins around the ice and Oh yeah.
1:13:47
Yeah. So like Amish ice cream is pretty good. What music do you guys listen to? I know
1:13:52
you said in the beginning there’s some different sometimes people will sneak in some de leopard, but if not, do you guys just sing a lot? Is there a lot of Amish
1:13:58
songs and dancing as well or no? Uh no. In our community there’s not really any dancing. There’s the like the
1:14:04
only like the only music songs that are really a louder would be like like German hymns, but then like on the uh
1:14:12
then sometimes we like sneak out on the weekends and stuff and and uh listen to some Soulja Boy or something.
1:14:18
Yeah. Like like uh like what is it like de leopard? Bonchovi, you know, a lot of
1:14:26
Amish like rock and roll and then I guess House EDM music and then also a
1:14:31
lot of country like Gar Brooks, Morin Wallen. Yeah, people like that. But I also listen to like little bit of rap stuff like Amish
1:14:38
Paradise is that’s a pretty good song. Paradise. Yeah, man. Who sang that?
1:14:44
Uh Yankee I did. Oh, that makes perfect sense. That’s groovy. Yeah, Paradise. That’s a pretty I love
1:14:50
that song. That’s a banger, huh? It is a banger. Yeah, he looked a little bit mad there, but it it was a pretty
1:14:56
good song. He’s probably pissed his horse ran off or whatever. Yeah, something like that because like
1:15:01
his horse is pretty good at backing all the way at the end. Yeah. Yeah. And then also like I like to
1:15:07
listen a little bit of like rap stuff too. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like Ghana. Little bit of uh Ghana.
1:15:12
Oh, you listen to some Ghana? Yeah. Like uh like I I don’t really listen to what he says. I looked at the lyrics like a couple times and like
1:15:20
there are there’s the lyrics aren’t aren’t the best, but like I like the way it sounds like like the like the like
1:15:27
the sounds like like wind chimes and then it just it sounds very melodic.
1:15:32
He’s a vibe. Yeah, he’s got it. Yeah. Um what else was I thinking about? Where
1:15:38
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 gonna take that down
1:15:44
and keep this up here. That’s pretty cool. I’m just going to make sure that you’re always here in spirit, dude.
1:15:49
I appreciate that. You bet, man. What I want to ask you something. Um, with the risk of people leaving the community and stuff, are
1:15:56
families still very close or do they only get closer after people join the church? Does that make any sense to you?
1:16:02
Uh, I think I think it does. So, like most of the time the like the family is very close unless like when the when the
1:16:09
kids and the parents like like they don’t agree on stuff and then they leave. That’s like the like the time
1:16:15
when like they don’t they’re not as close anymore. It it depends on the person, I guess, and the parents, too.
1:16:21
Is it pretty heartbreaking when that happens in the community? Yeah, it’s it’s like when I was younger, I was like when someone left, it’s
1:16:27
almost like it’s almost like someone died. Not quite, but it almost felt like that. But since I got older, I
1:16:33
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.
1:16:40
Yeah. I was I was like really skinny when I was when I was younger. I’m still kind of skinny, you know. You look like that guy in Kingpin a
1:16:46
little. You seen Kingpin? No idea what that is. It’s like an Amish movie. It’s like a historical Amish film or whatever.
1:16:52
Oh, I almost look like that dude. Yeah. When he’s younger. Yeah. Not now.
1:16:57
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.
1:17:03
He’s got like a big beard now. Yeah. Yeah. He’s doing okay. Yeah. Um I’m a fan of his. Um, what have you
1:17:10
decided about Rumspringer and what you’re going to do with your family and the church and stuff? Have you made any decisions yet?
1:17:15
Uh, like not yet. Like I the final the final decision will probably be in like
1:17:22
probably within like two years or so. Okay. And then I it depends if I leave or you
1:17:27
know join the church. And well, right now you actually can’t really join the church cuz like there’s no bishop that
1:17:32
you can’t you can join other churches that are like little bit aways in a different district. Mhm. But like, yeah, it probably be like 2
1:17:37
years until I, you know, like make my final decision cuz it’s a kind of a big decision.
