Good Ol' Boys
Buster sits in his pony cart in the drive-thru at the local liquor store in Moberly, MO. When he was Amish, Buster and his brother, Alvin, would travel from their home in Clark in their buggy to the liquor store, buy beer and hide it in the barn.
Mohawk smokes a cigarette while standing on a piece of train equipment in Moberly’s Depot Park. He left in the middle of the night in October 2019, only bringing money and a coupon for a haircut at Great Clips with him.
October 2019
Mohawk could barely contain his excitement as he took milk to the station down the road. He knew it was the last time he would ever have to do this.
It was the last time he would have to wear Amish clothes and it was the last time Mohawk would have to have his hair in a bowl cut.
He checked his wallet to make sure he still had everything- cash and a coupon to Great Clips. He really wanted to get a mohawk or a mullet – anything but a bowl cut.
As he pulled up to the house in the buggy, he heard a car engine roar down the road.
“That will be me soon,” he thought.
He unhitched the horse and buggy, put the cans up in the milk shack, looked at the house and knew it was time.
Mohawk walked to the road and saw Crunch’s truck lights light up the road. Country music blared out of the car and Mohawk roared away from his home.
As he arrived at Buster’s house, he felt excited and nervous. He wouldn’t have the same relationship with his family, and he wouldn’t have his home. But he would also have his freedom and he didn’t have to listen to anyone.
When he arrived, he greeted his new roommates, Buster and his cousin, Beavis.
He grabbed the coupon out of his wallet, looked at Buster and said, “Where can I use this?”
On Monday mornings, the boys went to work.
The four roommates worked together in roofing. They spent the weekdays together traveling around mid-Missouri fixing roofs.
When Friday came, the boys let loose.
Most weekends, the boys and their friends would party and then drive out to the Amish Community they grew up in. They yell, sing, turn their speakers up all the way, do burnouts in their trucks, and, in a few instances, set off fireworks in the community.
“We need to give the Amish kids inspiration to get up in the morning,” Buster said about the activities. “We want to show off our freedom.”
Buster lays in the sun while Mohawk plays with the Wabash Caboose in Depot Park.
Buster holds a picture of himself when he was 12 or 13 years old and still Amish. One of his brothers, Yura, had a camera while living at his parent's home in Clark and took dozens of photos of the house, parents, siblings, community members, and machinery.
March 2015
Buster came home from hauling the day's milk to the nearby milk station.
The sun had gone down and dinner was almost ready.
He took the horse and buggy into the barn and unloaded everything. He unhitched the buggy and put it away for the night.
He took the collar and harness off the horse and hung it neatly on the wall. He gave the horse hay and made sure it was in the barn securely.
He placed the milk jugs in a little shed near the house. Buster checked everything to make sure it was where it was supposed to be.
He looked fit a piece of paper and pencil yo write a note for his family. In it, he told them goodbye.
Buster left the shed and looked at the house. It was the last time he could say it was his home. He turned, walked into the night to find his brother, Jonas, waiting for him and he left.
When an Amish person decides to leave their community, they are excommunicated. Their family is not supposed to talk to them, Amish men and women are not to do business with them and if they decide to come back, they must wait several weeks before they are reaccepted into the church.
“It’s f***ing bullshit,” the boys would respond whenever asked about the rules or why they were in place.
When they leave their community, they take next to nothing with them.
The boys’ parents or family members will occasionally show up at the house to convince one or more of the boys to come home. When the boys see them at a store in the Amish community or visit them at home, they will try to convince them to come back or will burst into tears.
Buster plays Dutch Blitz with his roommate Mohawk, center, and his friend, Albert. The game is a popular one among young Amish and Mennonite kids. Albert left the Clark Amish Community in October 2020 and works with his brother, Menno, in construction.
September 2019
Beavis didn’t have the key, but he couldn’t stay at home anymore and he couldn’t ask his parents for the key. They would ask who he was calling.
He looked at the door handle and knew he had to think fast. He grabbed the handle and pulled as hard as possible. He pulled at the door with all his might.
He managed to rip the door handle from the wood and got inside. He called his friend Crunch.
From right, Beavis, Anna, Lulu, and Schgeddy watch “The Dukes of Hazzard” on a lazy Sunday morning. An effect of the Amish life, the boys rarely sit at home and do nothing. Usually, the boys are cruising around Moberly, visiting with friends or working on their cars.
“Goddammit,” Beavis thought.
Crunch hadn’t picked up.
“I guess I’ll have to try again later.”
