Everything Changes, Deal with It.

I get it. 

When you move away from your hometown, you can't expect things to remain the same as when you left.  Expecting everything to be the same when you return weeks, months, or years later is illogical.

And yet, I do (and I'm betting there are a lot of you Hibbing ex-pats out there who are right there with me).

There are people and places and things that you have relied on for years.  Its their familiarity and constancy that make up this cozy, comforting picture of Hibbing that many of us out-of-towners hold dear. In a world where technology seems to be changing our work and personal lives at a break-neck pace, it's nice to have something to rely on.  As I've mentioned before in this blog, one particular piece of nostalgia we hold on are the unique foods available at local stores and restaurants (and, of course, your family's table).

Sammy's pizza.  Rudy's subs.  Pancakes at Sportsmen's.  

Iconic view of Park Addition.  (Sure it's probably more picturesque in the Hugh Reynold's rendition, but you get the idea.)

 

Saturday mornings at Sunrise Bakery.  Picking up day old bread on sale and a bag of donuts, if you're good.  *sigh*  Good memories.

What?!  What do you mean, Sunrise is moving?  What?! Already has moved?  During my last trip home over the holidays, I saw for myself the vacant bakery building.  Even though I had known this was coming, it was still a little surreal.  The building has been purchased by Rich Lees (Lees Rental and Commercial Development) who now owns more of Hibbing commercial real estate than I can believe, but that's another story for another post. 

The former home of Sunrise Bakery as it stands as of December 2011. 

Anyway, I stood for a moment and looked at the vacant building.  I thought about all of the trips my family made there while I was growing up.  I remembered carrying brown paper bags filled with bread to be put in the back seat of the truck or more often the mini-van.  I smiled as recalled how I used to imagine that living above the bakery and waking up extra-early every morning to go downstairs and make bread would be best life ever.  (Note: I was a kid and to this day have no idea if there are even living quarters above said bakery and if so, if any bakery employees actually lived there.  It was a pretty cool daydream though.)

Anyway, onto the second half of the title of this blog post: deal with it--a little reminder to myself, if you will.  Sunrise Bakery didn't close.  It just moved down the street (as captured in the photograph below).  Word on the street has it that many people complained that they wouldn't patronize the business if it did indeed join the main baking space at the old Jefferson Elementary School.  So, the owners compromised and although they left the building, they didn't quite leave the neighborhood. 

New home of Sunrise Bakery.  Just a little south of the old stomping grounds.  This building previously housed Pam's Health 4 U and before that Range Broadband (now Mediacom). 

 I actually think the new building is quite charming.  It looks better than it ever has in recent memory and Sunrise seems to have filled out the space quite nicely.  Of course, it's not the same.  Things are never the same.  But all of that said, I'm willing to venture that things are still pretty darn good.  And I bought the wild rice, day old bread, and apple fritters to prove it.