Happy Birthday, Bob! For What Else Shall We Have Cake?

The other day someone was talking disparagingly about Bob Dylan's singing voice in relation to a recent concert.  This is not a unique comment as I know it's been echoed (and continues to be) in many conversations around the world.  I did respond to this one though, with a good-natured, "Now, really, don't be hating. . .especially this close to his birthday!" 

Of course this became a window to talk about Hibbing and one of my favorite community events that begins today, the annual Dylan Days celebration.  If you've never been to any of the Dylan Days events, you really should go.  Allow me to particularly recommend the singer/songwriter contest, which has grown so popular it's bloomed into two nights and one afternoon.  I went one year when my brother was participating and Zimmy's was never so packed and filled with great music and people.  I've also heard a lot of great things about the bus tour, although I've never experienced it myself. 

But this blog post, isn't about all of the fabulous events of Dylan Days or even about Bob Dylan himself--although I really do enjoy a lot of his music and think he is a fabulous songwriter.

What I'd like this blog post to be about is how a local, independent business and a few people started something with a simple birthday celebration.  As it says on the Dylan Days website, "Dylan Days began informally in 1991 at Zimmy's Bar and Restaurant in Hibbing, Minnesota (Bob Dylan's hometown). The Dylan-themed establishment hosted a small birthday gathering in Bob's honor that included some impromptu musical performances."  In 2001 the city got involved (along with the chamber and educational partners) and eventually Dylan Days grew into the event and non-profit arts organization organization it is today. 

I like Bob Dylan, but I love how this event serves as a spotlight and source of support for "emerging writers, musicians, and artists in Northeastern Minnesota, especially Hibbing."  Through celebrating the amazing accomplishments and talent of one native son, Hibbing can seize the opportunity to recognize and support the grow of artists of all kinds that call this place home. That's pretty powerful.

And to think it all started with a little birthday party.  Inspiration, anyone?  Today, I tip my proverbial hat to all of the fabulous people who started and sustain Dylan Days and I ask those of you who "heart" Hibbing out there on the interwebs--what (or perhaps who) else is out there that deserves a little cake and celebration? It could be the start of something great.

 I encourage you to comment here or continue the conversation at the I Heart Hibbing Facebook page.   

Bringing Fancy Back: The Idea

I love hearing my parents tell stories about what Hibbing was like long before I arrived on the scene.  Stories from my Dad are great and usually involve some kind of shenanigans, but stories from my mom (who is not from the Range originally) also have a special quality. 

One memory from my mother that sticks in my mind is her relating impressions of Hibbing when she was making the decision to take her first teaching job here after graduating from college in the 1960s.  Her face always takes on something of a rosy glow talking about all of the ladies dress shops that were downtown at the time as well as The Golden Door Bookstore (which honestly just sounds enchanting).  Apparently there was a sign up in the bookstore for an upcoming ballet to be held in the breathtaking Hibbing High School auditorium and that sealed that deal. 

It's a story with very little plot and scant detail, but nonetheless I've always found it magical.  I try to imagine what it was like for my mother, the excitement of one's first post-college job.  To be in a little city where rough and tumble mining roots and realities stood side-by-side with beautiful dress shops, ballet performances, and auditoriums with velvet seats and chandeliers made of crystal imported from Belgium. 

The Golden Door Bookstore came and went before my time, as did the multiple fancy ladies dress shops--although I do remember fun trips to Feldman's and staring through the glass at all of the fancy fashions in LaBoutique as a kid. 

There is something inherently fun in getting dressed up, even if there is no preordained occasion.  There's also something pretty fun about uncovering the fancy in Hibbing, especially when many claim it does not exist. 

It genuinely makes me sad to hear women talk about loving a dress or a fancy piece of jewelry only to follow the statement with the idea that they can't possibly wear either around town.  I glance over my shoulder at these comments wondering if some sort of posse has banded together since I've lived out of town that enforces a strict dress code in which blue jeans are queen and dresses are verboten.  I'm pretty sure said posse does not exist, at least not outside our own minds, which perhaps become preoccupied with what those around us are wearing and thinking. 

So, recognizing that pattern.  I'm offering up a challenge.  On the evening of Thursday, June 7, 2012 lets bring a little fancy back to Hibbing.  Take some time for yourself.  Get dressed up.  Feel pretty.  The occasion?  No other reason other than it's Thursday and why not? 

I don't know if anyone else will get on this train, but on that night I'm planning on doing my hair, putting on a dress that makes me feel fabulous, and hitting the streets of downtown Hibbing .  I want to look at the city with fresh eyes and celebrate all of the beautiful things and people that make it great. 

Care the join me?  The more the merrier.  Watch the new I Heart Hibbing Facebook page for event details within the next day or so. 

