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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-10-26, Page 20Inside: Captain Cornet Page 2A Big$r-others o . o ° . ° .. Page 8A GLT - Page 4A Homemakers. ..°°°° ° ... °°.°° Page 6A Child Abuse ...... 0 OOOOOOOO 0 . Page 7A CAS helps °a°° 0000,0 ° 000000°Page8A County ° ° ° ° ° ° ° . Page 9A Fair: .. OOOO ° ° PUC 0000°°°°°°°'°°°°.°°°°°°Page 10A P YEAR 131-43 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1978 SECOND SECTION Goderich Manufacturin B-Y-SHIRLEY J. KELLER Al Selinger, who with his wife Elizabeth (Betty) is the new owner of Goderich Manufac- turing Company Limited on Anglesea St. E., remembers when that company sold the bowling lane lumber for the royal palace in the Shiekdom of Kuwait and for the royal palace in Amman, Jor- dan. That was before Al Selinger left his position in 1967 as controller of Goderich Manufacturing Company Limited oto become owner of his own company, Selco Wood Limited in Toronto, where the world-famous Dufferin BBlliard cues are made. Now Al Selinger has returned to purchase the plant from the Baechler brothers - John Edward Jr. (Ted), Clare and Con. A fourth brother, Bert, who was also a partner in the business, died in August of 1968. The deal will be finalized tomorrow (October 27) but officially the Selingers are in control of the plant which at one time was the second largest employer of workmen in Goderich. "Expansion is only a mater' of time," says'' Selinger. "I'm confident we're going to see growth here. There are so many possibilities." Presently, there are 11 employees at Goderich 'Manufacturing Company Limited. Among them are Earl Elliott who has been with the firm for 47 years, coming to Goderich Manufacturing Company Limited on his first job at the age of 17. Elliott will be secretary and office manager for the Selingers who aren't planning to 'return to Goderich to live. Another familiar face will be returning to Goderich Manufacturing Company Limited. Wally Milley, who was in- Mrumental in setting up almost every machine in the factory, was with Goderich Manufacturing for over 20 years prior to taking a position in Walkerton several years ago. For the last six months, Milley has been employed by Selco in Toronto and last 'week, moved back to Goderich to take over as Production and Sales Manager for the Selinger operation. - White_ Hard_ Maple that wa's a contributing factor in the success of Goderich Manufacturing through the years and it was Canadian White Hard Maple that isvthe special ingredient in Dufferin billiard cues. Selinger was at Goderich Manufacturing when the modern-day version of the business was at its peak. In those days, about -130 families were supported by the production of bowling lane lumber sold world- wide, dimension stock for the manufacture of • furniture and other items fashioned from wood, blanks for billiard cues plus a "glue line" that took small pieces of wood and glued them together into strong, laminated lumber for special uses in so many products. Those were the days when the sawdust from the operation kept the big furnaces at the plant going 'to provide steam heat for everything from kiln drying lumber to heating Goderich Alexandra Marine and General Hospital. WHITE MAPLE A KEY It could be said that Canadian White Hard Maple has played a key role in the life of Al Selinger. It was Canadian - A BIT OF HISTORY It was 100 years ago that Francis Xavier BaechleVgrandfather of the brothers Ted, Clare, Con and Bert, com- menced a sawmill operation about a mile down river from Ben - miller. The water - powered sawmill was on the Colborne side of the river at a point known at that time as Baechler's Falls, now known as The Falls. Xavier Baechler owned a large farm and used to feed large numbers of beef cattle. In con- junction with the sawmill and farm operations, he maintained a supply store to accommodate his employees and neigh- borhood farmers. < He built a bridge over the Maitland (f iver close to the sawmill operation, giving him access to Huron Road, but that bridge collapsed from the large number of cattle that a dealer allowed to cross the bridge all at one time. The bridge was rebuilt but was swept out by a spring flood.' Xavier Baechler eventually disposed of the Baechler Falls operation when he left the area to supervise and construct a large sawmill operation in Sarnia known as Cleveland Sarnia Sawmills Limited. The originator of Goderich Manufacturing Company Limited was John Edward Baechler, • the son .._-. of_ . Xavier Baechler. John Edward Baechler worked with his father in Sarnia where he became head sawyer and chief lumber inspector. When the federal government prohibited the booming of logs from the north country to the lower lakes due to