On Aug 5, 4:17*am, "J. Clarke" wrote:
On 8/4/2010 11:08 PM, Steve W. wrote:



RicodJour wrote:
On Aug 4, 7:11 pm, "J. *wrote:
On 8/4/2010 4:44 PM, ATP wrote:

I'm kidding, but the Amish have an unusual take on things. I guess rubber
under the steel is OK, but rubber tires would be unholy. But whatever
they're doing seems to be working for them. I wonder if they're still busy
making those stoves...
It's not that rubber tires are "unholy"--their rule is no powered
vehicles that can be driven on the highway and no rubber tires is a way
to enforce it.

I'm not sure I follow - I've seen Amish wagons on the road, both with
rubber wheels and without. *What does that have to do with it being
powered? *None of the Amish wagons are powered.

If you saw a buggy with rubber wheels it was NOT Amish. More likely
Mennonite.

Basically there are different orders of plain folks.
Old order Amish - These are the ones who shun pretty much all modern
technology, no powered machinery on the farm and maybe a phone stuck on
a pole out in the middle of a field for all the "local" Amish to use.

New order Amish - These allow some modern technology like generators and
* solar power as well as some powered machinery on the farm with maybe a
steel wheeled tractor or crawler allowed. They allow a phone in the barn
or greenhouse and some even have a drivers license even though they are
not supposed to drive cars.

Mennonite - The closest to what we take for normal people. They allow
tractors and rubber tires on the buggies, some even have cars. They do
some stuff the old ways but also have cell phones and electricity in
some places.

I understand that a surprising number of Amish have cell phones. *The
way I saw it explained by one who has one is that he went to the Bishop
or the elders or whatever they have (I forget the details) with this new
thing and asked if he could try it. *He was told that he could, with the
understanding that he might have to give it up later if if was decided
that such things were not acceptable.

As to what makes a cell phone different from a wired phone, I suspect
the wires have a good deal to do with it.

The Ohio Amish furniture company I bought my stuff from wasn't
connected to the grid but had cell phones, an took plastic. To power
the machinery they had a bank of three diesel generators. Other
furniture stores in the area had gas lighting. Rather surprising to
walk under a fixture in the middle of the summer.