‘Tis the gift to be simple
The Pinecraft subdivision in Sarasota
and the ‘Amish Experience’
44 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • January/February • 2022
By T. Michele Walker
Photos by Caroline Clabaugh and submitted
At fi rst glance, Amish culture and beach
life go together as well as pickles and ice
cream or Sinatra and Snoop Dogg. That
seems like it’s an understatement, but for the
fi ve young Amish men from central Ohio going
through the phase the Amish call rumspringa,
the Sarasota beach was heaven-sent.
It was a “rumspringa-break” that brought the
Amish to Sarasota, ushering in a new chapter
in Amish and Mennonite history. Five young
men bought a truck and fi ve fi shing poles and
left central Ohio for the Gulf Coast in the early
1920s, where they fell in love with game fi shing
and warm weather. When they went home and
told their dads, they ventured down to see what
all the fuss was about.
Unless you’re a dairy farmer or have livestock,
there’s not a lot going on during the wintertime
in Ohio. For a crop farmer whose ground is
lying fallow during the winter months, the winter
is a perfect time to come down, escape and
enjoy the warm winters in Sarasota’s Amish
community of Pinecraft.
For those unfamiliar with rumspringa, it is the
time of a young Amish person’s life when they
are permitted to leave the horse and buggy
behind and explore the world. The term literally
means, “jumping about” and begins at age 16
and lasts until they are ready to join the church.
Rumspringa could last anywhere from one to 10
years.
According to Kendra Cross, retired teacher,
Mary Kay national sales director and current
Pinecraft tour guide and historian, 95 percent
of those who participate in rumspringa do
return and rejoin the church. “There is such
a strong community and an identity with the
culture. Almost everyone wants to be part of the
community.”
Kendra should know. She is not only a tour
guide and historian, but she was also born into
the Mennonite faith.
“So that’s why they came down,” continued
Kendra. “They originally began in canvas tents
and because the Amish are so interdependent
with one another and set apart from the world,
they tend to always live in communities. It
became a little bit uncomfortable during some
of the colder times, so they started building
small cement block buildings. Pinecraft grew
and grew, and today the community is 10
square blocks, and has become so full they
have trickled east, north and west of Philippi
Creek.”