Steve Burmeister for The New York Times
Zimmy’s restaurant is one of the
rare places saluting Bob Dylan in
Hibbing, Minn., where he grew up.
Posted on 08/13/2004 8:57:56 PM PDT by Pharmboy
Steve Burmeister for The New York Times
Zimmy’s restaurant is one of the
rare places saluting Bob Dylan in
Hibbing, Minn., where he grew up.
HIBBING, Minn. - Nearly half a century ago, a scrawny youth whose artistic temperament and creative spirit had made him a misfit here left town to seek his fortune. Some people hope he never comes back.
"If Bob Dylan came here to sing tonight, I wouldn't go," said Dennis Berklich, a fellow graduate of Hibbing High School. "Bob Dylan doesn't care about Hibbing, Minn., so why should we care about him? Besides that, I don't like his music."
Mr. Berklich is not alone. As Mr. Dylan was rocketing to fame in the 1960's, he sometimes told fanciful tales about growing up in places far from Hibbing. That angered many residents, although by the 1970's he was embracing the years he had spent here on the Iron Range of northern Minnesota.
"I'm from someplace called the Iron Range," he told an interviewer in 1972. "My brains and feelings have come from there."
Whatever the case, many of Hibbing's 17,000 people still have no use for the man who, having outgrown his boyhood awkwardness of the 1950's and changed his name from Bobby Zimmerman, became one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century.
Yet a growing number of others think Hibbing should begin to honor him, and even capitalize on his legacy. As it is, though his fans come here from far away to commune with the town that helped shape him, there is not much for them to see.
Hibbing promotes its iron-mining heritage and also has a museum on the edge of town that honors the American bus industry, said to have originated here. But those who arrive on the Dylan trail find not even a brochure and, without help from some sympathetic local, cannot locate Bobby's house, the site of the gas station where he tanked up his first motorcycle or the hotel where he celebrated his bar mitzvah.
Patrick Ethridge, who arrived last November to become editor of Hibbing's newspaper, The Daily Tribune, said, "When I first got here, I asked myself: 'Where's the museum? Where are the streets and parks named after him?' "
Like other towns on the Iron Range, Hibbing has lived from mining for more than a century. But with mining jobs growing scarce, many young people have left for Minneapolis, some 200 miles to the south, or points more distant.
"He doesn't need us,'' Mr. Ethridge said, "but I think you could make an argument that we need him. This area is begging for something, and you've got this huge gift in your lap begging to be opened."
Fans who make it here inevitably find their way to a restaurant called Zimmy's, decorated with Dylan posters. There they can buy Dylan mugs and T-shirts, listen to Dylan music and, maybe, chat with people connected to their idol. Among those who have stopped by in recent weeks are Echo Helstrom, a former girlfriend of Mr. Dylan who is said to have inspired his 1963 song "Girl of the North Country," and B. J. Rolfzen, one of his English teachers.
Prize exhibits at Zimmy's include the windowpanes that were in Mr. Dylan's boyhood bedroom, and a clock that hung in the appliance store run by his father, Abe Zimmerman. One of the restaurant's co-owners, Bob Hocking, recently bought the Zimmerman family's bathroom sink and plans to add it to the display.
For the last three years, Mr. Hocking and a handful of other fans here have organized a festival called Dylan Days around the time of the singer's birthday, May 24. It offers fans a bus tour of Dylan-related sites, along with an art show, poetry readings and a competition in which bands perform Dylan songs.
Mr. Hocking grew up in Hibbing. "When I got to college,'' he recalled, "I found people decorating their rooms with Dylan stuff. At that time I was asking, 'What's the big deal?' Now I understand the big deal. I wish this town would catch on to how marketable Bob Dylan is."
Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in 1941 in Duluth, and his family moved here when he was 6. At Hibbing High School he caused something of a sensation when he belted out Little Richard tunes during a talent show. But in a town where it was hockey players who were considered the height of cool, he was never popular. Many of his schoolmates still speak of him without affection.
"He was a little weird," said Jerry Starck, a barber who was two years behind him at Hibbing High. "He still is.''
If the people of Hibbing appear split in their view of Mr. Dylan, his view of them is uncertain. He could not be reached for comment, and there was no response to messages left for his public relations representative, Claire Mercuri, vice president for media operations at Columbia Records.
What is known is that Mr. Dylan returned to Hibbing in 1969 for the 10th reunion of his high school class, and by some accounts was insulted by inebriated classmates. There is no record of his ever having returned, although some suspect he may have quietly slipped through once or twice.
The house where Mr. Dylan grew up is still privately owned, but a few of his admirers dream that it may one day become a museum. At present, the only collection of Dylan memorabilia outside of Zimmy's is in the basement of the Hibbing Public Library, where Roberta Maki, the exhibition director, has displayed items like Mr. Dylan's album covers and copies of his birth certificate and high school graduation picture.
Ms. Maki said she and others hoped that Hibbing and Mr. Dylan would someday end the estrangement.
"We don't want to rush things," she said. "We want to show appreciation and respect. When Bob wants these things to happen, they will."
HaHa!
I love Dylan! LONG LIVE DYLAN!
Thanks.
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