Beavis rushed to get home before his parents realized he wasn’t at his Uncle’s house.
The next morning, on the way home from church, Beavis practically ran to the phone shack. He knew he had to get there before people noticed the broken door.
“Come on Crunch,” he thought as he listened to the phone ring.
Crunch picked up that time. Beavis ran home and gathered a few items before his family got back from church.
Within an hour, Beavis was gone.
The entryway into Buster’s house is filled with roofing shoes, sweatshirts, baseball caps, and cowboy boots. The boys bought cowboy boots almost immediately because they wanted to be like the cowboys in movies.
The boys have distanced themselves from their roots as they grow in the English world.
They get rid of the clothes they grew up in, break all the rules of the Amish community and own few items that remind them of their time in the community. Very few of them attend a form of church when they leave. .
They help each other out in tough times. The loan money to each other if they need it and care for each other when they are hurt.
With the absence of their biological families, the boys had to make their own
Buster looks at the team of horses he helped raise and use as a kid. “The thought of going back [Amish] just makes me sick,” he said.
April 2020
He only had to wait six hours. He reminded himself of this when he hung up the phone.
Six hours and then he would be free.
Lulu left the phone shack and walked back home as the sun started falling over the horizon.
“Six hours,” he kept thinking.
When he arrived home, he met with his family for dinner. They sat around the table and talked about their day and ate their food together. Lulu looked around the table at his siblings and parents.
“Five hours,” he thought. “It’s so close.”
Lulu counted down as he did his evening chores and went to his room for the night.
When he heard the car, he knew it was time to go. He crept out of the house, opened the front door, stepped into the dark and ran toward his new life.
Beavis, front, and Mohawk look under Mohawk’s new car just after he brought it home in November. The car would be Mohawk’s fourth since he got his license in July.
The boys take their cars and trucks out to a dry creek in the Clark Amish community. They hid in the spot to smoke and drink before driving around the rest of the community doing donuts, burnouts, blaring music, and yelling out the windows.
Beavis, left, laughs at a story Crunch shares with friends during a bonfire. Bonfires are a way the boys get together with friends on weekends.
Beavis, left, and Crunch pose with a sign they found in the Clark Amish Community during a nighttime cruise.
In Buster’s shop, a horse and buggy and stop sign hang on the wall. The boys “borrowed” the signs from the community several years ago.
Almost all the boys who have left will help the kids who are still Amish and they will always help new kids get on their feet in the English world.
They will take phones, cigarettes, radios, liquor and their cars out to the kids. They teach them how to use the phones and collect money from them to pay their phone bill. They take their cars out to the community and bring kids on rides. Many of the boys will get calls to pick up a person from the Amish community because they want to leave.
They bring them into their makeshift family and, together, they all raise a little hell.
The fridge in Buster’s house is covered with memories of his time since leaving in 2015. In that time, he has gotten baptized outside of the Amish community, his brother got married and he bought a house.
Buster lays on his bed as he talks on the phone with his brother, Yura. He is Buster’s second-oldest brother and is still Amish. During the phone call, Yura told Buster about his new business venture, home insulation, and implored Buster to come back home and work with him. The boys receive either letters, phone calls or visits from family members where they will try to get the boys to come back to the Amish community.
From left, Beavis, Eli, Lulu and Schgeddy sit on Buster’s trailer to smoke cigarettes, check their phones and talk with friends. A majority of the boys are smokers when they leave the Amish because “it looks cool.”
In January 2020, Kate Seaman met Buster on Tinder.
Before meeting for the first time, they talked about their mutual love of rodeos and expressed interest in each other’s pets (she had a rabbit and he had a horse).
On February 21, 2020, they had a date at Shakespeare’s Pizza in Columbia, MO. They talked about their hobbies, likes, dislikes, friends, hopes, dreams, and backgrounds over pizza and beer.
***
Kate: “So where did you go to college?”
Buster: “I didn’t go to college.”
Kate: “What do you mean?”
Buster: “Haha. This is embarrassing. I, uh, actually grew up Amish.”
***
From there, Kate got closer to Buster and his roommates, Eli, Levi, and Levi. To avoid confusion, they each had a nickname – Beaves, Mohawk and Lulu.
All the boys look to Buster for advice on everything from “what should I say to this girl” to “which car should I buy?”
She learned about their struggles, fears, excitement, failures, and achievements as they get accustomed to the English world.
During her time with Buster, at least 11 individuals left the Amish community. Six returned to the Amish after a few months in the English world. Only one left the Amish again after returning.