Electricity—Its Use & Devices
Friday, September 04, 2020
Oh, the discussion of electricity! It’s an important one. In fact, we know this is one of the pillars of the Amish—that is, not being associated with it. Or, at least, not letting it flow from the great power system that all of us ‘English’ are hooked up to. That is one of their main characteristics, their main and fundamental differences. Nothing wrong with that. If a person or group of people doesn’t want to use electricity, that’s up to them. That being the case, it undoubtedly presents a whole set of challenges, or again, what we as ‘English’ might perceive to be challenges. In reality, though, I think they really are challenges because after all, the Amish have to work with the world’s system to some degree. And not to mention what they observe the outside group having. That also certainly brings temptation and the desire to want more.
We see it in Amish history. For instance, there were workarounds. The refrigerator wasn’t rejected, but rather implemented in the form of a gas powered version. Or, to get more fancy and more farm-thinking, the bulk milk tanks. The food safety people at some point required particular regulations on those cooling tanks so that the Amish had to invent a way to use them with batteries. This is quite interesting to say the least. Or what about cell phones? A lot of Amish now use them for business purposes, not to mention the Amish youth (I’ll discuss this in a little while). My point in saying all of this is that there has been compromise. There has to be to function with the world. A strictly purist way could be accomplished, but it would have much more limitation and much further dealings. Some Amish, like the Swartzentruber, are in fact stricter, but they still allow for some compromise.
With the advent and becoming of electric cars into the English marketplace, it is a wonder when, if ever, the Amish might switch over from the horse and buggy to another mode of transportation, say, a gasoline-powered car. Bear with me here for a moment. Let’s say 50 years from now that there are mostly electric cars in the world. Would that then mean it is okay for the Amish to use gasoline-powered cars? Or, would it mean that they could use old-style gasoline cars, like a Ford Model-T, that has a limited top speed to prohibit too much travel. After all, that’s one of the big features of the buggy is that it limits how fast and how far one can travel in a given time. That’s important to Amish culture because it keeps people close and it perhaps deepens relationships.
This past May, I was up in Holmes County, here in Ohio, eating at a restaurant and had a pretty lengthy discussion with the owner while I was waiting on my food. I told her that I see a lot of Amish on bicycles these days. She told me that a lot of the bikes—especially the one’s that pull carts—are electric powered. This grabbed my attention. So, I thought that was interesting, the implementation of power within the bike. Interesting. Then what she said next really surprised me. She said a lot of the Amish youth are foregoing the horse and buggy and using electric bikes instead. This really kind of shocked me simply because I know how important the horse and buggy is to their way of life. Perhaps now you can understand my loose theorizing in the last paragraph about gasoline-powered cars.
Now if this is the case—that the younger Amish are moving away from the horse and buggy to powered bicycles instead, that’s going to obviously be a big culture change for them over time. For my own observation, on the rest of my trip, I started paying attention to who who driving the carriages. What I noticed, and this could just be me and where I was, that I definitely saw more people say, 40 and up, driving them than younger people. And I know there are a lot of young Amish people, perhaps more than the older people. I did see a few young people driving them—teens to thirties for sure. But I really have to ask the question of if the younger people are choosing the ‘powered’ bikes over the horse and buggies, what does that mean for the future? Perhaps even more than the lack of electricity itself, what makes the Amish the most different would be those buggies.
As I sat there in the restaurant, my breakfast came, but we were so enthralled in the conversation I wasn’t much focused on eating at this point. Then the owner said that all the young Amish are using smartphones these days. This fact I already knew to be the case because I had observed it, again to my surprise, going to other restaurants and around town. I knew some used them, but she seemed to think it was most. I mean after all, she is the owner of this restaurant, and young Amish people work for her. I understand this behavior may be acceptable during the Rumspringa years, the years where they are allowed to explore ‘the world’ per say. I guess as long as they give up the smartphone when they join the Amish church, this use of electricity doesn’t matter as much. But will they?
Definitely important matters to contemplate. As an aside, I wonder what life would be like for me if I were to completely give up my smartphone usage for, let’s say, a month. I love smartphones, there is no doubt about that. Why, I have my own YouTube channel where I review them. Just another thing I do with my free-time. Anyway, in trying to picture what that would be like, I obviously wouldn’t have the freedom to text people. Or to check email, say, once an hour like I typically do. I wouldn’t have the knowledge of the world to look up that fleeting thing on the fly whenever I feel like it. I wouldn’t have a near-professional camera in my pocket. I guess I’d have to rely on a landline phone for calls. But could it be done? Certainly. What would be the downside? I guess you could say less convenience. But things would be okay.
