Cape Coral, Florida: Big John (In Transition)

The Big John statue is big. It's easily accessible and wears big Chuck Taylor's and acid washed jeans.

Big John had a makeover in 2011 and now wears a new set of clothes. He is carrying two bags again.

Big John was put in front of a grocery store called "Big John's" back in the '60s in a new town named Cape Coral, Florida. After the store went out of business, they kept Big John in front of the store, but took the two bags of groceries out of his hands. Now he is standing with his empty arms in front of him.

A big welcome to Cape Coral.

Big John history: My then husband, Craig, and his dad, John Hollinsworth, bought the existing grocery store in Cape Coral, Florida, in May 1969, named it Big John's, and commissioned the statue from John's grocery friend in Illinois in trade for a semi full of watermelons.

So the statue did not appear in 1966, but in 1969. The statue was trucked to Cape Coral in two pieces, the torso and the legs. During the trip, the truck misjudged the height of an overpass and the head went rolling down the highway! Wish I could have seen that! When it arrived in pieces, we flew in a "plastic surgeon" (actually a fiberglass specialist) to repair him on the spot. Made the headlines of the local paper! He was made a citizen of Cape Coral, and stayed after the store closed about 1986.

After two hurricanes plowed through central Florida, we knew local news accounts would focus on the human and business losses before getting around to the fate of America's largest concentration of year-round tourist attractions. The early word we received on the Gulf coast was that most attractions were okay....