dylan's mom
Mike Rogoway
Dinner for a song: Mom's banana bread, chicken always a hit when Beatty
Zimmerman's son sits down to eat
By Sandy Thompson
Knight Ridder Newspapers
DULUTH, Minn. -- She's one of Minnesota's mysteries. For decades now,
journalists have tried, unsuccessfully, to interview her.
But at age 84, Bob Dylan's mom agreed to talk about food and family.
Like many good old-fashioned moms from the Iron Range of northeastern
Minnesota, Beatty Zimmerman still cooks and bakes, although not as much as
she used to. Beatty (pronounced BEE-tee, short for Beatrice) is healthy and
happy, dividing her time between the Twin Cities and Arizona.
She sees her famous son, now 58, all the time: "He just spent a week here a
little while ago,"she said in a recent phone conversation, during which she
talked about a variety of things: stories in the news, how hard it is for
working parents these days, her son the icon, fudge bars.
Beatty admits that her own fudge bar recipe is not that good to use. "It's
too complicated. You have to separate the eggs, it's a big monkey business.
It's not a good recipe if people don't know when to take it out of the oven.
It dries up the next day."
Beatty did agree to share one family favorite. "This is a wonderful
recipe,"she said, "and to make it is so easy, dear. All of the children like
their grandma's banana chocolate chip loaf bread. They all like it because
it's not too sweet."
What does her son enjoy? "Bob doesn't really have favorites; he always ate
whatever I cooked,"Beatty said. "They're not gourmet eaters; they like all
kinds of food."
"One thing Bob does like,"she added, "and I know he hates the publicity, but
I know you have to write something nice -- and everybody likes a good recipe
-- he does like chicken every way."
Beatty says she also enjoys chicken ("I could eat it every day"), roast beef
and Lake Superior trout with a little lemon. "But,"she added, "we try to keep
the cooking down to where you don't gain a million pounds."
Beatty and her husband, Abe, lived in Duluth for 14 years, moving to Hibbing
when their boys, Robert and David, were 6 and 2, respectively.
"Oh, that was a long time ago,"she mused. "I love Duluth, I love the people.
But many of my friends there are gone now,"she said.
One of her closest friends is still here, Sylvia Seiler (who shares her fudge
bar recipe, which Beatty recommends over her own). Beatty's sister Irene, 75,
is a Goldfine. Beatty, in fact, visited Duluth in May when Erwin and Beverly
Goldfine received honorary degrees for their dedication to the University of
Minnesota-Duluth and the university system.
"This generation really doesn't know me,"Dylan's mother said. "I really don't
do anything with Bob's career, except for security purposes, (such as) with
the Kennedy award."(Dylan received the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime
achievement in 1997.)
"But all the years that Bob has been out, he kept everybody in the family
away from the career, just because of security. He had to keep his normalcy,
he had to cut out a lot of the reporters because he was afraid for the
children. The children were never bothered in school; they lived a nice,
normal life."
When Beatty talks about her son, she could be any mom, chatting over coffee
and cake: "He went out and had a wonderful family, five wonderful children.
He came to Minnesota for the summers, bought a small piece of property,
brought his children."
And the grandchildren? Beatty's equally proud. "There's Maria,"she said,
"who's an attorney and is married with four children; Jesse does videos and
commercials and has a little boy; Anna is an artist, she's 30; Sam is 31, is
a photographer and writer; and Jakob, he's in the Wallflowers, he's an
exquisite boy, has two little children and is very busy."
Beatty mentions her son's current tour: "He gives you a show that is worth
every penny. I've been to his shows all over the world. Once you're a
showman, it's hard to get it out of your blood."
"You know,"she said, "people are so happy to see Bob. He leaves a wonderful
impression, they love his words. His words are so apropos for anybody. Like
`Blowing in the Wind,' it's apropros to the world, and it's 40 years old.
"He writes how he feels, and now the younger people are into his work. He
doesn't write on drugs, he doesn't write on liquor, he writes on everyday
occurrences.
"He just does not like the publicity. I have stayed out of it for 39 years,
and it's been a hard job. Thirty-nine years is a long time. I'm not critical
of people; people write nice things about him. But I don't have to be seen,
my friends know me and that's fine.
"My hope in life is that everyone stays well, health-wise. When the phone
rings and everybody's OK, I'm happy, you know?"
Of the extended Zimmerman family, Beatty says, "We live a very, very
beautiful, wonderful life. We celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, we get to
see them all the time."
And about her elder son: "For a man that is labeled a celebrity, he is not.
He's a wonderful human being, a normal, good person, and that's what life is
all about."
(c) 1999, Duluth News-Tribune (Duluth, Minn.).
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