In 1925, two women, Riddell Angell and Cora Phelps, started the company that bears their names. They would spend the summers in the resort town of Mackinac Island, Michigan, where they also had a shop, and the winters here in Daytona Beach. At the start of WWII, they had to close the shop in Michigan.

While I have told this story thousands of times, I?m still amazed every time I think about it. First of all, I doubt that many women in the 20?s were able to start a business. On top of that, these gutsy ladies were making chocolates in Florida before the invention of air conditioning! Somehow, they were able to make the business flourish. Their passion and determination to make quality chocolates started a tradition that has lasted for 80 years.

New Owners, but the Same Passion for Excellence
===============================================
Neither of these women had any children. So in 1953, when it was time to retire, they sold the business to Ed and Helen Resinger, who had just moved here from Ohio.

The Resingers continued the commitment to quality. They doubled the size of the operation and added items covered in milk chocolate. As the reputation grew, meeting the demand at certain times of the year became a real challenge. By the late seventies, they would have to quit taking orders by the middle of December because they could not keep up. The lack of supply lead to a chance meeting between my dad and Mr. Resinger. One year Dad hadn?t gotten his order in on time and he was desperately pleading his case. After some serious negotiation he was able to get the chocolates he needed and he told Mr. Resinger, ?If you ever want to sell this business, let me know.?

A Boyhood Dream Comes True
==========================
The Resingers had no children, so when they decided to retire, they called Dad to see if he was still interested. Dad jumped at the chance ?to own that candy shop on Beach Street.?

Dad was way too busy with his medical practice to get directly involved with the chocolate business, so he enlisted my brother Chuck, our uncle Sonny Mathis and myself. At the time, I was an out of work social worker, and my brother had just finished college. Chuck was a good cook, so he learned how to make chocolates. I concentrated on sales and Sonny helped out with the accounting. Mr. Resinger worked with us for several months to ensure the quality and consistency was maintained. This was a very difficult time for everybody. Mr. Resinger had always been hands-on and had mixed feelings about giving up control. I?ll never forget the first complaint we got. A customer called and said, ?That the chocolate doesn?t taste the same since you changed owners.? The funny thing was that we had yet to make a single batch of candy on our own.

Keeping the Torch of Tradition Aglow
====================================
We were very young and inexperienced and I?m sure it showed. From the very beginning, we were mindful of the importance of Angell & Phelps to the community, and we were determined to carry on the tradition. What we lacked in experience, we made up with hard work and a lot of passion that was instilled into us by our parents. As time went on, our mother, Ann, got involved and put her artistic skills to work doing merchandising and design.

Knowing that we needed to expand in 1984, we opened a second location in Ormond Beach. The store was located next to another long-standing local business, Billy?s Tap Room. It remained there for many years until we moved it to the Granada Plaza. This extra location helped to relieve the problem that we had with running out of chocolates at Christmas. However, we were in desperate need of a bigger kitchen to keep up with demand.

In 1985, we made the decision to build a new factory in the New Smyrna Beach Industrial Park. This was done with the thought of opening stores in the Orlando area. Unfortunately, the store in Orlando didn?t work out. It was a real learning experience, you might say.

Back to Where We Started
========================
In 1995, we decided to buy the old Dunn Brothers Hardware/Toy store building on Beach Street and move the factory back downtown. The city was getting ready to put in a multimillion-dollar streetscape to help revitalize the downtown and the timing seemed right to make a change.

We configured the factory with a viewing hallway so we could market the chocolate factory as a tourist attraction for the millions of visitors that come to the area every year.

It has been very popular with tourists and locals alike. Many travel writers throughout the world have written about us. In 2004, Southern Living Magazine named us one of the "2004 Best Food Finds!"

At the same time we moved the chocolate factory, we relocated the New Smyrna store to Canal Street. The New Smyrna store has a very loyal local following. The area has a real small town feel to it and the customers are the nicest people you will ever meet. It reminds me of something out of the ?Andy Griffith? show.

In 1999 we expanded into the restaurant business when we added the Angell & Phelps Café next to the chocolate factory.

Long Live the Commitment to Quality!
====================================
Modern technology has certainly changed the candy business. Through the years we have seen many of our fellow candy makers switch to cheaper ingredients and find easier, less expensive ways to make their candy. We?ve always been mindful of the commitment to quality started by Ms. Angell & Ms. Phelps and have resisted any changes that would diminished that commitment. For the most part, we are still doing things the old fashioned way. Our feeling is that our customers would rather have us raise the price then compromise the quality. I feel confident that those two gutsy ladies who started this tradition would feel the same way and I imagine they?re proud of the way things have turned out.

