Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

The Columbus Dispatch
Mike Harden commentary: Store lets us marvel at simpler kind of life

Sunday, July 22, 2007 3:48 AM
By Mike Harden



Lehman's in Kidron, Ohio, has sold products to the Amish since 1955. In recent years, it has become a tourist draw.
<img src="http://www.dispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/images/jul/IMG_0812.jpg_07-22-07_B2_RM7BBN8.jpg">



KIDRON, Ohio -- Imagine that the folks who designed Cracker Barrel's gift shops invested the secrets of their retailing allure in a post-apocalypse survival store, and you've got Lehman's.

The business, in this Wayne County village, has long proclaimed the motto "Serving the Amish and others without electricity with products for simple, self-sufficient living since 1955."

The place is 32,000 square feet of everything from hand-cranked grain mills and sweat-powered laundry wringers to kerosene-driven refrigerators and butane clothes irons. The latter two items and similarly powered appliances are designed to keep the Amish steadfast in their faith's prohibition against electricity while yet availing them of the conveniences of the English (as the Amish call those who are not).

The customer base was 95 percent Amish when the business was launched 52 years ago, said Glenda Lehman-Ervin. Today, the Amish account for only 6 percent to 8 percent of sales.

Lehman-Ervin, vice president of marketing and daughter of founder Jay Lehman, said the Kidron store sees 300,000 to 400,000 customers each year. They pile off tour buses to marvel over cheese presses and bucket yokes or puzzle at donkey milk and emu oil (both skin-moisturizing products).

I spent an hour and some change in the store on Thursday -- up to my armpits in pioneer-vintage implements and double-wide tourists -- and was ready to borrow one of the "Lil' Wizard" kerosene lanterns to launch a Diogenean search for an authentic Amish man.

"If you want to see Amish in Lehman's," I was told by Roy Hochstetler, a sales associate at the Kidron store, "you will have to go to Mount Hope. The Mount Hope Lehman's is nuts-and-bolts hardware."

The Amish can shop there without being gawked at or photographed. The Kidron store is where the English shop for Amish items.

"It's a tourist trap for the English," said Lynne Bare, a Westerville horse trainer and fitter who has worked with the Amish for more than 30 years. "But it is also an important resource for nonelectric hardware. Campers like it. It is also for survivalists; you know those dingbats out in the Dakotas who want to start their own government."

"There's the serious and the curious," Lehman-Ervin offered as a thumbnail profile of Kidron customers. "When people come to Lehman's they want to learn, to see things they probably thought weren't made anymore. We have all the things people need for the creature comforts of heat, food, light and water."

Customers might, indeed, be dingbat Dakota survivalists, but they are just as likely to be Peace Corps volunteers in some remote, electricity-free reach of the globe. Hollywood also comes calling.

"When they filmed Cold Mountain, they wanted blue-speckled grannyware, cast-iron and galvanized pieces," Lehman-Ervin said. The makers of Pirates of the Caribbean wanted oil lamps and buckets. Lehman's still markets wooden buckets.

But, more than anything else, Lehman's is expert at making us remember the era of great-great-grandma while forgetting that it was an age void of penicillin, polio vaccine and, often, pure drinking water.

Retired columnist Mike Harden writes a Sunday Metro column.

http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/con...2_BK7BK84.html

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

"It is also for survivalists; you know those dingbats out in the Dakotas who want to start their own government."

Yeah.....versus those dingbats in the 13 colonies cheeky enough to think they could live without King George......I mean the powdered white whig wearing dude, not the current one at 1600 Penn Ave.

I just LOVE people with that attitude....."There's always gonna be gasoline for my Escolade, and water for my shower delievered to my apartment on the 42nd floor of my highrise, and electricity to power the elevator to get me there, and a restuarant with plenty of food for me to choose from".....

twits......reminds me again...... I need to pick up a brush chipper so I can convert their dead cold carcases to fertilizer if the day comes.

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

:applause_
Dingbats that buy a hand-turn can opener instead of an electric one, dingbats that don't get as close to the grocery store entrance as the parking spaces allow (where all the fender-bending happens), dingbats that still use rotary dial phones so a real human is forced to answer them instead of a sterile voice demanding a touch tone response. Go figure whos the dingbat. LOL

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

Wow, I just realized I live pretty close to that store. Perhaps I will go there this weekend. Out of all the places I want to buy land in my area Wayne County is at the top of my list...