periodic storms which would creak the booms, making the loose logs a hazard to shipping, the Sarnia logging -operation was greatly hampered. As a result, John Edward Baechler left his father's employ in Sarnia and began his own sawmilling operation in Camlachie. TO GODE RICH IN 1912 It was at Camlachie That Peter MacEwan of Goderich visited John Edward Baechler, ad- vising him that the mill known as and operated by Goderich Lumber and Milling Company had ceased operations and was auailable for pur- chase. About 1912, John Edward Baechler pur- chased the Goderich Lumber and Milling Company and moved to Goderich to operate the " business located at the northeast corner of the harbor: In 'more recent time, that location was occupied by MacDonald Marine. Business was good for John Edward Baechler. Faced with an expansion program, he purchased the property 'at the present location of Goderich Manufacutirn Company Limited at the intersection of Albert and Anglesea Streets, the site of the original sa}i fields in Goderich.r A large t ree-storey structure w s erected with a planing mill, a furniture/operation, dry kilns and a sawmill. During' the First World War, approximately 300 peo Ie were employed in th production of am- unition boxes and other war materials. Fire in 1917 levelled the premises, however. And fire ten years later destroyed the one storey Wilding that was put up to replace it. The sawmill was rebuilt by John Edward Baechler Sr., and still remains 'as well as the buildings and equipment presently known as Goderich Manufacturing Company Limited. In October, 1947, the complete manufacturing OOP operations were sold by the senior Baechler to his four sons - Ted, Clare, Cor? and Bert. Ih March, 1952, the Baechler brothers built an ultra -modern retail lumber outlet in Sarnia and in 1954 "developed a Cash and Carry Lumber and Builders' Supply operation in Sarnia. This was sold in 1974 to Copp's Build All. In 1962, the Baechler brothers opened Goderich Building Centre which was said to be the finest showroom in. Canada and billed as a "big city showroom in a small town setting". This was sold in September, 1977, to Cashway. SELINGER FROM THE WEST A1, Selinger was born near .Regina, Saskat- chewan where he graduataed from the University of Saskat- chewan. He came east to Kitchener -Waterloo after graduation, taking a job as with an insurance company and I working toward becoming a chartered accountant. He came to Goderich in 1962 as controller .of Goderich Manufacturing Company Limited and left in 1967 to.... become owner of a small Toronto_ company with four employees and a plant area of 3,000 square feet. Eleven years later, the plant has expanded to 25,000 square feet with 24 employees. Dufferip billiard cues are, ac- cording to one custptner in Holland, "without a doubt the fine cues ever seen in/Europe". Selco Wood Limited also manufacturesand distributes all the ac- cessori s for the billiard game, ' Al,' Selinger says his company has worked long and hard'2 to make Dufferin billiard cues the finest in the world. Trial anderror and Canadian White Hard Maple have made Dufferin billiard cues a favorite with some of the top snooker is sold ' masters in the world. "The.. shaft must be perfectly straight," says .Selinger who himself only plays snooker as a hobby. "The weight distribution through the cue is all important though." Selinger gets excited when he talks about billiard cues. He says that in 1977, for instance, the two finalists in the World Snooker Championship, both used two-piece Dufferin cues at the event in Sheffield, England. John .Spencer, the Englishman who eventually won the championship, had visited Selin-ger's Toronto operation and had selected his new cue personally, right off the rack. His opponent, Cliff Thorburn, also used a Dufferin cue. Right now, Selco in Toronto is making more Dufferin cues in one month than they made in a year when Selinger took over the business. And things are looking better all the time.. Selco now supplies the seven top styles of Brunswick cues in the United States. What's more, Dufferin cues have the major portion of the Canadian market as well as markets in. Japan,_.South Africa, England and nine continental, European countries. "We manufacture more than half the billiard cues sold in the British Commonwealth," says Selinger. DIFFERENT STROKES? And would you believe that every country likes something different in a billiard cue Canadians like long, thin -shafted cues; Europeans like shorter cues; Americans prefer fatter ones; and the English, the snooker Turn to page 3A • People who are big on restaurants claim dining ,out can be an experience. They claim new and delightful food items can be had at restaurants because they are, prepared by