Friends of mine were at the Unique Café this morning having breakfast at the back table and were showing off the calendars they just had made for their Amish friends. Julie had the idea of taking pictures of their phone booths and giving them away as gifts. She and Larry transport Amish year-round and have built up friendships with many of them and their kids. They jokingly refer to their service as "Hauling A".

Anyway, I was unaware of the phone booth thing with the Amish. They've always seemed to be a bit creative when it comes to the rules of their religion and what they can and cannot do. With respect to the phone booths, they can use a phone, but it can't be on their own property. So they strike a deal with an English neighbor and "borrow" a small piece of land next to their property and have the phone company run a wire to their "phone booth." The creativity doesn't stop there, as you'll see in the 12-month series of pics here.

Some phone booths have no telephone wire coming to it and here they've incorporated what they call the "Pennsylvania Box" that apparently functions off a cell phone tower and somehow converts the signal so a regular phone can be used. There is no "cell phone" as most of us know it inside.

Julie says the Amish kid her about being tied to her cell phone, but she replies that it's either in her purse or on the table at home, and she only takes time out to call or answer it. On the other hand, the Amish man of the house will walk on over to his phone booth and sit there three times a day to either make a call or wait to see if someone calls him. That occurs at 8:30 and 11:30 in the morning, and then again at 7:30 in the evening.

The calendar pics, with Julie's permission:

Hummmmm ........................Must be the same Amish carpenter that built my house. They really get around for a horse and buggy.

Quite the carpentry on display there. Why don’t they dig a hole under those and get double duty?

Osky

I like the calf warming Hut the best

Nothing new around here...

Years ago a friend and I were hunting a farm, once in awhile we would hear a phone ringing out of no where, what the heck, figured it out, it was a phone in a shed on the Amish farm next door...

Do them a favour and tell them that God doesn't care if the phone is inside their house or outside.

Not a matter of being in the house or outside the house. Can't be on their property. They make 'em up as they go.

I don't understand the Amish so maybe someone can explain it for me.
They use NO tractors but pull machinery that has a gas engine for power with a horse. Why ? Such as a baler.

Yeah some of those Bishops are pretty particular about what they can and can’t have. My wife and I haul the Amish around, more my wife though, and we also made friends with a lot of them. I trap and hunt on their farms a lot but the real fun is going to an Amish wedding thanksgiving eve. A friend of mines daughter is getting married. We’re just invited to the supper it ought to be interesting.

I have a surprisingly large number of Amish peoples' phone numbers in my phone. The rules they have to follow vary tremendously from community to community.

Keith

They must talk a lot of "Crap" 'cause those sure look like outhouses!

I have a lot of Amish neighbors. The outhouse's with a phone drop started popping up about five years ago.

Got one out right next to the drive way here. Looks pretty similar.

I figured you would comment on this.
When I came to visit you I was running a little early so I slowed down a bit. Almost got passed by a buggy! Seen that buggy parked in front of your place when I left and it looked like he was on a phone.... Now I know...

I did not think that the Amish used phones.

Can't have a phone in their house. Where I come from.

I have one or two Amish folks cell phone numbers. (And no not Mennonite).


I will add that they use it strictly for business and that’s is all.