Amish miter saw - photos

[mklotz]

The Amish don't exactly have a perfectly normal relationship with technology.

And the Oscar for Best Understatement of the Year goes to... Jon. Congratulations, Jon.

During college I worked two summers in Lancaster County, PA, the home of many Amish, Mennonites, and others of the same ilk. The only movie theater in the one horse town in which I stayed had seats in front half of the auditorium but none in the back. Seems that standing to watch a movie is ok but sitting down to do so incurs the wrath of god.

Farming there is big business, even if done with horses. Big business requires communication and that means telephones. But telephones use the evil electron so they can't be permitted in an Amish farmer's home. So many farms had a small, outhouse-sized shack out by the road, just across the property line, which contained the phone. To make a call, you rode your horse out to the shack. In an era before answering machines I have no idea how they managed incoming calls. Perhaps pre-arranged comm times exchanged at church.

All this aside, they're good people. Clean and neat, pay their bills, and, most importantly, never proselytize their religion.