Co-Workers Go South

My company’s branded fabric has a palm tree logo, but it’s not often my co-workers and I get to see palm trees.

One day last year Liz from the wholesale department slipped into my office and whispered, “Susan, I’m not telling everyone yet, but I’ve been seeing this guy from Florida.”

At 3 a.m. on a Thursday morning last month, nine of us started on a thousand-mile trip south so we could attend Liz and Tim’s wedding. The wholesale van, normally used to haul bolts of fabric, had been pressed into service for the journey to the Sunshine Sate.

“Hopefully we can arrive in Pinecaft before 9 p.m.,” said Mary Ann. Mary Ann, and her husband Ken, who oversee the wholesale department, had done most of the planning for the trip. On one of the bench seats, I sat with Loretta and Susan S., two sisters, respectively a fabric designer and the wholesale manager. In the back seat was our co-worker, Miriam, and her friend, Amanda. Miriam is the buyers’ assistant at work. Ruth Ann, who works in receiving, and her husband, Aaron were in the front. Two couples in their sixties, five single women in their thirties.

It was bound to be a well-organized trip with regular, delicious meals and early bedtimes.

I spent most of the drive listening to audiobooks. My favorite was an Andrew Klavan novel about a group of Christian youth who get caught up in a revolution in South America. It was a satisfying listen at 1.5x speed as the scenery outside the windows turned more and more tropical.

By the time we arrived at our Airbnb in the famous vacation hub of Pinecraft, and the sun was setting, creating classic palm tree silhouettes. Since most of the tourists come in winter, the streets were quiet, and we easily slipped in a blissful rest.

The next day, after a delicious breakfast at Yoder’s restaurant, we went sightseeing. Susan S. and Loretta had not been to Sarasota Jungle Gardens, so we went there first. We fed flamingos and attended the wildlife shows.

After a stop at an orange grove, we went to Florida’s only surviving antebellum mansion. The Gamble House was built in what was the Florida frontier, and hundreds of enslaved people raised sugar cane in the brutal heat. The sugar plantation was a financial failure, and was seized by creditors after twelve years. At the end of the Civil War, the Confederate Secretary of State, stayed in the mansion en route to flee the country and avoid treason charges. (He succeeded and lived the rest of his life in Europe). The mansion keep changing hands and was even used as a fertilizer warehouse. Eventually, a historical society restored the building and the state of Florida turned it into a state park.

The next morning, we had some extra time before we had to leave for the wedding, so we decided to explore Pinecraft. During the tourist season, the tiny neighborhood of Pinecraft is jammed with people, but today the volleyball courts in the park were empty and only one old man sat at the shuffleboard court. Mennonite churches, Amish restaurants, a fabric shop that sells Tropical Breeze fabric, they’re all within walking distance in Pinecraft.

To get to the wedding, we drove away from the coast into the Florida countryside, where cattle grazed and palmettos grow in thick clusters.

The venue was an outdoor chapel in the woods. We parked in the unpaved parking lot and decided to pose for a group photo before we ventured into the wedding. Suddenly I felt a stinging sensation in my sandaled feet— I had stepped on a fire ant hill.

As I frantically hopped around trying to brush off the tiny ants, Susan S. helpfully told me, “You’re going to feel them later!” She had experience with them in Central America. The red ants in Florida are an invasive species from further south.

Great, I thought. What a fun way to start the afternoon.

We were among the first guests to arrive, so we wandered around a bit and took some pictures:

Both the bride and groom’s families are from Russia, so the ceremony was going to be in Russian. Liz’s cousin, Lisa, found us and introduced herself as our interpreter. “I was born in St. Petersburg, but I live in Germany now. I can interpret everything for you, except I have a hard time talking about Biblical subjects in English. Do you mind if I translate the sermon into German?” She went on to explain that Liz had told her we could speak Pennsylvania German. We all nodded and said, yes, that was fine. She spoke a few sentences in German to us, and I understand about half of it, and thought, This will be an interesting challenge.

But a few minutes before the service started, it began to rain. Everyone rushed into the pavilion. The rain pounded hard on the roof and the outside was so bright green it nearly glowed. On all sides we were surrounded by people talking in Russian.

I didn’t even think about my fire ant stings.

As guests milled about, some of the family members and close friends of the bride and groom swiftly began to set up things for a ceremony inside the pavilion. The master of ceremonies came around told us just to sit down wherever. So we sat down at the nearest table, disoriented Mennonites and Amish and our interpreter.

Liz came down the aisle, beautiful in a shimmering, antique white dress. We all rose and everyone took photos.

The pastor started to preach in Russian, but the pounding rain and that fact that we were sitting so close to the bridal party made any kind of interpretation impossible.

After the ceremony, it was time to eat. The groom’s mother is a caterer and the food was a sight to behold. Mennonites are known for their cooking, but nothing I’ve ever seen compared quite to this. Beef, chicken, cold cuts, fish, shrimp, smoked salmon— they were all there, along with a huge variety of salads and beautiful desserts, and all the coffee and soft drinks you could want.

The afternoon wore on, as we took photos with the bride and groom, and watched as the guests played games, sang songs, and spoke at open mic. The wedding had started at 1:30 and we didn’t leave until after seven.

The rain had stopped by evening, and so some of us moved outdoors. A very tame deer wandered in the lawn and some of the children got close enough to pet him. We also saw an alligator in a nearby pond. The deer wandered down to pond and went in to get a drink, and some people worried the alligator would attack the deer and some of us hoped he would, but the deer just got his drink in peace and wandered off again.

Sunday morning was spent at church, followed by an afternoon and evening at the beach. After watching a stunning sunset and rainbow on the white sand beach of Siesta Keys, it was time to return to our Airbnb and get ready for another early morning and the long drive north.

It had been a wonderful trip— the privilege of being at Liz’s wedding, enjoying beautiful nature, and getting to know my co-workers as friends.