The idea for Cold River Vodka originated with brothers Lee and Donnie Thibodeau. Growing up in Presque Isle, the heart of Maine?s potato country, they listened to their father and uncles tell about their history of turning potatoes into vodka. However, the realities of tending to the potato crop and the rigors of the annual harvest left little time.

Five years ago, the idea of commercially producing vodka resurfaced between Donnie and Lee as they were driving back to their childhood home in Presque Isle. After years of thinking of business ideas and talking about the future of Maine?s potato industry, the two decided to make the best vodka from Maine potatoes.

Maine?s agricultural industry is always searching for ways to add value to staple crops. This goal complemented the Thibodeaus? desire to preserve Maine?s open space and become the only distillery in the country that would oversee its entire production ? from planting potato seed to bottling vodka.

They called longtime friend Bob Harkins, who had recently left his post as a ski area executive, and asked him to explore the feasibility of producing vodka using Maine potatoes and Maine water. With that call, the business was born.

The three needed someone who knew distilling and soon discovered Chris Dowe. After a decade of installing and consulting on breweries across the country, he wanted to spend more time with his family in Maine.

The four partners and their wives chose the name Cold River Vodka. Glaciers carved the Cold River through the backbone of western Maine millennia ago. From the aquifer that this clear, pristine river feeds, the distillery takes its water. From a dream to a reality, from the ground to glass, from spud to super-premium spirit ? this is Cold River Vodka.

The Columbus Washboard Company is proud to be the last remaining Manufacturer of genuine Washboards in the USA. Our company was founded in 1895 in Columbus and remained in the Grandview area until it was purchased by an investment group in Logan in 1999. The complete factory was moved to the old shoe factory in Logan just 50 miles south east of Columbus, in June of 1999.

We welcome tourists to our factory daily for an informal 30 minute tour. We still have in our facility all of the old machinery and presses that have produced our washboards for 109 years. During their walk back in time, guests find the old machinery fascinating. We can all be thankful that we no longer have to rely on doing our laundry the old fashioned way.

Our soldiers presently deployed overseas are learning how to do their laundry the old-fashioned way, we have sent over 4,000 washboards to Iraq and Afghanistan so far. We also include a full kit of laundry items, washtubs, clothes-line, clothes pins, soap and of course instructions are included in their packages. Judging by the wonderful letters we receive, our kits are very popular with the troops. View the Worlds largest Washboard attached to the building. 24'x 12'

The Conrad Rice Mill is the oldest rice mill in America. It is also one of the leading tourist attractions in this area of the Bayou Teche. In 1981, the Mill was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

P.A. Conrad founded the Conrad Rice Mill and Planting Company in 1912. He would cut the rice by hand and let it sun-dry on the levees before putting the rice in the threshers. The rice was poured into 100-pound bags and taken to the mill. At that time, the mill operated only three to four months out of the year. Conrad would sell his rice from inventory, waiting for the next crop to harvest.

Conrad was an astute businessman, steadily growing his business to the point where he no longer grew enough rice to meet demands. Buying grain from the other growers in the area supplemented his own crop. To satisfy his customers requests, he also began to sell the rice in smaller sized bags. In the 1950's, "KONRIKO" was trademarked as an acronym for "CONRAD RICE COMPANY."

A few years afterwards, P.A. Conrad retired and left the business to his three sons: Phillip, Julian, and Allen. Phillip, the oldest, died at a very early age leaving the two remaining brothers to carry on the family business. After many years of operating the mill, the brothers were at a retirement age and eventually only three New Iberia grocery stores remained as customers.

In 1975 Mike Davis, a former teacher and farmer, bought the mill from the Conrad brothers. Within 10 days of the purchase, the mill was back up and running after laying dormant for two years. Davis quipped, "I would mill for a day or two, then I'd get on the road and peddle the rice."

The original part of the mill was built in 1914 and received additions in 1917 and 1930. This is significant because it is a rare surviving example of a factory using a belt-drive power transmission. Davis has made many changes and improvements to the mill since 1975 and shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

"Now we sell to every major wholesaler in the state and to every chain store," Davis said. "We have also developed a specialty rice business in all 50 states and Canada, and we're beginning to break into the European markets."