chefs' that aim to please and that have devoted a great deal of their life, to. the preparation of food. That may be true but it is not necess rily the food that is the experience. It my be the staff. I had occasion to'do a little travelling over the weekend. No major excursion to the South Seas just a thousand miles of highway and a dozen restaurants. The' joys of eating were lost on- me. Many of the problems I enco7unite'red were the result of bartering with waiters and waitresses. I travelled with two other guys and while we may not have been perfect angels when we dealt with restaurant staff we did nothing to earn their wrath. We drove all night when we left and nearing exhaustion decided to take on a little nourishment in the morning, Not wanting to make a big deal out of it we decided a fast food place would get the. This is a view from the air in 1959 of Goderich Manufacturing Company Limited at Anglesea and Albert Stredts in Goderich. The company, founded a century ago and operated by the Baechler family continuously for those 100 years, has been sold to Selco Wood Limited, Toronto, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Al Selinger, formerly of Goderich. Al Selinger was employed as con- troller at Goderich Manufacturing from. 1962 to 1967 and was well known in this area.,. The deal is officially finalized tomorrow, Friday, October 27. The above photo was taken before Goderich Building Centre was built in 1962. job done. The place did not have all kinds of class and rather than stump the cook we decided bacon and eggs would be simple enough. The food was just abolitwhat we expected but a surprise ending to the tneal.was a' trifle upsetting. After eating we pushed the trays,(it was one of those smorgasbord operations that function through a cafeteria line) off to the sid and a woman appeared and took the dirty dishes away. An after dinner cigarette delayed us and with nothing better to do I watched the woman go about' the chore of cleaning up the tables. I shouldn't have bothered. She took the ' tray, loaded with the paper plates and plastic cutlery, over to the side and began to sort through it. 'I figured she would just dump its contents in the garbage and stack the tray for a wash and reuse, Not so. She picked off the tiny packets of jam we hadn't used and sent them back to the kitchen. She wiped off the cutlery with a cloth and threw it in a pail, also to be reused. All of a sudden hunger appeared to be the lesser of two evils. Determined'not to face that situation again we decided to go to a place with steel forks. This place was one of those operations.that disguises a hamburg by calling it a Big Tex. Checking the contents of a Super Steak Sandwich I asked the waitress if it contained onion. She told me you couldn't order anything different than the menu stated. I asked her again if the Super Steak had onion and she asked me if it said onion in the menu. She said if it said onion t was getting onion and could take it off myself., If it didn't say onion I wasn't going to get any. It didn't say onion so I ordered it. It also didn't say ketchup, it said tomato and when I opened it and found ketchup replacing my juicy slice of tomato I asked her why the change. She said something about serving food, not writing the menu giving me the distinct impression that Jif 1 didn't like it I didn't have to eat it but I did have to pay for it. Deciding not to risk more problems we found a little classier place for supper. A steak house, that appeared to be a safe bet. Three steaks seemed to be the simplest way of assuring a good. mealwithout confusing staff but the ,potatoes were the problem. One was a baked with sour cream, one was a baked with butter and the other was a . baked with no -butter. The guy brings the three dinners back and the steaks didn't match the potatoes. Rather than taking the, dinners back to the kitchen to get things straight he starts stabbing steaks to move them around. He stabs the medium well to match it with the baked with butter. The medium rare slides onto the- table and he stabs it and matches it with the baked with sour cream. No one dared point to anything to help him out without risking their hand being impaled with a fork. Never getting flustered this guy got everything straight and then asked us to cut the steak to see if it was cooked to our satisfaction. "Oh I can tell just by looking at it it's going to be great," I said. "Maybe if you get a little time you can ask around to find out what a glass of milk looks like and if you find out bring me one." "No problem sir I'll get that right away." Next time you have steak order) coffee. That way you're sure to get milk which is what I really wanted but didn't have the nerVe to ask for ... again. jeFF Seddon .K,