After 38 years earning dough in the heart of Yackandandah, Tom and Ann Laing have officially hung up their baker’s whites and sold their home away from home.
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The pair are stalwarts of the town, having witnessed it transform from a two-pub general store and part time chemist town, to a bustling main street.
For many in the town, Tom, 73, and Ann were daily figures in their lives,
But after 38 years of 1am starts, Tom and Ann have announced their retirement, with new owners to reopen the bakery’s doors in October.
“I’m a bit sorry to see the end of an era,” Tom said.
“I’m going to miss the bakery, we had good times here.
“The young ones in the early hours of the morning, would come in after a big night out.”
The bittersweet moment is dusted with sugar.
“We’ve worked together all that time and had success, me in the shop and Tom in the back,” Ann said.
“It will give us time to do things we want to do and things we’ve missed out on for 38 years.
“I’d like to spend more time with my twin grandsons.”
Family was an integral part of the bakery, and through his sons Bradley, a baker, and Ashlee, owner of Teddy’s Joint famous for their doughnuts, Tom’s legacy lives on.
“I’m very pleased,” Tom said. “it’s in their blood.”
Tom and Ann’s children, Tiffany, Ashlee and Bradley were nine, six and four years old when the bakery opened.
“It really was an extension of the house in a way because we lived in the house behind, the bakery was entwined in our lives and house,” Ashlee said.
“I’m glad mum and dad are retiring but there are mixed emotions that we won’t just be able to pop in for a sausage roll.
“Bradley and I used to help dad on Sunday morning make doughnuts and grease tins.”
Tiffany said it was great her parents were going to finally be on the same schedule.
She said her most memorable, if hazy, memory was the time a bread-slicer fell on her head after the stairs she and Tom were carrying it down collapsed.
The bakery also welcomed its share of famous faces over the years.
Most notably Jimmy Barnes visited while on the Border for a concert in Albury to take dimensions and photographs of their old scotch oven, so he could model his own on it.
Tom and family were then invited to light the oven.
After 38 years of early rises, Tom is still getting used to life as a civilian, but he and Ann thanked all their loyal staff and customers.
“I think if I walked down the street now people wouldn’t know me, but in my whites everyone does,” Tom joked.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