Please come visit us so we can personally share our small part of Cajun Country with you.

Fortunately, our business at the store continues to grow, so we recently purchased the lots across from the Konriko® Company Store. We'll be making a new parking lot to better serve our many RV-ers and bus tours.

C'mon by and see us; the coffee is always fresh and hot!

Located in the heart of the Carneros region, Domaine Carneros stands alone as the only sparkling wine producer using exclusively Carneros grapes. The Carneros Appellation is the first American Viticultural appellation to be defined according to climate rather than along political lines. The appellation is characterized by a long, moderately cool growing season tempered by the maritime breezes and lingering fog off the San Pablo Bay just to the south. These are optimum growing conditions for pinot noir and chardonnay, the two primary grape varieties used in Domaine Carneros wines.

Domaine Carneros farms 195 planted acres of vineyards on three different Carneros vineyard sites. There are 35 different blocks within our three vineyards. Each block is unique either because of the scion/rootstock combination (this is the grape variety grafted onto a pest-resistant rootstock) or because of the terrain of the block (i.e. slope, direction of rows, soil, sun exposure, etc.) Similar to an artist having many colors in a palette, this provides a variety of components from which our winemakers can create their blends each vintage. To add to this, we have thirteen different clonal selections (six chardonnay and seven pinot noir) all of which were selected for their flavor and intensity.

Almost all of the grapes for Domaine Carneros? wines come from our own estate vineyards. This is important for two reasons. First it allows the winery to control and direct the production from the vineyard to the bottle, and secondly it allows for continuity in our product resulting in a consistency in our wines. Our vineyards are farmed with the point of view that quality and not tonnage is the primary goal. All of our clones have small-to-medium sized clusters, allowing greater flavor concentration. We also prune each block, during the spring, to remove weak shoots that would add tonnage but would bring down the quality of the fruit because of lack of maturity.

At Domaine Carneros, we know that to maintain the longevity of our vineyards and to protect the surrounding wildlife, we need to farm responsibly in a way that preserves the soils, eliminates erosion and preserves the local ecology. We have made several changes with these efforts in mind. We have moved to the use of mechanical weed removers to reduce herbicides and use chemicals that are either organic or environmentally safe. We have been able to do this by understanding life cycles of diseases and pests by careful observation in the vineyards. We are also introducing more cover crops, which are planted between the vine rows to stabilize the soils in the wet seasons and provide nutrients and organic matter to our soils. In addition, we work with the Napa Resource Conservation District (NRCD), an organization put together by the growers along Huichica Creek a sensitive water and wildlife area.

Herbert Haven founded Haven's Candies in 1915, after following his sweetheart from Boston to Portland. They courted and married, and soon Herbert and his new wife were handcrafting candies in their kitchen and selling them from the front parlor of their house on Forest Avenue.

As the son of skilled candy makers, Herbert brought both premium quality and creative originality to his products. Over the years many confectioners have come and gone in Maine, but few have stood the test of time like Haven's.

Today, Haven's continues to thrive by sticking to its roots. We still handcraft our candies using traditional methods, the finest ingredients and a commitment to superior quality. Owners Andy & Natalie Charles and the entire team at Haven's guarantee your satisfaction. We invite you to stop in for a visit, try a sample, and experience the finest handcrafted candies available anywhere!

Our soap making business began when I tried to find a mild natural soap that would moisturize my skin rather than dry it out,? said LaRee DeFreece. ?I was looking for a soap made with one hundred percent natural plant-based ingredients and enriched with emollients.?

In late 2000, she decided to make her own soap. She had discovered that even the mildest of soaps was made of petrochemicals rather than natural ingredients. Searching the Internet, she came upon soap recipes and began testing them.

?That first recipe resulted in a soap that was truly disgusting, but I soon found one that would work much better,? she said. LaRee, a real estate attorney, had returned to college to study chemistry to become a plant patent attorney as well. She came to understand the chemistry of soap making.

She learned that coconut oil or palm kernel oil would produce a hard, long-lasting bar with a fluffy lather and that soy oil would create a stable lather with conditioning qualities.She learned that olive oil, a natural skin softener, would moisturize the skin. She found books that taught her the chemical equations for formulating soap recipes that would result in different desirable characteristics.

She researched the sources of natural ingredients, from the lye and oils that would serve as the basis for soap to the essential oils that would provide the scents. She realized that most people don?t understand the difference between essential oils derived from actual plants and manufactured synthetic fragrances.