Collectively Thinking (and Acting) Outside of the Box

My day job focuses on the idea of innovation.  I went to a conference session a couple of months ago where the presenter talked about how organizations do or do not foster or accept innovation.  Generally speaking systems are designed (and perpetuated) to create and maintain stability, and thus when new or different ideas are introduced into the system they are not necessarily well received.  Oftentimes the only way for new and different ideas to avoid being immediately squashed is for them to exist outside of the system for a certain amount of time. In essence, people work around the system to do what they judge needs to be done, whether that is an opinion shared by the "Powers that Be" or not. 

As I pondered how this idea affects my professional life, I also considered how the theory applies to creating positive change in Hibbing.  We often seek to affect change through official channels, through city government and other official entities.  This is great and makes complete sense, but the reality is that oftentimes ideas can stall out and die in these systems.  I've also noticed how it can disengage people from a sense of personal responsibility, thinking that X is the job of so-and-so or a particular group.  It's always easier to complain about the job someone else is doing than to take responsibility for making a positive, consistent impact. 

So, while I believe that political engagement and thinking systematically are essential to long-lasting changes; I also believe firmly in the power of individuals to take action outside of official channels. 

So, instead of pointing the finger at city officials or certain organizations and proclaiming what they should do, perhaps we should practice a little introspection and consider what each of us can do to make Hibbing a better place.  Then, taking it a step further, consider how those individual actions can have power when we join forces as a group of like minded citizens, ex-pats, and Hibbing aficionados. 

A tiny personal example of how this type of action can work happened in Hibbing last Thursday (May 3rd).  Two days prior I networked with some friends via Facebook and together we plotted a cash mob for {moxie}, a women's clothing boutique located in the Reed Building on First Avenue (full disclosure: this store is owned and operated by my sister, hence the personal connection).  The mob was a small success (particularly considering the short time frame), although it did not make the news, it was greatly encouraging for the store and also an opportunity for like-minded people to find each other and consider about how this kind of thing could spread community wide. 

Breaking this event down, it focused on something individuals could do irrespective of politics or the bureaucracy of any particular organization, and it drew its strength from these individuals banding together.  This is the conversation and action that I would like to help facilitate. 

Is anyone interested in joining me?  I plan on continuing the conversation here on this blog, and starting tonight on the blog's companion Facebook page (www.facebook.com/IHeartHibbing).  I hope those of you who *heart* Hibbing will join me. 

Bringing Fancy Back: A Prelude

Before I get started, let me preface this post with an explanation that I consider myself a very proud Iron Ranger (although I may currently live out of the area).  I grew up in Hibbing and considered my of my Iron Range identity to be a badge of honor (thanks in part to my father who is a proud Iron Ranger himself).  This understanding deepened in my adult life through returning to the area and working in education at a local history museum. 

There are many labels which I answer to such as librarian, sister, daughter, intellectual, Catholic, rebel, idealist, and particularly for the purposes of this blog post—Iron Ranger.  I specifically bring this label up because I’ve gotten a little feisty in response to recent conversations both in-person and online that seem to limit the Iron Range to a narrow stereotype of itself.  What do I mean?  Please allow me to illustrate:

1. Conversation with a co-worker here in Iowa who complimented me on an outfit I was wearing the other day:

Co-worker: That’s a great outfit. 

Me: Thanks.  I got it at my sister’s store.  She owns a boutique up in northern Minnesota. 

Co-worker: A boutique?  On the Iron Range?  Are you kidding?! I didn’t know they had those up there. 

2. Conversation with a friend on vacation in the Twin Cities:

Friend: There are two kinds of people from the Iron Range, Jen: Iron Rangers and People Who are From the Iron Range.  You are not an Iron Ranger.  Trust me. 

3. Conversation with a customer at my sister’s store:

[Customer comes out of dressing room wearing a beautiful dress.]

Me: Wow.  That looks fabulous on you. 

Customer: Yeah, I love it.  [Twirls around.] Too bad I don’t have anywhere to wear it around here. 

Honestly, all of these conversations remind me a bit of one I had in college over 10 years ago when a classmate from southwestern Minnesota looked at me all wide-eyed once he had discovered my Iron Range status: “Wow, you’re from there? I’ve thought about becoming a missionary there.  Do you have running water?”

Now, admittedly that last conversation was a special one and I have a heavy suspicion that gentleman may have been dropped on his head as a child; yet, all conversations combined paints a rather one-sided and frustrating picture of the Iron Range I love.

What’s so upsetting about these conversations you ask?  Are they completely false or misguided in their characterization of the Iron Range?  Absolutely not, there is a significant amount of truth behind these perceptions (again, with the exception of the last conversation which I am chalking up to brain damage).  Is the Iron Range characterized by the mining industry and a rather rough culture that accompanies it?  Sure. On the Iron Range is there more Carhartt than Cartier? Of course.  However, what is most frustrating to me is that the perceptions to fuel the above conversations serve to limit rather than illuminate what it means to be an Iron Ranger.  It fails to recognize (and even hides in my opinion) the region’s commitment to things like education and the pursuit of beauty. 

