The World's Largest Lemon
Lemon Grove Ave. and Broadway · Lemon Grove, CA
I've said it before and I'll say it again — the best way to put your crummy little town on the map is by spending your community's hard-earned tax dollars on building something big. After all, there are still those of us who willingly bypass the overly commercialized theme parks like Disneyland (a little amusement establishment here in California — perhaps you've heard of it) and seek out exciting slide-show material such as Lemon Grove's own World's Largest Lemon.
Now, I didn't mean to imply that Lemon Grove is a crummy little town. It's just a few miles east of San Diego, which is one of the nicest areas in Southern California. Whenever I become overwhelmingly bitter from living out here, I'll find myself in the San Diego area for one reason or another and realize once again that it's just Los Angeles that I can't stand.
Lemon Grove itself is a rather new city, not having been incorporated until 1977. Yet, its history as a town dates back to 1892, back when the first citrus orchards were being planted. By the 1940s, those fructiferous evergreens were being replaced by businesses and residential housing. But, the lemon still stands as the symbol of the community, and in 1928, a parade was held featuring a float adorned with a giant fiberglass lemon. It is that same lemon that now stands in the center of town for all to see.
If you'd like to behold the lemon yourself, it is perched quite visibly on the southwest corner of Lemon Grove Avenue and Broadway — making it the biggest and most ostentatious fruit on Broadway since Nathan Lane.