1:17:42
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what would be the thing you think that would draw you out of the faith that would draw you out of the church
1:17:48
and out of the district? Uh, I would think like like if I wanted to
1:17:55
do something like something that would like some like something I’m doing right now like this podcast like something
1:18:00
worldly and like they would probably come down on me for like doing something
1:18:05
like that I guess would drive me away a little bit cuz I don’t know it feels a little bit like a little bit restrictive
1:18:12
but like I guess that’s the only thing I would think.
1:18:17
But you don’t feel like doing this podcast will mess up your opportunity to go back or or come or leave. Huh? No, I don’t think it I don’t think it
1:18:24
will. Okay, good. I don’t want that to happen, man. I want you to be able to make the best choice for yourself no matter what. It sounds like a really beautiful
1:18:30
community. Is it? Yeah, it’s it’s very beautiful. I’d say it sounds like you have a lot of like uh
1:18:35
community, a lot of sense of togetherness, you know, a lot of uh like
1:18:41
um you feel do you feel a strong sense of purpose being Amish? Uh
1:18:48
Yeah, like you like the kind of uphold the honor, you know, work hard, you
1:18:53
know, the harder you work the better because you get you stay in shape and then you the more you can help out is
1:19:01
always better cuz I I love helping out people and making people stay. That’s like one of my favorite things to do.
1:19:06
I like doing that. So, it’s a lot of fun. Yeah, I think it’s important, you know.
1:19:12
I think that’s one way we really fill ourselves up is like doing something for somebody else, you It feels good. Yeah. It’s like
1:19:17
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.
1:19:23
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?
1:19:30
You mean the siblings? Yeah. Yeah. Usually like the siblings are usually close, you know? Not like weird
1:19:35
close, you know, just like just like brother and brother. Yeah. Legally close or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Like legally close. So like
1:19:41
usually the brothers and the sisters uh they’re usually the keep the like the
1:19:46
sisters are closer to themselves and the brothers are like closer to themselves. For sure. Yeah.
1:19:51
For sure. And here’s my here’s my little brother. Oh, that’s him right there. E. Yeah. I I like he like he doesn’t like
1:19:59
he doesn’t really uh like he probably wouldn’t care if I put his like face up on like social
1:20:05
media and stuff, but I blurred it out. I put like a thing over his eyes out of respect. Yeah. That’s fun though, you guys. So, a lot
1:20:11
of times when you’re just driving around, hanging out, telling stories and stuff. Yeah. Making each other laugh a lot. Are you
1:20:17
allowed to laugh? Yeah, you’re allowed to laugh. Like we laugh like we like drink coffee and laugh and like at work. At work, we’re
1:20:24
laughing a lot of time. We talk and and cuz like when you’re like I don’t
1:20:30
know if like if like non Amish people I don’t know what they do like when when they like work they do they like talk to
1:20:36
each other and laugh and stuff. Yeah, they do, I think, a decent amount at a lot of jobs. Probably jobs that are more like if you’re doing construction,
1:20:43
things like that, contracting, things where you’re building stuff, working together, where there’s team opportunity, there’s a lot of laughter,
1:20:49
dude. Yeah. Or if you’re just sitting at a desk by yourself, you’re probably just losing your mind. Yeah, that would be that would be kind
1:20:55
of sad. Like being inside all day and, you know, under the under the lights and stuff.
1:21:00
Oh, yeah. I think there’s something that’s kind of like it doesn’t feel very human about it. No. Uh, are there a lot of people on
1:21:05
anti-depressants and stuff that are Amish or No. Uh, not that I know of. There might be like like maybe every like here, here,
1:21:15
and maybe way over there, but not that I know of. No. Do people seem depressed a lot or not
1:21:20
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
1:21:26
are like what do you call those people that are like super depressed? Like sometimes they’re like super depressed. Oh. Um
1:21:33
they’re 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
1:21:41
know of a person that has that and like it’s kind of crazy.
