Amish Women at Lido Beach

What would you do at one of the finest beaches in America?  Play in the surf?  Splash one another?  Look for shells?  That’s what these five Amish women were doing in the middle of April on Lido Beach, in Sarasota.  They had taken the city bus from Pinecraft, the Amish vacation settlement in the eastern suburbs, and we found them splashing in the surf with their shoes off. 

Are you surprised?  Maybe you didn’t know about the Amish taking winter vacations in Florida.  The cottages and trailers where they stay are owned by family and friends, and when they get down into that warm weather, like anyone else, Amish people want to go to the beach.  I write about this sort of thing in my seventh Amish-Country Mystery, Harmless as Doves, due out as a Plume trade paperback on June 26, 2012.  This year we were back in Sarasota for location research for the eighth story, The Names of Our Tears (Plume, 2013), which also is set partly in the little Pinecraft community. 

We saw these women wading to their knees, splashing each other in the surf, looking for shells, and laughing about the whole ocean experience.  An older Amish man with a large plastic bag sat on the sand near them, but well back from the surf, and when it got cooler that evening, he handed out sweaters and shawls. 

It reminds you that Amish are people, too.  If I have accomplished anything with my novels, I hope it is to dispel the stern stereotypes that so many Americans hold about Amish folk.  I think this picture goes a long way toward dispelling those stereotypes, too.  The hems of those dresses were all wet by sunset, and that’s nothing if it isn’t just plain fun.