Thanks!

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

I knew that some of you guys would buy stuff there if I posted that article :party30:

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

Can`t wait for the fertilizer time :D .

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

I wouldn't use that crap on my garden... it's probably so toxic not even weeds will grow where you apply it! :smokin:

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

At a certain point many people transition from survivalist to homesteader. Of course they think that homesteaders are dingbats, too.

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

Man, its all about the clothes! "Survivalist" is camo and ammo belts. "Homesteader" is overalls and gingham. If you forego color and zippers, then you can be Amish, and suddenly go from dingbat to quaint font of lore from days gone by!*



*Yes, this is sarcasm.

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

What you dont like to eat "LONG PIG?" LOL the ultimate survival food for bears :bear_tongue:

Without electricity
 

Why are Amish people so strictly against using electricity?
Do they have mechanical Diesel engines with pneumatic starters?
What about steam engines or windmills then?

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

Whose expression is this?I love it!

Re: Without electricity
 

Re: Without electricity
 

Good generator site, Atahualpa.....and a Tennessee company !

Thanks

Re: Newspaper article: survivalists are dingbats
 

refers to anthropophagy. old american usage.

Re: Without electricity
 

The Amish understand how modern society and technology can take people away from one another and from holiness. That is the principle.

Each local community organized around local churches determines the acceptable uses of technology by the community. So in Lancaster Pennsylvania they have different particular rules than in Goshen Indiana.

In some places they allow liberal use of rechargeable batteries. But they generally require them to be charged up by horse drawn generators or something like that. The Amish are a very industrious lot, their cabinetry is reknowned. So they do have occasion to use certain electronic devices such as electronic cash registers or typewriters or maybe computers as the need arises and the community allows. But generally these all run on battery power. This limits the social and person harm that can come from these devices.

So for example while they do use telephones, they do not allow them in the home. There is usually a phone hut or public phone down the street. This limits the time people waste yakking and the amount of trouble and mischief they cause through such a private communications modality.

There are many good books about this topic. I encourage you all to study them both to learn how they live "OFF THE GRID" -- for survival purposes-- but more importantly to learn how they live in close contact and agreement with one another. They are communitarian in the most positive and wonderful way.

Their are other Anabaptist sects such as the Mennonites or Bretheren. The Mennonites are also chary of how technology can affect the family and community adversely. Bretheren folk are not too concerned about technology but generally dont wear makeup or play cards or dance. I had many Bretheran ("Dunkard") kin but generally they are all Methodists now. My mother was raised Bretheren but chose to go to her father's Presbyterian Church instead, where I was raised before I became a Roman Catholic. Full circle eh? LOL

People in "English" society (what they call us) have generally misinformed and flat out idiotic views of the Amish. It's quite similar to the load of crap that people think of serious Muslims. That the women are oppressed, etc. From what I know the serious women Muslims out there and the Amish women alike are generally happy with and supportive of their ways of life.

Part of what happens that gives the Amish bad press is that about 10% of the community voluntarily leaves and does not accept adult baptism. This is after 'Rumspringa" a sort of wilding teenage years when they let them experience secular society as they please. This works out great for the Amish because they DO know what they are "missing." And the bad apples that want all the bling and gadgets or whatever, those who are not community minded, absent themselves voluntarily. Its very effective but usually the people who leave bad mouth em when they're gone.

There's some interesting parallels to Mormons here. I bet a lot of you guys are Mormons.

Re: Without electricity
 

Da nada, I talked to the a company representive and asked a few questions about the origin of the components. The basic engine is from China(John Deere clone), they have been using this engine and manufacturer for 25 years and he said they have never had a failure due to manufacturing quality. The rest of the components are from the US, including the alternator and cooling system.

Also, they haven't raised their prices in 7 years...seems like a bargain.

Re: Without electricity
 

I emailed them this question: Do they have an auto start option that will hook to the inverter on a solar system so when the batteries get low, it will kick in automatic?

They replied: Yes....for 860 FRNs, you can add auto start to any of their generators. Normally open relay on the inverter closes, and signals the generator to start.

Re: Without electricity
 

Also, a fine fellow that used to post on GIM sent me these links to post here, and I said I would.....stores similar to Lehmans, but better pricing.

http://www.cumberlandgeneral.com/

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/j...Type=HOME_PAGE