As a boy, Fred Bierer remembers cutting school every year to attend. This fact is mentioned for all those who thought Flower Mart tradition was strictly about little old ladies and black-eyed Susans and a vague sense of dilettantes at play. It is not. Bierer brings up the hooky-playing in maybe the first five seconds of lunch the other day.
Lunch is a cheeseburger with a side order of cigarettes.
One cigarette lights the next. Bierer's pink face is occasionally visible behind wafts of smoke, and each sentence he utters extols all the grand possibilities for the annual gathering, set this year for May 16 at Mount Vernon Place. Between bites of cheeseburger, he mentions food for the Flower Mart. He lists the Brass Elephant and the Belvedere Hotel and Faidley's of Lexington Market. All are setting up booths.