After 40 Years, It's Time to Be Grandpa.
I started this bakery outside Rhinebeck, New York, in 1982. For 42 years, I've baked sourdough at four in the morning. Same starter, same oven, same hands.
My customers used to ask about the beeswax bags I kept my own bread in — the ones my grandmother made. So I started sewing a few. Then a few more.
I'm 70 now. My grandkids are growing up. The bakery closes this year.
One last batch. When they're gone, they're gone.
— Hollis
A Note From Cathy
Hollis isn't much of a writer, so he asked me to put something here.
The shop's been closed for about three weeks now. He still wakes up at 3:30 in the morning out of habit — I don't think that's going away any time soon. He can't sit still. Never could.
So he's been finishing the last of the bags at our kitchen table in the evenings. A few a night. He says it gives him something to do with his hands.
When they're gone, they're gone.
Thank you for keeping him busy all these years.
— Cathy