Yes, I said it.  Part of the Iron Range and Iron Rangers is the idea of pursuing and preserving beauty.  Look at our high schools, look at our village halls, and even libraries in certain communities.  Much conversation is had about the saloons and bars that populate Range history and modern reality, but often times these conversations take up so much room that people don’t see that this history also includes things like opera houses and the current existence of a growing orchestra program. 

Finally, what frustrates me most about the aforementioned attitudes is the implication that if one does not adhere to this narrow idea of what it means to be an Iron Ranger (or a Hibbingite for that matter), one somehow forfeits the label, which I wear with pride.

I refuse to believe that things like getting dressed up and engaging in activities like going to the ballet or symphony make me any less of an Iron Ranger; and I am willing to bet that there are more people than you might expect that feel the same way. 

Honestly, the idea that something like this is incompatible with my identity as an Iron Ranger is just ridiculous.

So, what to do (besides write a rather passionate blog post)?

Well, when the going gets tough, the tough get organized and in this case “the tough” also wear a dress. 

Intrigued?  Stay tuned for further details.   

The Third Option or Joining Together to Make Hibbing Better

"The tragic reality is that we do not live in a perfect world. It seem to me that there are a number of ways to deal with this fact. Firstly, you can quietly accept it. Secondly, you can moan and whine about it. Thirdly, you can try to make things better. If you haven't taken the third option and at least made some effort, then you have no right to take the second option either." --A. B. Credaro (a.k.a. The Warrior Librarian)

The above quotation has been one of my favorites since I stumbled upon it on the interwebs a few years back.  It’s definitely a credo I try to live by and an idea that I believe is central to what I’m doing here on this blog.  

What brings it to mind this evening is a new Facebook group that I noticed on my feed today entitled “Pro-Hibbing, MN”.  I was intrigued as I read the group’s explained purpose:

Written By Mike Lord.
The site was created as a means to get voices heard in the decision making process and possibly asking those in local government to respectfully accept our suggestions. I would love a "Townhall/Brainstorm" session. I especially want to clarify that anything posted should not be personal. The job Hibbing’s current administration is performing is impressive at many levels, please keep mud slinging to a minimum as it goes against our site, Pro-Hibbing,MN. Thank you ALL!

Positive.  Constructive.  Focused on a little collective action.  I liked it. 

And so I requested to join.  

At 9:07 p.m. Central Standard Time on Thursday, February 09, 2012 there are 57 members (including yours truly).  

What will come of this group?  I don’t know, but I have high hopes that it will serve as an effective gathering platform for many people who love Hibbing and want to contribute to the betterment of the community.  This seems to be part of a growing movement of people who are positively united around Hibbing thanks to the internet.  Two other platforms that come to mind are the Hibbing Trivia and Lore group on Facebook and the Hibbing: Ore and More campaign as it lives through the community calendar and Facebook page.  

So, I hope other people who “heart” Hibbing will join this latest group.  Contribute your thoughts, participate in discussion, and translate ideas into action for the good of Hibbing.  

Come on team, we can do it.  And even if we fail sometimes, we owe it to ourselves and our community to try.  

Food + Dylan Connection = News Story -or- People of Hibbing Rejoice, The Lybba's Staying!

If you were to play some sort of word association game with Hibbing "outsiders" and they had to name fabulous things that people associate with the city, I'm pretty sure it would go something like this:

Bob Dylan. 
Food.
Mining. 

Perhaps the order would change depending on the individual.  But I'm pretty darn sure those are our top three, like it or not. 

In studying the analytics for this blog, it is obvious that food-related posts generate the most traffic.  So, I'll add another to that pile (and I will honestly start tagging these things, too.  Promise.). 

Checking Twitter this morning, I came across the following update from MinnesotaBrown:

Jason Davis of On the Road profiles Hibbing's Sunrise Deli. I sense great change in Iron Range food iconography.... fb.me/1ud0dAdGr

Definitely piqued my interest.  Yet I'll admit, the phrase "great change" made me a bit nervous as the town gossip I've been hearing over the past few months was that the Deli was going to close and relocate down in the Twin Cities.

Bracing for the worst, I crossed my fingers and clicked through to the blog post where I watched the KTSP story and read Brown's short commentary.   

Color me happy to discover that not only was the Deli not closing its historic Lybba location (once again thanks to a little public outcry), it was expanding business into wholesale food distribution.  This was thanks in part to the great reaction that the Deli had to selling its food at farmer's markets in the Twin Cities with its high Iron Ranger ex-pat population. 

Hooray for Hibbing!  And a big congratulations and thank you to Tom and Mary Lou Forti! A traditional Iron Range eatery preserved and a local business expanding all in one fell swoop.

Could this be the beginning of a community-wide trend?  Lets hope so. 

Note: Hats off to KTSP's Jason Davis for capturing the story, however, I hope that next time you're on the Range you will remember that it's "po-teat-za" not "pot-ick-a".  Also, special thanks to MinnesotaBrown for the link love at the end of the post.  Slowly, but surely this little blog is finding it's way in the vast expanse of the interwebs.   

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.