Back in the day, my sister Susan and I would visit our mother Mary down in Stuart, Florida two or three times a year, and one of those visits was always in August. Many people consider that a bad time to be in Florida, but it is great beach weather, you don't need to worry about reservations at restaurants, and if you dine by the water, it stays light long enough to enjoy the view. Plus, there is much less traffic (at least back then). And another great thing about August was "Dancin' In The Streets," an annual festival held on a Saturday night in August in downtown Stuart (now known as Old Town Stuart to allow higher rents to be charged). Susan can be seen in the photograph on the left posing in front of a poster advertising that event sometime in the 1990s (I think).
For one reason or another, we never did attend Dancin' in the Streets during our visits back then. My mother was reluctant to go out after dinner, or it was pouring down rain, or we would be gone on the day it was being held. After our mother passed away, I sometimes went down to Stuart to get the place ready to rent out to a new tenant, and in 2015 made sure I would be there in time for Dancin' in the Streets. I had coffee that morning at the local McDonald's, and everyone in the place seemed to be excited about the street fair that evening. To avoid what would be a parking nightmare, I walked the mile and a half to Old Town, and had a great time, which is when I took the photograph on the right. Each year afterwards, I would check the Stuart News to see what day Dancin' in the Streets would be held, and then one day there was no mention of it at all. I e-mailed Stuart Mainstreet, which sponsored the event, and was told it was discontinued due to a lack of interest in the event. Looking at that photograph, do you really believe interest in the event would drop off that much after all those years? I do know that a lot of merchants in Old Town Stuart did not like Dancin' in the Streets because it disrupted their businesses, one year forcing the event to be held in a park down the street, which was not a popular move. I am guessing they finally were able to kill it, all so they would not lose any business on a single Saturday in the month of August, the slowest time of the year. Sad, as local hero Donald Trump likes to say.
For one reason or another, we never did attend Dancin' in the Streets during our visits back then. My mother was reluctant to go out after dinner, or it was pouring down rain, or we would be gone on the day it was being held. After our mother passed away, I sometimes went down to Stuart to get the place ready to rent out to a new tenant, and in 2015 made sure I would be there in time for Dancin' in the Streets. I had coffee that morning at the local McDonald's, and everyone in the place seemed to be excited about the street fair that evening. To avoid what would be a parking nightmare, I walked the mile and a half to Old Town, and had a great time, which is when I took the photograph on the right. Each year afterwards, I would check the Stuart News to see what day Dancin' in the Streets would be held, and then one day there was no mention of it at all. I e-mailed Stuart Mainstreet, which sponsored the event, and was told it was discontinued due to a lack of interest in the event. Looking at that photograph, do you really believe interest in the event would drop off that much after all those years? I do know that a lot of merchants in Old Town Stuart did not like Dancin' in the Streets because it disrupted their businesses, one year forcing the event to be held in a park down the street, which was not a popular move. I am guessing they finally were able to kill it, all so they would not lose any business on a single Saturday in the month of August, the slowest time of the year. Sad, as local hero Donald Trump likes to say.
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