?In searching the Web, I soon realized that, although there are a number of soap makers listed, there are only perhaps five percent that really use nothing butall-natural ingredients,? she said. ?While there?s nothing wrong with using chemicals to make soap, it has been important to me from the beginning that our soap be made completely of natural plant-based ingredients.?

At Christmas, LaRee gave bars of her soap to relatives and friends. That first soap was a mild citrus soap?with essential oils of orange, lemongrass and tangerine. It smelled great and the response was overwhelming. ?Everyone loved it so much that I thought?maybe I?ve really got something here,? she thought.

Her husband, graphic artist and marketing expert Ken Gilberg thought so, too. Together they began making soap in earnest and named the new company Herbaria. Their first commercial customer was Gilberg Perennial Farm, owned and run by Ken?s sister-in-law Cindy Gilberg. When sales proved to be quite good in 2001, Cindy suggested that they apply to participate in Missouri Botanical Garden?s Best of Missouri which features state products made and sold by entrepreneurs from Kansas City to St. Louis.

?At first, the co-chairman of Best of Missouri said that applications had already closed for the October 2002 event. I said ?let me send you a couple of bars of our soap and see how you like it?,? said LaRee. ?A few days later, she called and said ?you?re in!?

?That meant that we had to hustle,? Ken said. ?We wanted to make 3,000 bars of soap in time to take to Best of Missouri. We made it. I think we sold over half of them.?

LaRee worked about 12 hours a day during the heat of summer to make enough soap for that first major push. She was making four batches a day. Her father had made mold boxes of some beautiful old wood. ?They were works of art,? she said. ?Each one would hold 54 bars of soap, so I made the recipe batches to fit that number. I would cut the bars apart with an antique butcher knife that my great-aunt had given me.?

A week before Best of Missouri, LaRee agreed to take a new job in real estate law that would begin the day after the show. Since the new job would be very demanding, she would be unable to devote as much time to the growing soap business. Ken, with over 30 years of experience in marketing, saw great opportunity for Herbaria. He added his own touches to the products. He standardized the bar size and designed new packaging and displays. He increased sales calls to businesses in the region and soon boosted production to 30,000 bars a year.

Following the success of their sales at Best of Missouri, the two expanded their horizons. Although LaRee wouldn?t be able to be as active, she remained an important member of the team, coming up with new recipes and scent combinations. The next big customer was the gift shop at the Gateway Arch. And those sales led to more sales at other national parks. The soaps sold in the national park shops were made with a focus on the 19th century in keeping with the emphasis on both the Civil War and Lewis & Clark.

The Bug Store, a St. Louis institution with two successful locations, became a loyal customer. The Greentree Shop at the Kirkwood Public Library also became a good customer. When LaRee heard about the children?s summer reading programs at the library Herbaria gave 400 bars of peppermint soap to be used as incentives, each bar awarded for 20 hours of reading.

?At about that time, I realized we would have to make some changes in our procedures if we were to grow,? Ken said. ?We now manufacture our soaps in cubic-foot molds made of plastic lumber. After waiting two days for the soap to become solid, we cut it into loaves with special jigs fitted with guitar strings. Then the loaves are cut into bars with another guitar-string jig. The soap bars cure for two weeks and then are ready to wrap and pack.?

?The two-week curing period represents the finalization of the chemical process that transforms acids from fat and alkalies from sodium hydroxide (lye) into a salt that we call soap,? said LaRee. ?Herbaria soaps are made the old-fashioned way that retains the naturally occurring glycerin. They are super-fatted with shea butter, avocado oil, hemp seed oil or jojoba to attain an even more moisturizing quality.?

Ken has expanded the sales of Herbaria soaps to include the Missouri Historical Society and also a number of bed and breakfasts. In addition, sales from the Herbaria web site have increased to include orders from all over the United States.

?We hope to get sales up to over 60,000 bars a year,? Ken said. ?Our product line now includes a natural citronella bar, an old-fashioned lye soap bar that is great for shampooing, and a bar with almond essential oil. Lavender Oatmeal and Spearmint Orange are the top two sellers of all our soaps.?

Originally founded in 1908 by our great-grandfather John David Duke, the farm was named Diamond Fruit Farm. In addition, John David Duke owned a facility that manufactured basket liners and built a peach packinghouse in 1942 that was named J.D. Duke. In 1950 he changed the name of this business to Southern Orchard Supply Co. but business was taken over by his son-in-law David O. Lane, and grandson, Duke Lane, Sr. The farming name remained the same but the packing portion of the business became Lane Packing Company.