1:21:46
Some studies have found Amish depression rates to be 1/5 to one10enth of mainstream society with strong family
1:21:51
ties and community support side as protective factors. That’s unbelievable. 1/5 to one10enth is insane, brother.
1:21:59
That’s a I mean that’s a huge difference. Yeah. Strong family ties, robust social networks, work ethic, and especially
1:22:04
religious faith are seen as major mental health protective factors. Um, will you guys pray together a lot
1:22:10
just with friends? Like if you see them somewhere, will is that a common practice? No, like like we we only do like at the
1:22:17
table. Got it. Like, but like I know some families do like pray more than we do. We we should
1:22:24
probably do it more. I think that’s how we all feel. Yeah. Do you have Valentine’s Day? Oh, yeah. We have Valentine’s Day at
1:22:30
school. So what happens in Valentine’s Day is uh at school. So when that happens, it would basically we put like
1:22:37
things on a paper and we put into a hat and then we mix it all up and someone walks around with like and then you
1:22:44
reach in and you pick out a name and if you got that name then that’s your val like your Valentine. You got to like
1:22:49
switch lounge pales and then you also have like send a Valentine uh in with
1:22:55
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
1:23:03
uh it’s like it’s probably way different from like like uh from non-Amnian public
1:23:09
schools cuz I’m guessing like like nonomian public schools it would have to be like a like a boy and a girl, right?
1:23:16
Yeah. But in all culture it’s just whatever. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s crazy. And the way
1:23:22
we do it is like just the main the reason we do it is mainly your friends. You give your friends a Valentine and
1:23:27
then the then you also switch like lunch pales and then the moms will usually put something special in there like NX or
1:23:35
candy bar or Yeah. My mom used to buy like those things from Walmart, those like big red hearts
1:23:40
and then send that with too. Oh yeah, that’s nice. Moms do that. Yeah, that’s a nice thing. Yeah.
1:23:45
Um what other holidays? Do you have Halloween? Uh, no. We we uh we don’t
1:23:51
have Halloween, but I’ve had the before I went to room spring, uh, the neighbors, the our non Amish neighbors,
1:23:58
they picked me up and then then um they put me like in a prison prison costume
1:24:04
thing like I at black and white stripes all over me and like we went out and gathering candy. Like you just walk up
1:24:09
to 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
1:24:16
of a lot of Amish like don’t don’t celebrate because like apparently that’s like uh the occasion of like Halloween
1:24:24
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.
1:24:29
Yeah. Um cuz they have some people like real scary stuff in the yard. They got like snakes and then these these dead people
1:24:36
with like skulls and stuff. Yeah. Stuff hanging from trees, deceased adults and children.
1:24:41
Yeah. They’re like bones and stuff. I don’t know where they get the bones. So like take them out or something. It’s probably something. They probably
1:24:46
have insider trading with some dog or something. Yeah. What is something that you want people to know about Amish people that or a
1:24:52
view of them or you think that’s something that’s incorrect? Before we get out of here, like a misconception. Yeah. Yeah. So like the one of the biggest
1:24:59
misconceptions I see all the time with like me being online and stuff, it’s like crazy like all all the stuff like
1:25:06
people people say I’m not Amish. I don’t do I don’t do this way. Uh there’s there actually two misconception I can say
1:25:13
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
1:25:21
where it’s like they have like they have electron like they have some electronics and stuff where they but they have to like keep it on the low and stuff
1:25:28
and what will they do bury it in a field somewhere where they hide it behind a hog or something like how do you guys hide it in the barn like the back of the
1:25:34
bucky sometimes in a culvert and hope it doesn’t rain. Yeah. So that’s one thing like a lot of
1:25:40
Amish have phones and every pretty much every Amish that has a phone that’s like my age that’s not for business and stuff
1:25:46
is like they have Snapchat we like that’s how we like communicate that’s like our new new
1:25:52
like messenger pitch that’s underground railroad kind of yeah it’s underground railroad I was thinking about you know starting underground bucky races but I first got
1:25:59
to dig the tunnel and stuff but like another misconception you know about them is just like
1:26:06
uh what was it Oh yeah, about me not being Amish cuz I have a I have a phone.
