Rocking out with the Amish

[greatbear]

Today at the Laurel Amish market, I notice I out-bearded all the Amish men in the place. I also laughed as I was entering the place and saw one of those guys, perhaps my age or so, sitting outside on a bench, smoking, and starting intently at his smartphone, swiping and tapping like an old pro. One thing I have noticed with a lot of the Amish in the area where Jeff grew up, while the horses and buggies are de rigueur, the buggies have LED lighting in a lot of cases, and a good many have cell phones, some are even smartphones. The whole idea of cell phones works with their belief systems in a way that regular landlines couldn't, since they have control of them and can turn them on and off. They help them in their work, and let them keep in touch in emergencies. But seeing this one fella today zipping through screens made me almost lose it. Is there a Scruff or Growlr for Amish?

The place also employs a fair amount of non-Amish, usually high school and college types who are off for the summer. So it was just as strange when a young lady working at the produce counter asked us if we saw Rush at Jiffy Lube Live (we had out merch on from the show). A bit surprised, we said yes, and she informed us she had also been there. We had a nice little discussion as we gathered our produce and paid for it.

That is one high-tech, rockin' Amish market.

Comments

[geometrician.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to see the way that Amish folks are in different areas of the country. In central Ohio, they are more restricted. The biggest change has been the allowance of orange triangles on buggies. But there does seem to be a lot more rule-breaking than there used to be. Here in southern Minnesota, if they didn't dress differently you might not know they were Amish.

Now I'm off to our own farmers market.

[fj.livejournal.com]

This cellphone thing I must research hard.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this is an advance or not .... :)

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I freaked when I found out they rode with boom boxes in parts of PA, or how many dealt drugs.