Cases were loaded with pastry and shelves decorated with cookie jars at Johnson’s Lakeside Bakery in this 2015 photo.
Eastside donut and cookie lovers will lose a longtime sweet supplier this spring but a potential plan is in the works to install another bakery at the same address which has fed the neighborhood for more than six decades.
‘Cause I survived the ’80s one time already
And I don’t recall it all that fondly
— Craig Finn
The bemulleted boy in that senior portrait over there came very close to not graduating with his Rochester John Marshall high school class of 1989 mates. One semester more and the rage that had fueled his self-destructive approach to school since 1983 would have elicited an anticlimactic letter explaining why he couldn’t walk in the ceremony and what he’d have to do if he wanted a diploma.
His K-6 career had suggested potential. Then a few months into seventh grade his interest in caring or trying seemed to evaporate. He embodied adolescent apathy. He also transcended it in ways that made very little sense to himself or anyone else. One example: he so bitterly resented being placed into advanced science and English classes (for reasons he could articulate no further than, “I just want to be in the normal classes”), that he intentionally got crummy grades on assignments until people who made such decisions had no choice but to bust him down to non-advanced sections.
At least that’s how I think I remember it. I know he was pissed — furious — about school in general, and still pretty far away from having vocabulary or perspective required to process what he was feeling or why. I know he self-sabotaged, sometimes so willingly it seemed wanton, and sometimes while watching it happen and wishing he knew how to stop it. In those situations, the latter often presented as the former. I also know it’s possible he got kicked out of those advanced sections because he just wasn’t equipped to stay in them. It’s not taking shots at him to say he might just not have been smart enough in ways the classes required students to be.
The image above shows Grand Avenue at Knowlton Creek, looking from Duluth’s Norton Park neighborhood toward the Riverside neighborhood. It’s dated Feb. 16, 1918. At the time, Grand Avenue was named Third Street. What does it look like today?
Carli Vergamini takes old jackets and other items and re-purposes them into a wild variety of accessories. A quote on her website reads “the best fashions are fringey & up-cycling is cool.” In this week’s Selective Focus, we get an introduction to what she’s doing. It’s worth a deeper dive into her blog, where she frequently makes updates about what she’s working on, and she highlights other businesses that she admires in a series she calls “Biz Crush.”
CV: My main medium of choice is leather. Specifically, re-purposed from vintage leather jackets. It happened as a mistake — I was fresh out of college and didn’t know what I was doing with my life. All I knew is that I wanted to make stuff, but I didn’t know where to buy the materials I needed to make the stuff I wanted to make. So I did what I typically do and got resourceful. I bought the first leather coat I could find at Goodwill, took it home and cut that baby up to smithereens.
As far as blogs go, obviously Perfect Duluth Day isn’t the only show in town. And it must be noted the line where a blog crosses over from one person’s musings into becoming an online magazine is a fuzzy one. In spite of the inherent problems associated with labeling anything, below is PDD’s updated list of Duluth-area community blogs — an every-couple-of-year salute/guide to the individuals and small groups who crank out content like it’s 2007 instead of (or in addition to) just Facebooking, Instagramming and whateverelseing.
More from the deck found at Savers …
1. In what year did the U.S. Commerce Dept, designate the Port of Duluth a Foreign Trade Zone?
2. In what year was the $8.5 million Duluth International Airport passenger terminal and industrial park complex completed?
3. In what year was Northland Country Club built?
4. In what year was Wade Stadium dedicated?
5. Who was Sid Peterson?
6. Who were the 1961 Minnesota State High School basketball champions?
7. Who was Bruce Bennett?
8. Who was “Heat Wave” Richard Berler?
9. What was the White City on Park Point?
The final track of the self-titled Superior Siren album released last month.
Production and Cinematography: Killy Kay
Model: Laura Sellner of Superior Siren
Duluth’s own Trampled by Turtles recently announced a new song, new album and new tour. The new album, Life is Good on the Open Road, will drop May 4 and be available on CD/LP at the TBT online store, Amazon and Itunes. Above is the first release Kelly’s Bar. The tour also kicks off May 4 at the Palace Theater in St. Paul.
Riders: Eddie Fauth, Dylan Tillemans, Wyatt Hotchkin and Scooter Stanko.
Video by Tim Mlodozyniec.
Johnson’s Bakery announced Saturday on Facebook it will close its Lakeside location. Operations will continue at the original Johnson’s Bakery in Duluth’s West End.
“It is with regret that we must close our retail location in Lakeside,” the Facebook post stated. “We have GREATLY appreciated our loyal customers; our Lakeside employees have LOVED working with you. Many of you have been so kind to those employees as they have made different life transitions.”
An exact closing date has not been determined, but the Facebook post indicates it will be “no later than the end of April.”
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, this month’s quiz is feeling the love. Or maybe “love” is too strong a word; maybe “like” is more apt. At any rate, you’ll see plenty of love (and like) for Duluth in this quiz!
The next PDD quiz, reviewing this month’s local headlines, will be published on Feb. 25. E-mail question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Feb. 22.
Denfeld junior Joe Cvancara hits a game-winning three pointer at the buzzer last night as the Hunters defeat the Cloquet Lumberjacks 71-68.
