To keep up my teacher certification I have had to take an online class on creative writing. I've read lessons, done assignments, taken quizzes and a final, and finally turned in a "creative piece". So just for posterity's sake I am posting it here. It's a "creative nonfiction" essay about our family vacations through the years in Siesta Key.
Growing Up in Siesta KeyThere’s a framed photo on my dresser in my bedroom. I am 18 years old and I am holding the hand of my little sister who is two. Needless to say, she was quite the surprise blessing for my parents. We are walking toward the blue-green ocean and one sees the white sand glowing in the photo. That image brings back many wonderful and bittersweet memories for me.
My childhood years were spent in the Atlanta area…places like Smyrna and Austell. My family vacationed yearly in places like Gatlinburg, Panama City, North Georgia mountains, and a long hot summer trip to Washington, D.C. But it wasn’t until I was 18 years old that we began a family tradition, one that has lasted until now and, hopefully, many more years.
My little sister was two years old, my brother was 15 years old, and I had just graduated from high school that summer of 1976. My dad knew someone who had a “condo on the beach” in Florida. This was a new concept to us as we’d always stayed in hotels. My parents wanted to give it a try and so we packed our things and headed toward Sarasota, Florida from Atlanta. My grandmother was also with us. Back in 1976, the highways were not as speedy or as well-kept as most are today. It took us a full twelve hours to get to the condo. The place known as Sarasota Surf and Racquet Club was a gray set of buildings sitting right on the beautiful white sand beaches of Siesta Key. From Sarasota, one had to cross a drawbridge to get to the Key. We were in another world.
We were amazed, mouths hanging open at the beauty of the ocean, sand, the apartment itself which was very comfortable and homey with a kitchen and bedrooms and living room. An added bonus was the screened –in porch overlooking the pools, palm trees, grassy areas, and beach and ocean. Many moments of each day were spent there watching the blue-green ocean, the sailboats, the yachts, and the people walking back and forth all day long. Children happily splashed in the pools, ran up and down the sidewalks, looked like drowned little creatures coming in at evening time completely exhausted, sunburned, and happy.
I had a boyfriend at the time we were there but he wasn’t the one that I brought back several years later as my husband. We began the practice of going every other year to Siesta Key. Even the name itself makes me lethargic, sleepy, relaxed, and happy. I grew up in Siesta Key…not from childhood days but as a teenager, young college student, young wife, young mother, and finally, now a young grandmother. Well, at least I feel young. Anyone looking at me would guess that I’m a grandmother. I smile as I write this. I grew up in Siesta Key finally appreciating the family I have. I sat there on the beach at sunset surrounded by them, relaxed, saying nothing and enjoying their presence.
The changes began. I brought my new husband along so there was an added member of the group on the beach at sunset. A few years later my brother brought his new wife, thus another member. A few years after that our little son was with us and at 10 months old one of his first words was “bur” as a seagull flew by. A few years later our sweet daughter joined the family and by that time also her first little cousin. We began to add new family at every trip until for the first time ever we lost one. There came a trip in 2003, and my grandmother had gone to heaven several months before. This was hard for all of us but very bittersweet for my mother. But we continued to add with marriages and births and, thank the Lord, all stayed healthy and happy. Our latest time together was this summer of 2009, with 17 people, the littlest one being three months old, my granddaughter.
We have spent many evenings through the years taking photos of sunsets, which amazingly look different every year. The same gold, blue, and peach are there in the sky but the waves look different, the sky varies each time. We have run in quickly as storms came up out of nowhere…once our hair stood on end as we ran, lightning flashing around us. We have tried to stand up straight on the beach right after a tropical storm has passed over us. It was exhilarating to be there, bent over, hair whipping around, sand biting into our skin. We love our “stomping grounds” in Siesta Key and Sarasota, our favorite restaurants,” mom and pop” fish places, sitting at greasy picnic tables, chain restaurants, shopping malls, the same ice cream shop for years getting our Kahlua Crunch cones, the same terrible souvenir shops where we find t-shirts for all the grandkids for photos on our last night there.
I’ve grown up there while watching my children grow up. I watched my son build sand castles, surf on a boogie board, lay in the sun as he began to be more conscious of his looks, to this last visit where he and I had a hard discussion. It was hurtful to me and so adds to the bittersweet memories of this place. I watched my daughter walk along the beach at age 4, holding up her skirt, tanning on a beach chair as a teen, and then bringing husband and baby daughter along in an amazingly short time.
I grew up in Siesta Key, watching my parents love each other and their children and their grandchildren, and now their great-grandchild. Because not only do we enjoy their love, we have learned from their 53 years of marriage. God has blessed them through their many years of hard work and Christian example and, as a result, God has blessed us through them. Psalm 100:5 says “For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.”
What a wonderful testimony to God’s faithfulness and blessings. Our memories began with six people and have now grown to 17. We look forward to new daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, sweet grandchildren, and the great-grandparents still healthy for years to come as we visit Siesta Key.
If you are wondering why I'm bringing up the past so much it's because I want to write all these memories down while I still remember them... I should have done this years ago while the experience was fresh in my mind. In 1988, soon after we arrived in Coban, Guatemala, as church planters, we were invited to a wedding out in the countryside. Now you must understand that we lived 3 hours from the capital city, near the rain forest area, in a small town that seemed to appear out of nowhere. We already felt as if we were at the dropping off point of the world so we definitely felt even more adventurous as we set out with a pastor friend to the wedding an hour or so away. We had our 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter with us. The wedding was held in a small wooden church with very rough-cut benches. The wedding itself was held in the K'ekchi' language...the K'ekchi' were an indigenous group up in Alta Verapaz...the region in which we were working. There were abundant fresh green pine needles scattered all over the floor and many flowers as the people there grow beautiful plants with amazing ease. Our job was to give away the bride and groom which was an honor considering they had never met us. We walked into the church with them (our babies hanging on to us also) and stood with them as the ceremony began. Then we took our seats for the hour-long ceremony. After the couple was married we all loaded up in our Nissan Patrol to head to a nearby house for a reception. Now our Nissan normally held 5 people. But that day 11 people crammed into that car with a couple hanging off the sides. (We used to say that the rule in Guate was "it's not full til I'm in it.) The bride and groom, of course, rode with us also. Everyone else walked and we crowded into the house which was just one room with a bench along each side. We were served caldo, which is thin-brothed chicken soup with spices, and cacao. Cacao is the REAL cocoa drink...straight cocoa which was mixed by our hostess' hand with the water they had on hand. We were the guests of honor besides the bride and groom and we were served first. Delicious stuff! After a full afternoon of festivities and introduction to the beautiful K'ekchi' culture we returned home in quite an exhausted daze. Another amazing first experience for our missionary years. 
