I LIKED LIVING IN SOUTH VENICE, I liked it a lot, and I miss living there. Like all of Florida, it has its own attractions. One morning I was in the back yard sawing up some limbs I'd cut off a tree when I noticed a couple of eyes staring at me from under the neighbor's bushes. I didn't think much of it. There are a lot of cats in the neighborhood and we would feed them, so they hang around. I eventually turned my head to get a closer look and saw that it wasn't a cat at all. It was a baby alligator just laying there. He was about 2½ feet long.
It was odd that he was laying in the shade since they like the sun, but alligators aren't unheard of in our yard because they migrate across our yard to get from Alligator Creek to the Intercoastal Waterway and Lemon Bay. He just laid there under the bushes staring at me. He didn't move and of course, he didn't blink. He made me kind of nervous, tho, because he was so close and they can move faster on land than some people give them credit for. So after a few minutes I just kind of slowly laid the saw on the ground and walked around the corner of the house and inside.
Where we live now in Kissimmee, we don’t have any pets except for the ubiquitous Florida lizards. Our home in South Venice at one time or another was home to 1 dog, 2 gold fish, 4 cats, 2 cockatiels, 1 parrot, a bunch of lizards that took up residence in the garage (kept the bug population down), a turtle that liked to crawl across our back yard en route to the local creek, and an occasional alligator meandering from Lemon Bay to Alligator Creek.
It’s a good neighborhood with a good mixture of homes and people. It has quarter million doallar homes sitting next to 60,000 dollar homes. There are a lot of retired couples and a lot of married kids with children. Yes, a lot of children. There are two parks in South Venice, Challenger Park with its playground and baseball field, and Shamrock Park on the banks of the Intracoastal Waterway with its playground, tennis courts, bike path and nature trail, fishing spots, and nature center. Both were within easy bicycling distance of where we lived.
Living in FloridaI like living in Florida.
It took a while to settle in and feel at home and there was culture shock to endure, but I stuck it out and now I feel practically like a native. I certainly don’t miss the cold weather.
It’s different in Florida than up north, but I like it. We try to make the fall and winter months festive, even though it is warm out. We decorate like crazy for the holidays. It even starts getting cold in November, at least if you count temperatures in the sixties as being cold. I don’t, but a lot of local folks do and it is distincly different than the hot and humid temperatures of the summer.
I love never having to wear a coat and wearing only a windbreaker even during the coldest part of winter. The weather is always good, so no snow and little chance of rain to ruin outdoor activities unless, of course, it is summer when it rains every afternoon. It’s hot in the summer. Sometimes it’s unbearably hot in the summer. We just stay inside in the air conditioning to beat the heat of summer, just as we used to stay inside up north in the winter to beat the bitter cold.
One of the most amazing things about living here that still impresses me whether in South Venice or Kissimmee: I'll be sitting at a stoplight on my way somewhere — picking up the kids from school, shopping, whatever — and I'll look over to the car next to me and see a family with wonder and excitement on their faces as they point to palm trees, beaches, whatever. It will hit me just how lucky I am to live in a place that some people will save their whole lives for just to come and visit for a mere week or so.
I love it. I really do. Where else can you ride your bicycle past boats in the marina, enjoying an ocean breeze, wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt in December while wild green parrots fly overhead and the smell of jasmine and oranges flood your senses and you are within a couple hours driving distance of Walt Disney World and Busch Gardens?
The HouseMy first time in South Venice was in the spring of 1973. My uncle took me there while I was in Florida during spring break at Indiana University. He and my aunt were building a house on a corner lot there. The house was under construction. It was really a shell of a house sitting on a sand and shell lot that was not yet landscaped. It didn’t even have grass covering the sand.
Eventually the lot would have a two-bedroom house with a closed in Florida room (local terminology for a closed in patio), plenty of grass, a pine tree right on the corner that is at least three times taller than the house, several fruit trees, and a couple of maple trees. The lot is a block south of Alligator Creek and a block east of the Intracoastal Waterway. A ferry boat owned by the South Venice Civic Association runs from a private dock a block over from the house to a private beach also owned by the civic association and open only to South Venice homeowners, residents, and guests. My uncle was one of the volunteers who piloted the South Venice ferry.
South Sarasota County
Venice, South Venice, Nokomis, Laurel, and Osprey are nestled along Florida's southwest coast. The waters of the Gulf of Mexico moderate the temperatures of summer and winter for a perfect year-round climate. The scenic stretch of Sarasota County coast line basks in the sun most of the year and temperatures seldom drop below 60 degrees.
From Osprey, which is the northern-most of the south Sarasota County area communities, to Manasota Key, below South Venice, fourteen miles of white sand beaches lure sun worshippers and searchers for sea shells and the prehistoric shark’s teeth. The area is a water wonderland. The Gulf , bays, and other waterways offer opportunities for swimming, surfing, fishing, and boating. They are a constant source of recreation for residents and visitors alike.
South Venice
Just beyond the Venice city limits, South Venice with its 18,000 residents is conveniently located on U.S. 41, also known as the Tamiami Trail. It is a center for shopping and light manufacturing, as well as the site of Manatee Community College's South Campus. The subdivision has a land area of 98,98740 square miles and a water area of 565,110 square miles.
Development of South Venice began in 1952 with the marketing of 19,000 platted lots. There was a minimum two-lot purchase, with each 40 x 100 lot priced at $200. The New York City development firm of W & A Construction Company began building in July 1953, and the first residents moved into their homes in October. By mid-1954, the majority of the lots had been sold.
BioPage Welcome