Oakland institution, Mother's Cookies, closes

via the Oakland Tribune
"Just two years after Mother's Cookies closed the doors of its plant on 81st Avenue in Oakland, its pink and white frosted Circus Animal Cookies will now fly off the shelves. And there is no sign that they'll come back.

The plug was officially pulled when Mother's Cake & Cookie Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday. Besides the Circus Animal Cookies, the company is known for its Taffy Sandwich Cookies, English Tea Sandwich Cookies, and Iced Oatmeal Raisin cookies that will no longer be made. . .

Mother's cookies was a fixture in Oakland, when it made its headquarters at 810 81st Avenue in 1949. It was started by N.M. Wheatley, who ran it as a one-man operation on 12th Avenue in Oakland in 1914. It later moved to East 18th Street before its final Oakland headquarters."

Full article available here

Well I am personally saddened. Not only is this another example of Oakland's local economy crumbling and entrepreneurial spirit suffering, it also marks a weird symbolic death of my childhood. I mean what kid in Oakland didn't fiend for those sprinkled and frosted animal cookies? It went further than that in my house. With locally minded parents, we ate Mother's Cookies over any other brand. The circus ones (pictured), the chocolate chip, black chocolate walnut and the truncated bunt cake lookin joints with the frosting stripes on top were the staples in my house and I will miss them.

I'm sad that I wont be able to continue that tradition, but I am more sad that Oakland based brands are falling off so quickly. In this unfortunate process Mother's goes the way of Granny Goose. It also marks the continuation of job loss caused by the pull outs of major companies such as Gerber, Chevrolet, and others. Oakland gets its guts and glory from its blue collar hustler's mentality and that is slowly dying with the death of these local institutions. :(

R.I.P. Mother's Cookies