Norman's Bakery sign returns to Holmes County

Holmes County is a very special place for Dale A. Drottar, who spent many of his childhood summers on his uncle, Don Heim's, farm.

“I don't know if I always appreciated it so much as a kid, but I certainly do now,” said Drottar, who now resides outside of Cleveland in North Ridgeville. “I remember spending the days on the farm, helping out and spending time in town, too. We'd go to the movies and we'd go to Norman's Bakery, which just had the best baked goods.”

Norman's Bakery is a significant place in many of the memories of folks who grew up in the area. Famous for their cream sticks, many have said that the place felt less like a restaurant, per se, and more like eating in someone else's very friendly kitchen.

“If you were in the know, you'd go in through the back door,” said Candi Barnhart, a member of the Holmes County Historical Society. “I remember seeing people back there, flipping donuts.”

Norman's Bakery served as a gathering place and a spot for a quick lunch or tasty baked treat from the 1940s all the way until 2009, when it closed its doors.

In early December of last year, Drottar contacted the Holmes County Historical Society about donating the sign. The organization was eager to accept it.

“This isn't something that necessarily means a lot to the tourists,” Barnhart said. “But it's something that certainly triggers a lot of memories for some locals.”

Drottar won the sign at auction shortly after Norman's officially went out of business.

Initially he assumed that he would have to pay a pretty penny for the sign, which invokes so many childhood memories for a large number of folks.

However, that was not the case, and Drottar left Holmes County that evening with the sign in his vehicle, heading back home.

“It stayed in my basement for a while,” Drottar said.

Drottar said that he isn't one of those collectors that is always looking for some precious piece of nostalgia; instead, he was motivated to get his mitts on the sign simply because it meant so much to him, and to his family.

“For years we always had Norman's baked goods at all of our family gatherings,” he said. “I think that anybody who went to Norman's will see the sign, and maybe it will make them remember some of those sugar highs that they had so many years ago.”

Drottar said that bringing the sign back to the area just felt “right,” even if he does have so many pleasant personal memories attached to it.

“We just had so much fun at Norman's,” he said. “It's a place that just always felt like home.”