Unknown Minneapolis Artists Add Graffiti That We Always Wanted To At Acme

I grew up in south Minneapolis in the 1960s through 1980s. Our neighborhood felt more like a small town rather than being in the big city. You know the type of place where kids played outside until the street lights came on with no fear, and the group of friends you made were lifelong pals that were known at every business in the area (for better or worse!)

One of the businesses in our neighborhood is/was the Acme Foundry on Hiawatha Avenue and 32nd Street. They've been making ductile and gray iron castings for over a century. Of course being kids from that era and seeing the big 'ACME' sign meant just one thing to use: Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. That poor coyote spent our childhood ordering all kinds of bombs and rockets and springs and mousetraps and whatever else he could get from Acme to try to catch that fast bird.

We of course always joked about painting the characters on the side of the building. Well all these years later, someone did just that over the weekend because as workers showed up for their jobs Monday morning, they found the characters adorning the building. And they're thrilled about it!

The company is hoping to identify the artist to offer their thanks and have them help with the layout of some iron castings of the cartoon characters.

I wish I could lay claim to being the artist, but there's still a chance as many of the kids I grew up with in the neighborhood still call the Twin Cities home. Maybe I should check in with them on Facebook to see if 30+ years later, one of them finally followed through on something we joked about as kids.

Beep-Beep!