Many thirty- somethings will remember Billy Idol’s “Sweet Sixteen.”  A mild acoustic-tamed Billy Idol sings about the loss of a love with his typical sexy sneer. Few of us realize there is a real story behind the Video.

The beginning video starts with an image of a man, elegantly dressed surrounded by Neolithic stones ; the cursive scrawl follows left to right stating, “love turned to stone.”

The story that the Video introduces is Edward Leedskalnin ’s coral castle.  After being left at the altar by his sixteen year old bride, Agnes Scuffs, Leedskalnin moved to the United States around 1905.  He spent the rest of his life, some 28 years, leading a mysterious life building a coral castle with nothing but handmade tools, and his own ingenuity.  His passion illuminates the mystery of Stonehenge.

The strand that unites these two stories? When asked why Leedskalnin built his coral palace, he would answer it was for his “sweet sixteen.” It is the North American rite of passage: passionate enough to remember, adult enough never to forget…