Deflectable mounting for upright mast

A sign stand assembly, comprising:

• a spring strip of composite spring material extending in a generally vertical direction and having top and bottom ends with top and bottom edges, respectively;
• a base member including a pair of opposed clamping members cooperating to provide a shielding for the bottom edge of the spring strip and to define a slot for receiving the bottom end of the spring strip with a compressive engagement;
• a mounting member-carrying a mast member and having a vertically extending mounting wall and a top wall, the mounting wall and the top wall cooperating to provide a shielding for the top edge of the spring strip;
• a backing member having a vertically extending backing wall;
• the mounting member further comprising a backing wall cooperating with the mounting wall to define a slot therebetween for receiving the top end of the spring strip with a compressive engagement;
• first clamping means drawing said clamping members together to compressively engage the bottom end of the spring strip so as to shield the bottom edge of the spring strip from contact and so as to mount the spring strip to the base member;
• second clamping means drawing said mounting wall and said backing wall together to compressively engage the top end of the spring strip so as to shield the top edge of the spring strip from contact and so as to mount the mounting member to the spring strip;
• and
• said first and said second clamping means being fixedly attached to the spring strip at a fixed spacing from each other,
• so that an unrestrained portion of the spring strip extends between the mounting member and the base member and is free to flex with loads applied to the mast member.