The Amish don’t use central air in their homes. That convenience never made it into their houses. That I can relate to. When I was growing up as a kid in the late 80s and 90s, I didn’t have central air-conditioning until I was ten years old. Before that, we had window AC units. Those were great. They cooled off a room or two. The rest of the house had that warm, humid feel though, which was fine. However, that’s just the way it was. A better way wasn’t known at that point. So, there wasn’t the feeling of loss, or the feeling of missing out. The window-airs were good enough. Though, my parents, when they were growing up, didn’t even have those. Do I think I could go back to that? Admittedly, I think it would be hard. So, the use of electricity and it’s accompanying devices is really a matter of perception. It’s all based on ‘what we’re use to.’
That of course brings up the microwave. That one I think it would be pretty difficult to give up. It’s just so convenient. I can pop a frozen meal in there and five minutes later it is ready to eat. Certainly not as good as grandma’s cooking, but it definitely ain’t bad. It runs probably 60% to 70% as good, which is close enough. It certainly beats spending all the time preparing the meal, not to mention all the separate items that would have to be bought to do that. I’m a bachelor myself, so at least for me, it would be a lot. The other advantage is that I can spend my time that I saved from all the preparation and clean up doing something else—like watching TV or surfing the net (using more electricity of course). Perhaps it makes me lazier, perhaps not. I don’t know. But I just wouldn’t want to spend all that time making food.
And then there is the coffee-maker. Again, percolating coffee on the stove takes more time—it is slower, and I understand it doesn’t taste as good. I don’t know because I’ve never had coffee prepared this way. These days I have a k-cup machine, which is awesome. It is super-fast to brew a cup of coffee, whichever size I choose, and it tastes great. Now, in my college days, I had what we would now call the ‘old-fashioned’ coffee-maker where you put the grains in the top and put the water in the tank. Lol, a standard coffee-maker. The coffee tasted good from that, but it wasn’t a the quality of a k-cup machine. Now, sometimes I prepare hot water and use a little plastic ‘pour-over’ mechanism in which I brew my coffee. That allows me to use the, again, old-fashioned coffee grains and get that taste without having to have a standard maker setup. (Taking a drink right now, and boy, it’s good; nice, rich taste.)
But all this use of electricity, this technology, has saved us time to do other things. I think that’s one of the main goals of are use of it, right? Even the Amish save with it’s convenience. I mean, they use electric lawn-mowers and weed-wackers in some places. That certainly saves having to deal with gas—at least—gas in using those devices. It could perhaps save a trip to the gas station. How does that work anyway? I have never seen a carriage at a gas-station pumping gas into plastic containers. But that must be how they do it. That’s pretty funny, actually. Probably turns some heads until the onlookers realize what is going on. Not to get too far off topic, but this thought just came to mind—what about using electric assistance on the buggies to make the load less for the horses? Just a thought, though, since it doesn’t really benefit the humans, perhaps it won’t happen.
Going roundabout back to what I was talking about earlier, with the use of gas-powered cars, I don’t see why it would be a problem. I mean, if all the the English were using electric cars, wouldn’t it be different enough? And if there was somehow a speed cap on the cars, say 35 or 40 mph, then I think it’s reasonable it could be done. If the younger Amish don’t want to use the horse and buggies, that might be the only option, at least, for family travel. It certainly would be different. Perhaps they could invent a small, gasoline powered buggy that the Amish could build and maintain. Certainly all this would be years away. But it would create a lot of new business and new jobs. But then where would that lead? I guess gasoline-powered tractors would be in, but then again, my understanding is that most Amish don’t farm anymore for their primary means of living.
They would still be distinguished in gasoline-powered cars, especially if they looked really dated and like from over a hundred years ago. They could all be black or gray, or whatever other color (yellow or white perhaps in some places). This is all fun to think about, though, it would probably never happen. But who knows? While the English would be sitting back in their self-driving, electric, futuristic cruisers, the Amish would be driving around in their gas-powered, slow, really old looking motorized carriages. A difference would be maintained. They wouldn’t be like the world. The fuel use is different and the speed is still limited. But what would be said for the horse? The horse would be pretty much out of business, expect perhaps for some farm-work or recreation. That would be sad indeed. The classic, iconic picture of the Amish in their carriages would be exchanged for one that lacked the horse.
