The photograph on the left shows the statue of Lady Abundance, which sits in Haney Circle in downtown Stuart, Florida. I took that photo this past March during the Stuart Art and Craft Festival. This statue was sent by France to be displayed at the New York World's Fair in 1939. It was purchased by the Stuart Women's Club in 1949 for $1,800 and sold to the City of Stuart for $1 so it could be placed in Haney Circle to honor Cynthia Burnett Haney, a prohibitionist, suffragist, and advocate for social justice. But when the community saw it, they noticed that Lady Abundance was naked. That, combined with the grapes (which are associated with wine and a no-no for honoring a prohibitionist), resulted in the statue, along with a fountain, being placed on the courthouse lawn instead. Where it stayed until 1991, when it was moved to Haney Circle as part of the "revitalization" of Stuart.
And just two years later, in August of 1993, my sister Susan decided to wade into the fountain, climb up next to Lady Abundance in a show of solidarity with her, and pose for a photograph, with my mother Mary standing at its base. I am not sure if that was legal or not, but just to be sure, I remember pretending I didn't know either of them until we walked back to the sidewalk. At least one of us had to stay out of prison, right? In any case, this past Saturday when we were downtown, I suggested to Susan that she climb up next to that statue one more time so I could feature "then and now" photographs on this blog post. And got a quick no. Granted, Susan was a young girl of 51 back when that photograph was taken, and these days she is no longer as spry as she used to be, but you would think she would have at least given it a try, right? But no. What can you do?
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