Foreign Lands: I'm Gonna Make This Quick

I snapped this sign after stopping for decidedly mediocre "Italian" lunch during this weekend's road trip. It's just off the main drag in Alexandria, MN, not far from the town's antique shopping district, the stores of which have that strange, nausea inducing quality common to rooms full of old stuff. I've got little to say about the sign itself, except that it seems to say "Meat Market" and is on the side of a now-closed lunch place. And yes, I'm man enough to admit to a bit of weekend antique shopping (in my defense, it was unplanned and not my idea).

And I've got a three-picture update to my florist post. Turns out the front of the building is well-labeled too.

But apparently there used to be something else here too. The company is gone now, but the sign for Acorn, Inc. isn't. Do you think Michele Bachmann is personally responsible for them being defunct? (No, it's not that ACORN, probably something more like this)

Florists And The Hendersons

Here we have a pair of signs for florists, next to a small parking lot at 1 Ave. N and 3rd St. N. The colors and trade dress look similar (at least in their faded state), but one says "Lakeland Florist Supply Inc." and I think the other says, "Greenland Wholesale Florist" (could be Greenleaf too). Perhaps they were related. This must have been the parking lot for those businesses, but in looking around a bit, I didn't see much other evidence of anyone selling flowers.

A bit of Googling suggests that I am a poor reader, and that it is in fact, Greenleaf Wholesale Florist. The business was opened as a wholesale branch of a California flower grower in the late 1960s, but it seems they no longer have a Minneapolis location.

Lakeland Florist Supply, however, is still around, but seems to have moved to Edina. The historical society has a shot from 1974, which reminds me that I've seen the "Lakeland" sign on the front of the building but didn't manage to connect the dots. I'll have to go back and get a picture of that as well.

Writing On the Wall says these were painted over in gray, but I think he/she/they have their walls mixed up (they also give the wrong intersection). The signs are still there, but the businesses aren't.