The fascinating little Minnesota town with different views of Bob

The people of Hibbing tell their own stories about their town and how it has changed over the decades since Bob took to the road more than sixty years ago. They talk plenty about Bob too. Fascinating insights into one of the world’s greatest performers and story-tellers.

They talk about the half-truths he told about Hibbing as he built his ethereal rock’n’roll bard persona.

They talk about his musical abilities and ask was his brother David actually better at it than him?

They talk about Bob’s friends, his humour, his strangeness, why he wasn’t liked by some …

The writers also discuss racism – remember what ‘postcards of the hanging’ alludes to. And what the attitude of the town now towards people from other lands.

And they talk about Bob and his time and antics at Hibbing High.

It’s fascinating.

I thank you all for taking the time to write.

The comments are un-edited and in the vernacular and style the writers chose ot express themselves.

On the whole, we don’t dislike Bob

Dawn Allison

It sounded like you genuinely wanted feedback from people in Hibbing. So here’s mine!

I don’t agree with your representation of the community as a whole disliking Bob Dylan.

That’s unfortunate, in my opinion.

The younger generations, and MOST of the generations the same age as Bob, do think he’s pretty awesome. I’m 38, and my mother always spoke so highly of him. She watched him perform in that talent show on the Hibbing High School auditorium stage. I think she said he was two grades ahead of her.

My mother always felt bad for how he was treated around here, and she always enjoyed his music.

I grew up listening to him.

My favorite teacher in high school just might be his #1 fan, even if it’s self proclaimed! Therefore, many, many students were repeatedly submitted to the magic that is Bob Dylan on school trips…since he was a swimming coach, key club advisor, and I believe also the Mathlete coach, he alone may be mostly responsible for the younger generations appreciating and experiencing Bob.

Yes, he still works at the high school. Too bad you didn’t speak to him.

So, truthfully, many born and raised as well as many relocated Hibbingites keep the magic of Bob Dylan alive in this small town. Creative license. Your process. Your story. Can I ask how long you spent in Hibbing?

I saw the camera on a tri-pod, so figured someone was doing an article! How many people did you speak to?

Did you already have an idea of what spin you wanted to take on this? Curiosity mostly. It reads pretty one sided.

I think we have a pretty co

Dawn ol community here, and we are always trying to improve. There are several new council members stepping up to make change for the good, and I am bummed to see you had to slap a political statement in there, that in my opinion is completely unrelated to the article.

It also puts a lot of negative weight on the community. Man, I think I want to move away now. We sound like a bunch of jerks!

Not jerks. Iron Rangers. Just tougher than most. It’s all the extra iron in the water supply I think!

The over generalization of a town, and the negative connotation implied simply by calling it Trumpian Racism instantly changed the direction of the article, and made the whole article drop in tone significantly.

I have not read any of your work previously, so I have nothing to compare it to. Maybe this is the style you always go.

Overall, not a pleasant read for me at all. I would have enjoyed it a lot more had it covered a broader spectrum and better represented Hibbing as a whole. It kind of sounds like you just hung out at the local watering hole, and listened to all the retired old timers complain as they drank their happy hour brews!

Well written. I expected the tone to not be great due to the title. That’s my honest feedback. Next time you’re in town, look me up! I’ll make sure you don’t miss the magic again!

Renee, Bob and the ‘tired’ horses in the sun

John Pileckie

In the summer of 1974, after my first year of teaching, flush with cash from a car accident insurance settlement, I drove my first new car (a 1974 yellow VW Rabbi) on a cross country trip, and drove north in the Midwest on Highway 61 to visit Robert Zimmerman’s hometown, inspired by Toby Thompson’s “Positively Main Street” (first published in 1968, republished in 2008).

My aim was to walk the streets of what I knew to be a small town and perhaps talk to folks who knew Dylan back in the day.

Led by the instincts of a 24-year-old male, I stopped by the first tavern I could find, one called Shoes Instant Replay (ice hockey was huge in the region, and instant replay technology had been perfected during the prior decade).

There I met a gentleman who knew the Zimmerman family, Bob’s father Abe who owned an appliance store in town ( “Abe was a good man, you told him what you wanted and he gave you credit on the spot”) and drew a small street map on yellow paper that would lead me to 2425 7th Ave., a pleasant walk away. The barkeep told me that I should talk to Bob’s cousin, Renee Stone – described as a friendly, outgoing woman who “is in here all the time” and would be glad to talk to me.

She gave me Renee’s number, and, after a brief intro on the phone in the back of the bar, we had a nice conversation, confirming the bartender’s description. Renee told me that she had recently spent time with her cousin, on his farm, “…somewhere in Minnesota, Bobby would kill me if I told you where he lived.”

She said they rode horses together, and Bob was mostly quiet. I then walked down to Dylan’s homestead, took some pics, and talked to a person living in the neighboring house, who had been a classmate of Bob at Hibbing High.

I knew that Dylan had performed at a talent show in high school, and I asked his former classmate how the performance was received: “We pretty much laughed.”

He also said, the previous summer he saw a person “dressed the way you’d expect (Bob) to dress” climbing a tree in the backyard of his childhood home. I ended my walk tour with a return into town and stopped by another tavern. There, I found supporting evidence for the bibical quote (John: 4-44), “No prophet is accepted in his home town.”

I told the bartender in that joint my purpose for visiting Hibbing, he waved his finger in the air and exclaimed in disgust, “Bob Dillan, Bob Dielan, whatever his name, his brother David was twice the musician he was, that stuff about sniffing drainpipes …”

Another tavern patron told me that Roger Maris, the NY Yankee who broke (with an asterisk) Babe Ruth’s home run record of 60 in 1961, and who was born and spent his earliest years in Hibbing, was better known in town as a famous native of Hibbing than was Bob.

