NASCAR Mechanic Marlin Yoder's Jaw-Dropping Story Of The Day He Left Amish Life | Dale Jr. Download

so going back to the decision to leave um what what are your apprehensions so the biggest one was I I was I was scared like about what of of leaving and like being on my own um and then I knew if my dad was ever to get a hold of me like I better run as fast as I can run so when you make the choice to leave you're also making the choice to never see them again right correct but if he were to see you later he would he would be upset and he would make that known or is it like hey man you made your choice your your your problems see you later no he I if I knew that if if my dad got a hold of me the day that I decid deed to leave and I told them that I was going to leave it wasn't going to happen like I was probably going to get my ass beat right so you couldn't tell them so I couldn't tell them damn I made the decision like from the time I was like I don't know to I'm leaving was like overnight yep um what do you do so it's Sunday morning March 9th 2018 uh at that I have five siblings so we had a double Cedar buggy that Mom and Dad would take to church with four of the siblings um and then I would take the single Cedar buggy with my sister that was just younger than me so how much younger a year okay A little over a year so she was going are you I'm sorry are you and your sister and your other siblings very close is there like a any kind of a trust bond where you might share how you're feeling no no one has a clue no because I I knew if I told anybody they were going to go straight to Mom and Dad yeah immediately immediately okay because that's a like that's just a no you're on an island yeah all right so I mom and dad always left first to go to church and then I would leave you know 5 10 minutes after them with my sister so so Mom and Dad leave usually when I would be done with chores Sunday morning I would go to the house get dressed uh for church and then I would come back out hitch the horse to the buggy pull up to the house my sister would get in and we go so this day I didn't go to the house to get ready but nobody noticed mom and dad and the rest of the family leaves I get the horse ready I pull up to the house my sister comes out and I said uh you're going by yourself I'm not going to church today didn't tell her I'm leaving I just said I'm going I'm not going to church today was that uncommon oh yeah you don't do that yeah you you don't you don't Rebel like that right uh so what' she say oh she started crying right away cuz she she knew she said are you leaving so she did love you yeah yeah so there was a relationship and you just weren't allowed to you know so there was some emotion yeah it just you're not allowed to show it Y and she you think she you know loved you like a like a traditional I think so yeah and that was that was tough I bet for her yeah so she starts crying she's going to but she knows how to take this thing to church oh yeah she going to do it yep so I said you're going to church by yourself today I'm not going so she said you're leaving aren't you I said don't worry about it just go to church and she leaves and I'm like all right I got now I got to go yeah you got to I I know she's going to go to church and tell dad of course and Dad's going to turn around and come right back home so I got to be gone yep so I I run across the street uh to to our neighbors uh this guy drove an 18-wheeler and he had a big shop and he had an office out there with a phone in the office and whenever my dad dad needed to use the phone for business reasons or whatever he would go use this guy's phone like they had like this deal worked out so I had never used the phone before damn so never no so I'm like so but as soon as my sister leaves I'm like all right I'm going to go call Allan well I had his phone number memorized just because I knew one day I was going to need it damn and I run across the street and I tried to dial it and it wouldn't go through like I'm dialing the the number and it's just like I forget what it told me but it wouldn't go through and then I remembered like I sat there for a minute I'm like man what am I doing wrong like I know that's the number I know it's right and then I remembered like some couple years ago long time ago I remembered somebody talking about dialing one before the phone number yeah so I'm like I'll try that and boom it went through oh damn and I'm like so he didn't answer oh no I'm like so I leave him a voicemail and he I knew he worked at a farm to where like he would work in a milk parlor he milk cows for some big farmer yeah um so I'm like all right well hopefully he's almost done milk and cows and he'll get my my voicemail so I told him who I am uh what where I'm at and I want to leave like I need him to come pick me up now yeah ASAP I go back over the house and I had a radio again so I put my headphones in I'm sitting in the recliner we had a big bay window that pointed out towards the road that goes up the hill I'm sitting in this big Bay recliner or uh this recliner by this window and listen to music but watching the road because I know if dad's coming back he coming back down that hill right there why wouldn't you so you're either waiting on this buddy to come get you y or your dad it's one of the others it's one or the other but I I trusted that Al was going to make it like I I don't know why I didn't like just tell Al to pick me up like a mile down the road or something