When I was growing up, I would hear stories about Madison and the University of Wisconsin from my mother as we were driving past the campus. Sheâ??d point out what had changed, like where a Rennebohmâ??s soda counter had been or that the Medical Sciences Center used to be Madison General Hospital. Among these stories were the classics; how the Sterling Hall bombing was planned in a dark booth at the Nitty Gritty, how 1,000 pink flamingos dotted Bascom Hill, and how the Statue of Liberty was erected on the frozen surface of Lake Mendota.
I’m working with a group of people in Hoofers to bring back the original Statue of Liberty — a stunt pulled off by the pranksters in the UWâ??s Pail and Shovel party. Our plan is to return it to the ice of Lake Mendota in front of the Memorial Union for Valentineâ??s Day weekend (and possibly longer) during the Hoofers Winter Carnival, a tradition itself stretching back to at least the 1930s.