1:26:12
That that’s cuz like another thing that’s um like huge like really big cuz
1:26:17
like there’s Amish in movies and they’re always they always turn on the butter. Yeah. And basically living without electricity
1:26:24
now. There’s so many there’s so many different like Amish cuz like what you hear from me like from where I came from
1:26:31
is will not be the same from an Amish in Indiana, Ohio or like Pennsylvania. It’s
1:26:38
it’s there’s so many different ones like little different ways branches of it. Yeah. Lots of different branches and I I
1:26:44
would I would say like there’s not a single community that’s like exactly the same. There’s always little bit of rules
1:26:50
and there’s so many different branches of it where they wear bit bit different clothes, bit different hats, do things a
1:26:56
bit differently cuz I’ve had people say like this is not Amish and then uh they
1:27:01
like write a detailed description but I guess they they probably don’t know better that there’s like lots of
1:27:06
different ones cuz there’s there’s like lots there’s speeches and trooper new order. There’s there’s so many different
1:27:13
branches. Oh my gosh, it sounds like a bunch of people on the warp tour. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like so so when
1:27:18
Anabaptist became a thing, they basically like they were like a minority for a little bit. Have you ever seen Back to the Future?
1:27:25
Oh, dang. Boy, what is that? What? What’s that? I think you would like it. And I think
1:27:31
it’s a I think it’s something that is Amish appropriate. I don’t think it’s too crazy. Okay. I think you could handle Have you ever
1:27:38
seen Family Man with Nicholas Cage? No. Do you know who Nicholas Cage is?
1:27:43
Uh, not quite sure. Wow. Wow. So, this these are like movies and
1:27:49
stuff. Yeah. Oh, wow. Family Man’s one of my favorites, dude. So, what what’s that about?
1:27:54
It’s about this guy and he’s very like rich and fancy and stuff and then one day he kind of uh something happens
1:28:02
where he goes back into his life like 20 years earlier and he makes a different
1:28:07
decision to stay with a girl that he was in love with instead of leaving. He He goes like back in time. Yeah. He goes back in time. Like he
1:28:13
doesn’t realize he falls asleep. It’s on Christmas. He falls asleep on Christmas Eve and he wakes up and he’s back in a
1:28:19
different life he he would have had if he had made a different choice to stay in love instead of to go for um like uh
1:28:26
the big job in the fancy apartment. Oh, he went for the money over people. He went for the money over people and he
1:28:32
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 he was in love with and but now they have like two
1:28:38
kids and they like they don’t live in like he was living in like this fancy downtown place with like a butler and
1:28:45
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.
1:28:50
That That’s like super rich. That’s too much. I’ll chew my own gum. You know what I’m saying?
1:28:55
I 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
1:29:02
least the low lowhanging fruit. Yeah. But anyway, um so then he gets that experience and then one day he wakes
1:29:08
back up and he’s back in his original life and he hates it and so he he drives
1:29:14
off from his original life to go find the girl and see what’s going on and um
1:29:19
and then you figure out what happens from there. Wow, that’s that’s crazy. It almost sounds like that when he went back in
1:29:25
time and stuff like or like to like what h what would have happened if he would have like stayed with that girl. That’s
1:29:30
almost like a that’s almost like me like deciding if I want to, you know, stay Amish or, you know, leave the Amish.