Following the retirement of his father, David O. Lane, Duke Lane, Sr., became sole owner and continued to pack peaches until 1975 at the same location that his grandfather had built.
In 1976, Duke Lane, Sr. formed a partnership with the Russell Pearson family. Together they built a more modern packinghouse that was called Pearson & Lane. This partnership was in operation until 1989. After the 1989 season, the Lane family began construction of a packinghouse that is located on the family farm. This facility is one of the most modern of its kind and was ready just in time for the 1990 crop. It was in 1990 that Duke Lane, Sr. turned the business over to his four children--Duke, Jr., Bobby, Anne, and Steve who continue to run the business today.

Since 1990, Lane Packing Company has continued to grow and expand. We have added a Roadside Market which includes the Peachtree Cafe, Just Peachy Gift Shop and a full service mail order department. Also new this year is a five acre "you pick or we pick" strawberry patch. We invite you to stop by and visit our operation.

Nora Mill Granary - an authentic working grist mill that is nestled alongside the Chattahoochee River. At Nora Mill, we grind corn daily using either the original French burr stones that are water powered by the Chattahoochee River - or by our more modern "Meal Master" stone grinding system located on our second floor. Either way, all product is all natural and is stone ground.

Nora Mill Granary, Inc. Est. 1876

About the mill . . . .

Nora Mill Granary is an operational gristmill sitting alongside the Chattahoochee River in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains that stone grinds and produces all kinds of corn and wheat based products such as grits, corn meal, pancake & waffle mixes, flours, biscuit & bread mixes, pioneer's porridge, and the like. In addition, we have an old-fashioned country store & gift shop that we have named "Nora Mill Next Door," that is stocked with thousands of new items and even has a large kitchen built just for cooking & serving samples of our mill & store products.

A little history . . . .

The mill itself is a large four-story building that was built in 1876 complete with 1,500 pound French Burr Mill Stones and a 100 ft. wooden raceway that feeds water to a water turbine - not a vertical water wheel. The mill was constructed in 1876 by John Martin when he came to Georgia to mine for gold. Unlike most miners, Mr. Martin made Sautee-Nacoochee Valley his permanent home in 1902 Dr. Lamartine G. Hardman, governor of Georgia from 1927 -1931, bought the mill and named it "Nora Mill" in memory of his sister Nora. Nora Mill remained in the Hardman Family until 1998, when it, along with 300 surrounding acres, was purchased by a group of investors associated with Nacoochee Village, Ltd.

After a succession of millers throughout the years, in the early 1980s, Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Ron Fain worked with the Hardman family and leased Nora Mill for him and his parents to bring back to life and operate. Ron became the Miller of Nora Mill. Over the years, Ron worked with his parents until their passing, and then brought his youngest daughter Joann in under his wing to learn the art of milling and work the Nora Mill business with him.

Ron and Joann together, developed and brought to market a number of corn & grain recipes that are famous to Nora Mill. Recipes such as "Georgia Ice Cream", "Dixie Ice Cream", "Pioneer's Porridge", and the like. They expanded the product offerings and opened the gift shop next door to the mill and named it "Nora Mill Next Door". Joann and Ron worked shoulder to shoulder until his recent passing in June of 2001.

Nora Mill is now in the third generation of the Fain family operation as Joann Fain Tarpley, with husband Rich, continues to manage and operate Nora Mill Granary. The fourth generation of the same family can be seen at Nora Mill Granary as the children of Joann and Rich are actively working with them at the mill.

Ron Fain and daughter Joann

There have been many changes over the years, but the main idea is still the same, to grind fresh grains with no additives or preservatives with old-fashioned quality. Nora Mill has recently gone through a major refurbishing. The dam, raceway, and penstock have been rebuilt. We have enclosed the breezeway and have built new porch & deck that overlooks our very own gigantic rainbow trout swimming in the beautiful Chattahoochee River. We have recently refurbished our grinding and milling machinery to ensure the highest of quality in the products that we produce, hand-bag, and offer on-site in our mill and through our Internet & mail order business.

More about today's operation . . . .

Managing and operating Nora Mill Granary today is Joann Fain Tarpley and husband Rich. Together, the two oversee all aspects of the mill from overall general business management to the grinding and milling operations.