Recently, almost two months ago, one day I was resting on my day off from work in my apartment when the electric went out. Now generally since I live practically in town the electric would be out at most maybe 45 minutes. It had been very rare since I had seen it out longer than that. Anyhow, being late-afternoon, I just worked around it for the time being. Since I was watching YouTube on my smartphone, I really didn’t need electric. I had a good amount of battery left on my smartphone, and I was still connected to my mobile data. So, I was in pretty good shape. Though after a while, I noticed that the power wasn’t coming back. A lot of time passed actually before it would.
I did some reading, and using natural daylight from the window, that wasn’t a problem. The temperature in my place rose to about 75 degrees, but that was fine by me (I generally keep it about 72 or 73 degrees). There was the inevitable attempt to get a light on by habitually flipping a switch only to have nothing happen. Seems to happen once or twice every time the electric goes out. As evening approached, I got out my powerful flashlight, very bright, my father had given me for Christmas last year. Thankfully, turning that on, balancing it, and pointing it toward the ceiling, it showed no signs of weakening in intensity. So, that, along with my three battery-powered artificial candles, I was all set.
Things got really quiet. I hadn’t realized how long it had been since I experienced that kind of quiet. You know, not even the refrigerator was humming in the background. It seemed very peaceful. It was almost as if one could notice the lack of electricity flowing through the walls. Things were very still. I spent some time in prayer, in meditation, as is my custom and it felt much more palpable. I felt closer to God for sure. The lack of distraction, which typically I didn’t even know was there, allowed for a greater focus. It was kinda surreal. And I had to think, what am I missing? This is what the Amish experience every evening. And yet, with all my ‘stuff’ are the ‘real’ things of life being drowned out? Am I not getting a full life experience? Perhaps there is something to this lack of electricity.
Then, there was that attempt of the power trying to come back on. You know how it goes. It came on for a split-second and then went out again. So, I knew the restoration was close. And after awhile, and it was out about four and half hours, it did come back. First thing I did was brew a cup of coffee. After that, with the AC blowing cooling things down, I sat down in my recliner and enjoyed some more YouTube. What had been experienced was now long gone.
- Daniel Litton
To comment on this post, tap here to go to the comments page.
We see it in Amish history. For instance, there were workarounds. The refrigerator wasn’t rejected, but rather implemented in the form of a gas powered version. Or, to get more fancy and more farm-thinking, the bulk milk tanks. The food safety people at some point required particular regulations on those cooling tanks so that the Amish had to invent a way to use them with batteries. This is quite interesting to say the least. Or what about cell phones? A lot of Amish now use them for business purposes, not to mention the Amish youth (I’ll discuss this in a little while). My point in saying all of this is that there has been compromise. There has to be to function with the world. A strictly purist way could be accomplished, but it would have much more limitation and much further dealings. Some Amish, like the Swartzentruber, are in fact stricter, but they still allow for some compromise.
With the advent and becoming of electric cars into the English marketplace, it is a wonder when, if ever, the Amish might switch over from the horse and buggy to another mode of transportation, say, a gasoline-powered car. Bear with me here for a moment. Let’s say 50 years from now that there are mostly electric cars in the world. Would that then mean it is okay for the Amish to use gasoline-powered cars? Or, would it mean that they could use old-style gasoline cars, like a Ford Model-T, that has a limited top speed to prohibit too much travel. After all, that’s one of the big features of the buggy is that it limits how fast and how far one can travel in a given time. That’s important to Amish culture because it keeps people close and it perhaps deepens relationships.
This past May, I was up in Holmes County, here in Ohio, eating at a restaurant and had a pretty lengthy discussion with the owner while I was waiting on my food. I told her that I see a lot of Amish on bicycles these days. She told me that a lot of the bikes—especially the one’s that pull carts—are electric powered. This grabbed my attention. So, I thought that was interesting, the implementation of power within the bike. Interesting. Then what she said next really surprised me. She said a lot of the Amish youth are foregoing the horse and buggy and using electric bikes instead. This really kind of shocked me simply because I know how important the horse and buggy is to their way of life. Perhaps now you can understand my loose theorizing in the last paragraph about gasoline-powered cars.
