With the rapidly aging Boomer generation (pre-1964) and the rise in Generation X and Millennials (a combined population of those born between 1965 and 1996), it seems as if everything that has been built is being discarded in favor of a variety of replacements or none at all.
I have seen the demise of record stores and phone booths, and media reports say that landline phones and checkbooks will die with me and my fellow Boomers. Stores which have served the nation for a century have closed down; among those I recall are John Wanamaker’s, Strawbridge & Clothier & Clover (the precursor to Target), Woolworth’s, Caldor and A&P.
My neighborhood has had a local mom-and-pop bakery for 86 years called McMillan’s. Situated in the middle of a main street and busy intersection corner block, with a tight parking lot designed for a handful of cars, six days a week the dedicated members of a fourth generation family prepared the most wonderful treats for grateful patrons.
The highlight? A cream doughnut bursting on three sides with the most delectable filling and covered with a holiday-like frosting of powdered sugar. The first bite was guaranteed to be a wonderful mess, and one kept a napkin at hand in anticipation of the experience.
Their cookies, cakes and cinnamon buns were all beautifully gracing the display cases, and disappeared into wax paper bags and boxes to go home to hungry families, with a gold emblem on top identifying it as coming from someplace memorable. At the holidays, they prepared boxes of cookies and bags of springerle. Lines would wait out the front door for pick-ups of cupcakes from old recipes and pies that looked like they came from Grandma’s oven.
This morning, the lines were around the corner onto the residential block as the staff churned out products to anxious visitors, but for a different reason; the bakery is closing for good tomorrow. The matriarch of the family, Evelyn, who founded the bakery with her husband George, had stipulated that she did not want the name passed to any outsiders, and it was decided by the current owner Arlene (who is the daughter) that the end had finally come.
A variety of factors probably contributed to the demise of such a popular place, including costs and changing staff dynamics. It isn’t easy to be a baker, with hours similar to the medical profession and unpredictable outcomes in terms of profit instead of lives affected.
A bakery or two are nearby, and even with a Krispy Kreme close by, McMillan’s donuts withstood any challenge to their greatness. Where now to buy a chocolate bismark, let alone a cream donut, is beyond me. I hope to get to McMillan’s before their doors close forever and get my hands on one more donut and maybe a chocolate cupcake. Lines for the last day of business should begin forming around six in the morning, and they may run out within hours.
Naturally the idea of replacing old things with new ones is exciting, but when old things die, the memories are bittersweet compared to the sweetness of cream or the zing of lemon glaze. I fear the death of bakeries as a whole is not unthinkable. And that hurts. When Shakespeare said that when people die, good things go with them, no more truthful words were ever said. When Mr. Spock (albeit a fictional television character) said that it is easier to destroy than to create, that declaration took second place.
I will miss the assurance that my favorite bakery was just minutes away whenever I wanted them; like the movie that was released the year McMillan’s opened, it’s a tradition “gone with the wind.”
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