Rich & Joann Tarpley

Prior to Ron's passing, Rich was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time with Ron to learn the rare art of milling and to learn the "inner workings" of the mill itself. Ron taught Rich how to "listen and feel" the heartbeat of the mill and how to adjust the millstones and flow of grain to achieve the perfect Nora Mill blend.

Over the years, every one has worked to develop a nice mail order business that began with the mailing of very simple brochures to the folks that sign our guest book as they visit the mill. Today, the mail order catalog is mailed out to over 30,000 "guests" that have either signed the book at the mill, or have requested a catalog via telephone or the web. To request a catalog, send Joann an e-mail with your mailing address or sign our mailing list form on this site.

Everyone working in around Nora Mill is considered family. We consider our work a labor of love and take great pride in everything we do. Whether taking an order on the phone for a single bag of grits or working with one of our wholesale accounts for a 2,000 lb order of stone ground products, we treat everyone the same! We love what we do and we love working with people.

Please stop in for a visit whenever you can. We would love to show you around. Nora Mill is open every day except Christmas & Easter.

Fain family history . . . .

The Fain Family roots began in Northeast Georgia area just a few miles from Nora Mill where Ron's father, George, resided until 1917 before moving to Ohio in search of work. While in Ohio, George met and married Florence McPherson and together raised 4 children. Ron, the youngest boy, was raised in Ohio where he met and married Rita Lepera. After graduating from the University of Akron and retiring from the US Army as a Lt. Colonel in 1979, Ron and Rita, with their 5 children settled in Helen, Ga. at his family homestead.

George & Florence Fain

Ron & Rita Fain

As Ron got involved with Nora Mill, he became so interested in preserving a bit of history that he buried himself in books and publications and sought help from knowledgeable individuals including long time miller of Nora Mill, Tom Farmer, and Clyde Keltner of Tennessee. As Ron received his on-the-job education of the lost art of grain milling by water-power, he became and stayed active in the Society of the Preservation of Old Mills.

In the early years, Ron & Rita and all of the children worked hard to keep Nora Mill running. Son David worked on the mill building, rebuilt the raceway and dam several times over. Oldest daughter Janet worked with Ron in the mill, came up with the idea of cooking and serving samples at the mill, and has published 2 Nora Mill Cookbooks which can be purchased on-line and/or at our mill. Daughters Joyce, Judy, and Joann all worked at the mill while in school. Like her father, Joann developed a deep love for the mill and has continued to work at the mill throughout the years and to present day.

Ron's spirit is alive and well within the walls of Nora Mill today. Ron's wife Rita helps whenever possible and when called upon. Ron has touched all of our lives. We are very proud to have been close to him. We all are anxious to share our most remembered "Ron Stories" amongst ourselves and with guests visiting as a number of the guests that return to the mill - visit not only to restock on the great products that we have - but also to sit and talk about Ron, who has left a great impression on their lives as well.

In 1885 Waco, Texas was a wild frontier town, nicknamed ?six-shooter junction.? Wade Morrison?s Old Corner Drug Store was a prominent business and popular meeting place in downtown Waco. People came in for everything from flea powder to stationery, from cigars to fountain drinks.

One of Morrison?s employees, pharmacist Charles Alderton, noticed how customers loved the smell of the soda fountain with its many fruit, spice and berry aromas. He wanted to invent a drink that tasted the wonderful way the soda fountain smelled. After much experimentation he finally felt he had hit on ?something different.? Patrons at the drug store agreed.

Soon other soda fountains were buying the syrup from Morrison and serving it. People loved the new unnamed drink and would order it by simply calling out ?shoot me a Waco!? But Morrison named it Dr Pepper, after the father of a girl he had loved back in his home state of Virginia.

In 1891 Morrison and new partner Robert Lazenby organized the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company in order to bottle and sell Dr Pepper as well as other soft drinks. That same year, while visiting Waco, a Texas businessman by the name of Sam Houston Prim tasted the new fountain drink and knew he wanted to sell it in his bottling plant in Dublin, Texas, 80 miles to the west.

Under the direction of Mr. Lazenby Dr Pepper enjoyed steady growth in sales and began to spread in popularity across the country. But it wasn?t until 1904 that Dr Pepper gained real national exposure. Along with other soon to be favorites like ice cream cones and hamburgers, Dr Pepper was introduced to the rest of the U. S. and the entire world at the 1904 World?s Fair in St. Louis.

