Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sunday at the Balkan Bakery

Civic Park School is now closed, but the Balkan Bakery lives on.


20 comments:

  1. Do they still sell Mother's Bread?

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  2. Sure do...I've got a loaf in the photo, although you can't really tell.

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  3. I should add that there was apparently some dispute with the name "Mother's" so I'm not sure they call it that anymore, but it's the same.

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  4. It can be difficult for some of us out here in computer land to hear the younger set talk about the lady at Balkin Bread being there "forever". Makes me feel real old. Alex, who owned the "Dry Cleaners" in that spot before the bread store, installed the green panels on the front facade and was a force to be reckoned with, as far as the local "bad asses" were concerned. Alex gave a number of "unemployable" young men jobs throughout the years.

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  5. Nice pic! I hope enjoyed your loaf of bread :)

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  6. My dad took me there every Sunday after mass at St. Mary's!!

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  7. you were braver than I was--I didn't even get out of the car when I was there.

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  8. Okay, these may fall into the "famous last words" category if I'm not careful, but I really get the feel of isolation in places like Civic Park, rather than danger. I mean there are just not that many people around. There are blocks in the area where more than half of the houses are gone or abandoned. It's like a ghost town.

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  9. I think it's the lack of people that creeps me out the most about places.

    I'm a safety in numbers type of person... even though that isn't always the case either. It's just part of the safety barometer I follow... sort of like "always live in a town with a Talbots... it can't be all bad"... so far Flint is still a go, if you go by the Talbot's theory.

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  10. When the wind was right, you could smell the bakery all the way up Humboldt to our house near Jackson St. Great stuff.

    maps.google.com has "street view" pics for much of that area now. I went on a virtual tour, sort of "driving" around the old neighborhood a few days ago. Good to know that although many business are boarded up or gone that the bakery is still open.

    Odd image though -- the garage for our old house on Humboldt Ave. seems to be gone.

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  11. I haven't thought about the Balkan Bakery in years!! My father used to bring bread from there--still warm!--once a week when I was a kid.

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  12. Some of my earliest memories are of getting Balkin Bread

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  13. I think Balkan Bakery has always made most of their income from wholesale business with restaurants and grocery stores.

    When I was a kid, we had takeout from Third Avenue Fish & Chips maybe 2x per month. Each takeout dinner from there included a slice of fresh Balkan Bread.

    My arteries are creaking just thinking about all that yummy deep-fried-codfish-and-french-fries goodness.

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  14. I took my kids to Balkan Bakery on Sundays when it was on St.John St.Talk about feeling old. Oh,I am old.

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  15. I would love to go back and have some of that bread! I wonder if they would pack some up and send it here to Chicago, although, half the fun was waiting for it to come out of the oven!

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  16. My Gram and I used to walk to the bakery in the late 1960's. I recently spent a couple of days in Flint, and visited the bakery for a loaf. It was as delicious as I remember. The lady working the counter definitely got up on the "wrong side of the bed!" Her sour customer service ruined my excitement of reliving the memories.

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  17. I never see Balkan Rye at the store. Do you still bake it?

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  18. Sunday afternoons after church! So many memories of Uncle Ray walking in with the rest of the uncles, aunts, Gramma and the clan of cousins...two of those long, waxy-covered warm Mother's in hand! Flint still has some redeeming qualities and I miss those childhood days of innocence, traditions and simplicity. SoCal sucks.

    Ken R. thinks he's got it bad cuz his garage is gone. Well, guess what? The house I grew up in, that my Dad built, has been turned into a Wedding Reception Hall! Google maps: 4407 Crosby Rd. Imagine my sadness...

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  19. :( I just saw a video about the Balkan Bakery on WJRT...the mLive headline is misleading, her financial woes began around 2000, but she managed to keep the business afloat ... still sad though ... I ♥ their Mother's Bread http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2016/02/flint_bakery_may_have_to_close.html

    WJRT's article (but no video has been posted yet) -> http://www.abc12.com/news/localnews/headlines/Customers-pitch-in-to-help-as-Balkan-Bakery-struggles-to-survive-368375221.html

    Go fund me -> https://www.gofundme.com/dbnkpkc4

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.