You know how it is when social media “follows” you based on stuff you buy or even click on? Like the time I decimated our shop vac’s filter cleaning up after a xmas tree. I bought a new shop vac filter on line and was subsequently inundated with ads for shop vac filters. I just *bought* this. I’m not gonna buy another one for a while. And I haven’t. More recently, I clicked on an eBay picture of a socket wrench set and am now receiving emails about socket wrench sets. I clicked because I didn’t understand what was in the picture and was curious. Curiosity killed the cat, I guess.

Today Instagram served up something a little different: the Askov Finlayson company, a purveyor of clothing. What the heck? Who is this Finlayson person and where is this company based? That’s *my* last name. Is it in Scandinavia (where my family is not – at least immediately – from)? Or maybe somewhere out in western Canada… There were a lot of boyz in the Fin generation that emigrated to Canananada and some of them ended up in the Mounties out there and there are rumors that the fam mixed it up with the Native Americans out there…

There was very little information about the Askov Finlayson company on their website (that I could find) but WikiP had some. It is named after two small Minnesota towns, Askov and Finlayson. I had never heard of Finlayson, Minnesota! The owners are named Dayton, grandsons of the man who took over the J.L. Hudson department stores. They were renamed Dayton Hudson for a while. Nowadays most people are probably more familiar with Target. Same company.

The Comm’s first job after college was at the downtown Dee-troit Hudson’s store and I loved our occasional outings at that venerable old store when I was a child. Lunch on the mezzanine? Yes. Occasional outings because going to the downtown Hudson’s for us in those days required a 5-6 hour drive down from the yooperland.

Finlayson, Minnesota was incorporated in 1905 and named after David Finlayson, who owned a sawmill. I doubt I am related to him but I have to say that Sawmill Owner seems to be in line with the kinds of professions my branch of the FinFam pursue. Hardworking honest people to a man (or woman), some with more letters after their names than others.

I am not following Askov Finlayson on Instagram for now. Their clothing is nice and I like their philosophy but I am more of a smartwool gal.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 22nd, 2019 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.