My sister Susan and my parents, Nelson and Mary, moved from the Chicago area to Stuart, Florida back in 1976, purchasing their condo on March 25th of that year, almost 50 years ago to the day. The previous year, my parents, along with me, visited my Uncle Bill (my mother's brother) and Aunt Elsie, who lived at the Monterey Yacht and Country Club in Stuart, to see if they might like to retire there, too. The complex has a 9-hole golf course, but sadly, no yachts, since they were never allowed to dredge the St. Lucie River. My father, who loved golf, and used to play with my Uncle Bill every year when the two families vacationed together in Canada, decided he did indeed want to retire there, and went down to Stuart the next year to select the condo where Susan and I now spend half the year. My mother was not sold on moving away from Chicago and her family, but after a few months, she fell in love with the place, stayed on after my father passed away, and lived there for almost 30 years. Stuart has changed a lot since then. There are a lot more people, especially just to the north, where its neighbor, Port St. Lucie, has grown into the 6th largest city in Florida, resulting in a lot more traffic, even during the summer. New houses and apartment buildings are going up all over, but all in all, it is still the same place as before. The downtown is very charming and vibrant, buildings throughout the county can be no higher than 4 stories, and strict environmental regulations keep the beaches from becoming overdeveloped. And yes, those are indeed our parents in the photograph above, not too long after they first moved to Stuart. Fifty years is half a century, which is quite a lengthy span. It almost makes me think I myself might actually be getting old. Which is, of course, nonsense.
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