Sign to the former Farmers Market.

So, for my first attempt at finding old signs to former businesses in town, I actually discovered some a couple of blocks away from where I work. Peeling paint and abandoned structures told me they were long out of business…or so I thought. I looked them up and discovered some are actually still in operation, and making quite a pretty penny each year, too. Huh. I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover after all.

I have some family members who used to work at the farmers market in town and have heard great stories throughout the years. I always got the impression it was one of those magical places people gathered to socialize and to swap stories. Everyone was treated like family whether they knew you or not. And the produce was grown locally and sold for a cheap price.

Two of the businesses I shot are wholesalers, but one, P&P Produce, is open to the public. I love going into their store / stand. It has that real smell to it. “Real smell” meaning it is not a chain grocery store. It’s more personal.

I vividly remember the smell of the grocery store my mother used to shop in when I was a kid. M&J grocery store. It is where we’d get our Green Stamps. Ah! Another icon of my childhood gone.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps

Anyway, M&J had this great smell inside. It smelled like produce and baked goods all rolled into one. There is a old fashioned grocery store downtown that has that exact smell to it. Sometimes I walk in there and pretend I’m shopping just to remember my childhood and how great my mother made it.

But I digress. Here are some of the photos I took of my not-so-abandoned produce companies. I suppose Wal-Mart has not destroyed all of them yet.

Local produce company.

Working business with overgrown sign.

The sign is misleading. They have the best peaches during the summer.