Now if this is the case—that the younger Amish are moving away from the horse and buggy to powered bicycles instead, that’s going to obviously be a big culture change for them over time. For my own observation, on the rest of my trip, I started paying attention to who who driving the carriages. What I noticed, and this could just be me and where I was, that I definitely saw more people say, 40 and up, driving them than younger people. And I know there are a lot of young Amish people, perhaps more than the older people. I did see a few young people driving them—teens to thirties for sure. But I really have to ask the question of if the younger people are choosing the ‘powered’ bikes over the horse and buggies, what does that mean for the future? Perhaps even more than the lack of electricity itself, what makes the Amish the most different would be those buggies.
As I sat there in the restaurant, my breakfast came, but we were so enthralled in the conversation I wasn’t much focused on eating at this point. Then the owner said that all the young Amish are using smartphones these days. This fact I already knew to be the case because I had observed it, again to my surprise, going to other restaurants and around town. I knew some used them, but she seemed to think it was most. I mean after all, she is the owner of this restaurant, and young Amish people work for her. I understand this behavior may be acceptable during the Rumspringa years, the years where they are allowed to explore ‘the world’ per say. I guess as long as they give up the smartphone when they join the Amish church, this use of electricity doesn’t matter as much. But will they?
Definitely important matters to contemplate. As an aside, I wonder what life would be like for me if I were to completely give up my smartphone usage for, let’s say, a month. I love smartphones, there is no doubt about that. Why, I have my own YouTube channel where I review them. Just another thing I do with my free-time. Anyway, in trying to picture what that would be like, I obviously wouldn’t have the freedom to text people. Or to check email, say, once an hour like I typically do. I wouldn’t have the knowledge of the world to look up that fleeting thing on the fly whenever I feel like it. I wouldn’t have a near-professional camera in my pocket. I guess I’d have to rely on a landline phone for calls. But could it be done? Certainly. What would be the downside? I guess you could say less convenience. But things would be okay.
The Amish don’t use central air in their homes. That convenience never made it into their houses. That I can relate to. When I was growing up as a kid in the late 80s and 90s, I didn’t have central air-conditioning until I was ten years old. Before that, we had window AC units. Those were great. They cooled off a room or two. The rest of the house had that warm, humid feel though, which was fine. However, that’s just the way it was. A better way wasn’t known at that point. So, there wasn’t the feeling of loss, or the feeling of missing out. The window-airs were good enough. Though, my parents, when they were growing up, didn’t even have those. Do I think I could go back to that? Admittedly, I think it would be hard. So, the use of electricity and it’s accompanying devices is really a matter of perception. It’s all based on ‘what we’re use to.’
That of course brings up the microwave. That one I think it would be pretty difficult to give up. It’s just so convenient. I can pop a frozen meal in there and five minutes later it is ready to eat. Certainly not as good as grandma’s cooking, but it definitely ain’t bad. It runs probably 60% to 70% as good, which is close enough. It certainly beats spending all the time preparing the meal, not to mention all the separate items that would have to be bought to do that. I’m a bachelor myself, so at least for me, it would be a lot. The other advantage is that I can spend my time that I saved from all the preparation and clean up doing something else—like watching TV or surfing the net (using more electricity of course). Perhaps it makes me lazier, perhaps not. I don’t know. But I just wouldn’t want to spend all that time making food.
And then there is the coffee-maker. Again, percolating coffee on the stove takes more time—it is slower, and I understand it doesn’t taste as good. I don’t know because I’ve never had coffee prepared this way. These days I have a k-cup machine, which is awesome. It is super-fast to brew a cup of coffee, whichever size I choose, and it tastes great. Now, in my college days, I had what we would now call the ‘old-fashioned’ coffee-maker where you put the grains in the top and put the water in the tank. Lol, a standard coffee-maker. The coffee tasted good from that, but it wasn’t a the quality of a k-cup machine. Now, sometimes I prepare hot water and use a little plastic ‘pour-over’ mechanism in which I brew my coffee. That allows me to use the, again, old-fashioned coffee grains and get that taste without having to have a standard maker setup. (Taking a drink right now, and boy, it’s good; nice, rich taste.)