1:29:36
It’s a Yeah, it’s like a rumbringer. Yeah, it’s like really hard decision. Yeah. What factors do you think will go into
1:29:41
you choosing? What do you think are good factors to help you decide or do you think about that? Uh, I think it’s uh
1:29:47
what I’ll what I what I will all see from like the outside world and like I’ll probably compare the two and see,
1:29:54
you know, which one I like, you know? I I I like the Amish lifestyle, the food and all that stuff is good. Like the
1:30:00
only things right now that I I don’t like too much are the rules a little bit. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But that’s what Rome should bring
1:30:06
us for you to break them. Get out there and break them. But do you have any plans to go to any special events coming up while you’re on Ram
1:30:11
Springer? Any football games? Anything like that? Uh, the only special event I’ve coming up is actually this weekend.
1:30:17
I’m going to go go on a plane for the first time. Wow. Yeah. And jump out of it.
1:30:23
No. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I’m going to like cuz like let’s say something goes wrong when you’re landing. So, I want to like be
1:30:29
off the plane, you know, when it’s up in the air and go skydiving. Dude, that’s going to be sick. Are you
1:30:35
g? I I’m like really excited. So, this week is I think this is a week I’ll never
1:30:40
forget. Really, really crazy. So yeah, no one no one knows this. I haven’t told anyone and so
1:30:47
I won’t say anything. Yeah, it’s it’s crazy. Let’s go skydiving. It’s cool. For the first time, but I think Don’t
1:30:53
they like put like they like strap a person on the back? Put a guy on you. Yeah. I just tell him you’re not interested before you guys
1:30:59
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
1:31:04
you I don’t want him getting any ideas. Yeah. No ideas at all. Yeah. Like when we land, it’s over. Yeah. Right. That’s what That’s what the
1:31:11
plan is. And cuz I was thinking I was talking to my coworker Ally. I was thinking, you know, that would be a
1:31:17
really crazy story. You know, the first airplane ride you ever go into. You just decided, you know, I don’t want to I was
1:31:25
just going to ch out, you know, I’m out of here. I’m out of here. Yeah. So, it’ll be the first plane you’ve ever been in and then you’re out of it.
1:31:30
I’m out of it. Yeah. Wow. And then like like same way with a podcast. I decided, you know, the first
1:31:36
podcast I ever be on would be The Ron because you’re a pretty cool dude. Well, thank you, dude. I think you are too,
1:31:43
man. I’m really intrigued by you guys’ lifestyle. I think I learned a decent amount about it today. Yeah.
1:31:48
You know, there probably could have been some other avenues about it that I could have asked about. Um, but I appreciate you coming, bro. I
1:31:54
really do. And I appreciate you inviting me and I admire you guys having a unique culture. I I think there’s a lot of
1:31:59
people in the world that are trying to get back to the roots of their culture and things that matter and mean something.
1:32:05
So, I almost feel like you guys are already there in some ways. Yeah. In some ways. Yeah. And like it it
1:32:12
uh like some people uh it feels like it’s like not grounded anymore to family
1:32:17
and stuff, you know, like they’re just just uh doing like really crazy stuff.
1:32:22
But like if you’re like if you touch grass every day, you know, like like you’re outside every day and like I’m
1:32:29
outside all the time. That’s why I’m like so dark. Almost look Mexican, but I’m not. But yeah, like and
1:32:37
it’s really crazy. Well, I appreciate it a lot for you inviting me. This is a really crazy
1:32:43
experience coming out here to town and then me sleeping 10 stories up 10
1:32:49
stories. That’s like the first time I’ve ever Oh, you’re in a hotel that’s really high. Yeah. You never done that?
1:32:54
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
1:33:00
it’s it’s like I’ll never forget it. That’s awesome. Yeah. Well, good, man. Uh Timothy, I
1:33:06
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
1:33:12
learn, brother. I appreciate it, dude. All right, man. Thanks for the hat, too, dude. Dude, I that’s the least I could do.
1:33:17
It was nice. And when I get close to you, I’m coming by for some coffee soup. All right. Yes, sir. With meat? Yes. You got it.
1:33:22
All right. Now, I’m just floating on the breeze and I feel I’m falling like these leaves. I
1:33:28
must be corner stone.
1:33:34
Oh, but when I reach that ground, I’ll share this peace of mind I found. I can