All of this was at a time when Dylan, while surely well known among rock fans and those familiar with pop culture, was not the universally known and widely revered personage that he would become in future decades.

Few, I guess, would have predicted that their hometown Bobby Zimmerman would one day be honored by the consecration of a wall in front of their community’s high school, two blocks down from his youthful home on 7th Street.

RE-READ THE OFFENDING ARTICLE:

• Gossips in a little Minnesota town – and the two sides of Dylan’s brick wall – The Leigh G Banks Preservation Society

Cheers Charlie Miller

Carol Anderson

I had Charlie Miller for a teacher too. I have always admired him, and I think he taught us a lot. I never saw any racism either. In fact in HJC as it was called when I went there, our freshmen class voted a person of color to be our class president.

My home from home on the range

Jim Burho

Thanks for asking Leigh. I don’t live in Hibbing any more, but do live seasonally south of there in Cotton, MN. I do get back to Hibbing every summer to visit friends and have so many mixed emotions.

My old neighborhood and home is a run down mess and I hear crime and drugs are a real problem not only in Hibbing but across the range. Howard street lacks any identity of its past, the boarded-up store fronts, and closed businesses abound.

That hurts to see since the Hibbing I grew up in is still in my heart and wonderful, innocent memories flood my mind on those return visits. Some towns’ grow and their character gets better with time and some don’t.

I think Hibbing falls into the latter category as it somehow lost that unique character of it’s immigrant population of high moral standards that protected our innocence.

Leo (sic!) is a lazy journalist!

Erin McCabe Ningen

One of the laziest examples of journalism I’ve ever seen.

Leo (oops! Lazy! – Editor) G Banks clearly did not do his research.

A blogger who cared to put in even a minimal amount of effort, would have discovered that the story of Hibbing is remarkable, even in a country full of remarkable achievements.
He mentions the “castle in the wilderness” and expresses condescending dismissal and confusion as to why people seem so proud of it.
A minimal amount of research would have revealed to Mr. Banks the incredible story of immigrants from 43 countries who, in spite of the underhanded efforts of the mine barons to divide us, stood our ground and achieved not only concessions on workplace safety and pay, but also forced the mining companies to put some of their profits back into the community including building the high school and the state’s first pool.
That High School, in the span of about 30 years, graduated Governor Rudy Perpich, baseball player Roger Maris, basketball player Kevin McHale, Manson prosecutor Vince Bugliosi, Palucci, Dylan and hundreds of others whose achievements would be considered notable if they were from a town without so many remarkably accomplished people.

For instance, did you know that Hibbing was home to a lady who went on to become one of Macy’s head buyers? Did you know that Hibbing produced a Broadway performer who went on to become one of the producers of the Vagina Monologues? Pp did you know that the journalists who uncovered the Enron scandal was a graduate of Hibbing?

Did you know about the little bus company that grew up to become Greyhound? Did you know that the ore from these mines became the steel with which we won World War II and built the greatest industrialized country the world has ever known?
It seems like Banks was content to try and find in Hibbing a town deserving of Dylan … early dismissive comments without considering that those may have been the sentiments of a young man freshly freed from small-town life and eager to experience a much bigger world.
Again, with just a minimum amount of effort, Banks could have uncovered Dylan recent comments where he explains that his recent successful career as a sculptor of iron gates is an homage to his hometown and the hard-working people who lived there.

Bob was laughed at – as well as admired!

Rhonda Wiiliainen

Mr. Banks, Understanding everyone has an unique lense the look through, I accept your view of Hibbing.

Being a life long resident, my lense is different. Our town’s history has molded us here. We are a melting pot of many religions, races, and cultures. I encourage you to listen to the Podcast “Power in the Wilderness” and read the book of the same name, which will come out this year.

It tells much about how we grew out being a mining camp who’s residents lived under a form of indentured servitude, fought the biggest company in the world to become the “richest village in the world”. I believe history provides insight.
My early years in Hibbing were good.

Our diversity was not colorful but cultures from what we called the old country were strong and, from saunas to poticia, we still share and celebrate them.
My education was exceptional. Our teachers were great. I was prepared for college. We were an inclusive bunch. One teacher said “this is the first school I’ve worked in where I can’t tell the rich kids from the poor.” I was taught by my parents that skin color, gender or any “differences ” are hard to live with, not because of the differences, because of how some people react to those differences.
Politically we were strong DFL – socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Things have changed but, the changes are not unique to us.

Our politics are leaning more conservative, mostly because the DFL is not the DFL anymore and has basically Stopped listening to the people and become part of the machine.

Our country is changing and has been for years.
If you compare my time and Robert Zimmerman’s time to now, we had it good and Hibbing was different then.

He was laughed at, he was also admired. His experience wasn’t much different than most other American middle class kid. I think we romanticize our idols experiences. As for Hibbing now, our education system is not what it was.

We don’t have the finances or the population we had before. Our diversity in color is growing but still low.

We are good people here no better no worse than anywhere else. I’m glad I grew up here and that I am still here. That is my view.

An uninformed, disjointed curmudgeon

Gina Forti

Not “very nice”. It’s his blog and his opinion, as negative, uninformed and disjointed it may be, so I’ll just file this one under “badly written free speech”. Call me “judgmental”, but I would prefer to have read something more positive about the wall itself versus of a curmudgeon’s opinion of the community.

I didn’t quite understand this one …

Plinkin

“Leaders in Hibbing have joined a Police Department task force to sort out any hints of Trumpian racism left in the community”…
So now it’s totally acceptable to admit to a systematic process of taking out people you disagree with politically? Who exactly are these “racists”?
“At midnight, all the agents and the superhuman crew, come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do”