But all this use of electricity, this technology, has saved us time to do other things. I think that’s one of the main goals of are use of it, right? Even the Amish save with it’s convenience. I mean, they use electric lawn-mowers and weed-wackers in some places. That certainly saves having to deal with gas—at least—gas in using those devices. It could perhaps save a trip to the gas station. How does that work anyway? I have never seen a carriage at a gas-station pumping gas into plastic containers. But that must be how they do it. That’s pretty funny, actually. Probably turns some heads until the onlookers realize what is going on. Not to get too far off topic, but this thought just came to mind—what about using electric assistance on the buggies to make the load less for the horses? Just a thought, though, since it doesn’t really benefit the humans, perhaps it won’t happen.
Going roundabout back to what I was talking about earlier, with the use of gas-powered cars, I don’t see why it would be a problem. I mean, if all the the English were using electric cars, wouldn’t it be different enough? And if there was somehow a speed cap on the cars, say 35 or 40 mph, then I think it’s reasonable it could be done. If the younger Amish don’t want to use the horse and buggies, that might be the only option, at least, for family travel. It certainly would be different. Perhaps they could invent a small, gasoline powered buggy that the Amish could build and maintain. Certainly all this would be years away. But it would create a lot of new business and new jobs. But then where would that lead? I guess gasoline-powered tractors would be in, but then again, my understanding is that most Amish don’t farm anymore for their primary means of living.
They would still be distinguished in gasoline-powered cars, especially if they looked really dated and like from over a hundred years ago. They could all be black or gray, or whatever other color (yellow or white perhaps in some places). This is all fun to think about, though, it would probably never happen. But who knows? While the English would be sitting back in their self-driving, electric, futuristic cruisers, the Amish would be driving around in their gas-powered, slow, really old looking motorized carriages. A difference would be maintained. They wouldn’t be like the world. The fuel use is different and the speed is still limited. But what would be said for the horse? The horse would be pretty much out of business, expect perhaps for some farm-work or recreation. That would be sad indeed. The classic, iconic picture of the Amish in their carriages would be exchanged for one that lacked the horse.
Recently, almost two months ago, one day I was resting on my day off from work in my apartment when the electric went out. Now generally since I live practically in town the electric would be out at most maybe 45 minutes. It had been very rare since I had seen it out longer than that. Anyhow, being late-afternoon, I just worked around it for the time being. Since I was watching YouTube on my smartphone, I really didn’t need electric. I had a good amount of battery left on my smartphone, and I was still connected to my mobile data. So, I was in pretty good shape. Though after a while, I noticed that the power wasn’t coming back. A lot of time passed actually before it would.
I did some reading, and using natural daylight from the window, that wasn’t a problem. The temperature in my place rose to about 75 degrees, but that was fine by me (I generally keep it about 72 or 73 degrees). There was the inevitable attempt to get a light on by habitually flipping a switch only to have nothing happen. Seems to happen once or twice every time the electric goes out. As evening approached, I got out my powerful flashlight, very bright, my father had given me for Christmas last year. Thankfully, turning that on, balancing it, and pointing it toward the ceiling, it showed no signs of weakening in intensity. So, that, along with my three battery-powered artificial candles, I was all set.
Things got really quiet. I hadn’t realized how long it had been since I experienced that kind of quiet. You know, not even the refrigerator was humming in the background. It seemed very peaceful. It was almost as if one could notice the lack of electricity flowing through the walls. Things were very still. I spent some time in prayer, in meditation, as is my custom and it felt much more palpable. I felt closer to God for sure. The lack of distraction, which typically I didn’t even know was there, allowed for a greater focus. It was kinda surreal. And I had to think, what am I missing? This is what the Amish experience every evening. And yet, with all my ‘stuff’ are the ‘real’ things of life being drowned out? Am I not getting a full life experience? Perhaps there is something to this lack of electricity.
Then, there was that attempt of the power trying to come back on. You know how it goes. It came on for a split-second and then went out again. So, I knew the restoration was close. And after awhile, and it was out about four and half hours, it did come back. First thing I did was brew a cup of coffee. After that, with the AC blowing cooling things down, I sat down in my recliner and enjoyed some more YouTube. What had been experienced was now long gone.
- Daniel Litton
To comment on this post, tap here to go to the comments page.