like looking back like that was kind of dumb I know I'm like damn I wouldn't been nowhere near where my daddy would have been coming yeah but like church was like six miles away way M and that's a long ways to go with a horse and buggy at you know 6 M an hour but I forgot that Dad would be you know hitting 25 mph on the way back cuz I knew which horse he had uh cuz I figured that he would jump in the in the single seater that my sister just showed up with and come come okay back so I'm sitting there and waiting and waiting and watching the clock watching the clock and it's like man this is like this is taking too long just ain't good and all of a sudden here comes a horse and buggy absolutely flying down the road and it's my dad and I'm like like I'm so like I gotta I got to do something so I'm like running all these scenarios through my head if I just run out back or like do I just go upstairs lock myself in my bedroom Al's going to show up at some point like I just know he is and so I'm like all right I'll go upstairs and lock my bedroom right lock my door and that was fit to be tied so he's in the house he comes in and uh he is about to knock my bedroom door off the hinges and Drag Me to Church like he's telling me I'm grounded for x amount of time like I'm in all this trouble and I need you know I need to get out of there before he rips a door off the hinges he's going to drag me to church like like what do I who do I think I am and all this stuff right and I'm just like it's not a good situation and this is going on for like a couple minutes it seemed like forever and here I hear a car pulling in the driveway so I look out my window and it's ow he pulls in makes a U-turn stops at the sidewalks and my dad says who's that I'm like uh here we go so I told him so that's Al and everybody knew who Al was cuz he lived not far away yeah and he had he had left yeah he' left like a year and a half maybe a year and a half before that and stayed in the area so Dad says well what's he doing here I said he's here to pick me up he says what do you mean I said I'm I'm I'm leaving like I'm leaving with Al he's here to pick me up and I have my dad's attitude like changed 180 degrees right and he started crying and I I'd never seen my dad cry yeah ever like I'd never seen real tears and begged me begged me to not leave and he sits so he he goes downstairs and I didn't I didn't have anything to take with me like I had like I don't know $4 and and something and like quarters and pennies and stuff I put that in my pocket and I got go downstairs and walk past him and he's sitting on a recliner and absolutely like has lost it and is begging me to not go out not do not walk out that door do not step out that door and I said no like my decision is made I'm I'm not going to go back on that like I'm going to leave and I walk out and Al wasn't expecting to see a buggy a horse and buggy there so he's like nervous he's like who's that like what's that buggy doing here I said that's my dad let's go so I get in and with believe that was Sun that was Sunday morning of of that day and it's now looking back I'm like man I could have handled that a lot differently why how I my thoughts about it is I wish your dad would have asked you to stay the night and to let you leave the next day you know so that y'all could have had a minute to at least sort of explain yeah he knew you probably going either way right right and it maybe I don't know him but having like just a minute to to come to some terms right some sort of common ground and I probably wouldn't have done that because I wouldn't have wanted to face my mom oh because like I broke her heart like like way more than Dad like that yeah so I I was that would have been tough I was like I did not want to want to do that that so you left driving out the driveway man are you is is this giant freaking weight falling off your shoulder do you remember feeling the freedom do you remember feeling liberated or or what was the emotion um it was it was it was some of that of a relief that I I finally did it I left like I'm I'm leaving but at the same time I've got this whole ass World in front of me that I don't know anything about like I I know very very little about what's going on outside of what I grew up doing so in a way it was scary but now looking back and looking and and seeing what I what I do now and the type of how the person I've become it's that it's that challenge that I enjoyed as I as I'm learning all these things when I leave yeah um and yeah it was it was it was it was scary for sure what' you do was the first thing you did first thing we did was we go to town uh on the way back to Allen's house and we stopped uh at Walmart and there was a Cost Cutters haircut cutting place of course I I had the Amish haircut like long hair all the way down and Al takes me in this haircut place and I'm like looking around like I don't know anything like it's all new to me yeah and he says yeah I want to get this Amish boy a haircut and it's not the first time he had done that and so the ladies in there knew him and they were like all right it's not the first time that he's brought somebody out of the community yeah oh heck Al's got a reputation big time yeah it was not good for him for a while uh but uh so so yeah they asked me what do you want like what what what do you what cut do you want I'm like like what what do you mean like I don't know what so Al tells them uh what to cut me they cut my hair and then uh we go walk around Walmart I'm like checking everything out I'm like man this is wild you know and he's like talking about video games and TVs and and Stereos and stuff and uh uh so then he buys me some blue jeans and some T-shirts and cuz I didn't have anything right or money to buy anything um and then we left there and we went to McDonald's did you put the clothes on immediately yes what did that feel like had you worn traditional like no you never worn anything like that right and so what what was that was it comfortable was it uncomfortable did you feel it was weird right you feel like you're dressing in a forign you know like I would imagine like going and wearing some you know something foreign that you know yeah it might be common in that country right but you're not like I don't want to wear that that's not what we wear like when I go overseas I dress like this and people look at me because I look I look funny right cuz I don't dress like the people that live there um so must may be in something like that yeah it was gol man it was strange so you're I didn't care because like I'm like I got to get out of these Amish clothes ASAP right in those first couple of hours are is any of your mind not wanting to go back but is any of your mind like thinking about how your mom's reacting right how your how your family is sort of process assessing this yeah how did you feel about that I mean you can't communicate you can't go back you can't call them right hey Mom you doing okay um is that the way I when I when I have something going on in my life that I can't control or I can't fix right and there's an ultimate result that maybe I don't love I just have to put it on I just have to put it on the sideline right it is what it is and I can I I try to put a bunch of distance between me and that thought and that emotion right and eventually it will disappear in the background I mean is that kind of the method yeah that's that's what it came down to um not only those first couple hours but for weeks I couldn't sleep at night damn so like I had to figure out a way because I was determined I was I was going to make it I was going to survive I was going to be successful and like going back was not an option so like I had to work I had to make money I had to find a place to live because I could only stay with Al for so long so like I had to I had to save up money to buy a vehicle I wasn't 18 yet so trying to navigate okay I can't get my license until I'm 18 so like all these things um I knew my mom and dad weren't going to give me my social security number my birth certificate and I needed all of that stuff how did you manage that though how did you get it that was another very bad situation um once I turned 18 I asked my mom and dad multiple times because they would at some point they started they would call me really yeah well my dad didn't my mom all right so I was wondering like have you heard from him so yes there was some communication immediately after he left there was and within like a week because they knew where Allan lived okay so they knew how to get a hold of you so they come down there they they came there physically yeah and saw you and yeah and tried to drag me home like begged me physically or just no just begging you begging me like Mom lost you know it was it was it was hard like it was hard to see my mom that way um what were you trying to tell her I told I told her I told told them that I I didn't want to live Amish like I wanted something different I wanted to drive a car I wanted to have electricity I wanted to listen to music you know watch TV like there was all these things that I wanted to do and have that I that I can't have and they weren't and there's no compromise no there's none yeah please come back yeah so they TR I think they came down twice came to his house twice and by the end of the second round dad just basically said well you're not welcome back on the farm you don't even come visit unless you're coming to stay so don't even come don't even come by so and then time went on um they mom would call me a couple times a year she still does really and so you hear from your mom mhm what are those conversations like um there is she curious of what you're doing catching up on you how you're living so it took about 10 years for that to happen well closer to fif 12 years yeah that for a long time they never asked me what I do how my life is even after I moved from Wisconsin to here and got into racing uh and all of that they never they never asked me it's like they didn't want to know what what I do yeah um and it wasn't until just a couple years ago where they got curious enough I guess or they like I don't know just what they laid everything else off to the side whether it's they their Church stuff or whatever like they decided that they want to know about my life yeah and they've they've m mom started all of that Dad didn't like dad still wouldn't have those conversations until last winter I was actually uh went back for over Christmas time and me and my dad actually had a really good conversation

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 197,328

Keywords: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jr. Download, NASCAR, Racing, Sports, Dirty Mo Media, Marlin Yoder, Amish, Leaving Amish, Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle Larson, NASCAR Cup Series, Championship

Id: X7Z7qdZ59ZU

Length: 21min 7sec (1267 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2024