Since then Dr Pepper?s popularity has grown consistently over the years to become one of the top 3 soft drinks in the United States and the No. 1 non-cola. And over that time Dr Pepper Corporate Headquarters have remained here in Texas. That?s why Dr Pepper can truly claim the title of ?Texas Original.?

Central Vermont was built upon the granite industry, the offspring of
pure Yankee tenacity and immigrant fortitude. Rock of Ages, founded by
two native Vermonters and one Scotsman, epitomizes the rich cultural
heritage of Barre, Vermont. Rock of Ages represents a living industry,
not a museum or showcase, but a working, breathing entity that gives
rise to some of the finest artistry in stone that our guests have ever
seen.

We invite you and your family to experience Rock of Ages. Our narrated
shuttle tours take you to the world's largest deep-hole, dimension
granite quarry-a quarry nearly 600 feet deep! Peer into its depths;
see the mighty steel derricks that tower above the surface and which are capable
of lifting up to 250 tons.

Our artisans will amaze you when you take our self-guided factory tour.
From hand pitching to laser etching, the factory tour allows you to
observe the oldest and the latest: hand-dressing and sculpting
techniques that have remained virtually unchanged for centuries
juxtaposed against modern circular diamond saws and laser etchers.
Then bowl on our outdoor granite lane, watch our
video, enjoy our exhibits and browse our gift shop, featuring
Vermont-made granite gifts, Vermont specialty foods, clothing and
souvenirs.

Let us share with your family our industry, our artistry and our
heritage.

Seated in his neat, spacious office in Taylor Guitars' factory complex in El Cajon, California, company co-founder and CEO Kurt Listug cannot stifle a laugh as he studies a faded snapshot. The photograph, mined from the depths of an old cardboard box filled with dusty memorabilia, depicts the original Taylor shop on its very first day of existence -- October 15, 1974.

On the left, pony-tailed, 22-year-old employee Tim Luranc is examining something, while then-part-owner Steve Schemmer shovels water from the floor into a bucket. A companion photo shows the adjoining room on the same day. Crude, garish, overhead lights illuminate a funky old refrigerator amid indistinguishable clutter; a "humidity-controlled" booth with plastic-film walls; and a rough concrete floor pocked with puddles of standing water and clumps of soggy sawdust. "Primitive" and "wet" aptly describe both scenes.

In Taylor's early days, the morning after a rainstorm frequently began with cleaning up pools of water and soggy sawdust caused by flooding.
"That place was so bad," Listug recalls, shaking his head. "The roof leaked like crazy, and whenever it rained, the place flooded. It rained hard the night before we opened, so we spent the entire morning of our first day in business trying to get as much water out of there as we could."

"See those clumps of wet sawdust? When it flooded, we'd take all the sawdust that we'd already swept up, and sprinkle it around the floor to soak up the water. It made the place even more of a pig sty," he says, laughing. "But it was fun. What did we know? We were just kids. Somehow, we'd skirted having to get real jobs. We didn't have a boss, we were making guitars. What could be better?"

Despite the semi-aquatic conditions and inauspicious circumstances of Taylor's first few days of life, Listug's voice betrays a genuine wistfulness as he recalls the "hungry years" that made it possible for the company to be celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 1999. Listug enjoys reminiscing about the long, painstaking process of co-shepherding Taylor Guitars from its humble, naive beginnings to its current status as one of the world's most successful and highly regarded acoustic guitar manufacturers.

In one respect, there is no escaping the company's history, thanks to numerous human and material reminders of the company's scuffling days that can be found throughout Taylor's modern, high-tech facility. Primary among these, of course, are Taylor and Listug, who have made musical-instrument history by becoming the first American luthiers in this century to take an acoustic guitar company from one-off shop to production-level manufacturer without relinquishing ownership or creative control. Other first-decade Taylorites who are either still on the job, or who have left and come back, include Luranc (profiled in the Summer 1994 issue of our quarterly newsletter, Wood&Steel), Steve Baldwin (1983--), and Bob Zink (1984--profiled in the Fall '98 issue).

Among significant relics are a few early-vintage Taylor guitars that have been re-acquired over the years, and which repose in a safe place known only to Bob Taylor. Several tidy binders and scrapbooks on file in the current building's conference room contain articles and advertisements that delineate Taylor's progress from baby steps to leaps. Still, it's the cardboard box that provides Taylor and Listug their best opportunity to relish the sometimes poignant, often hilarious chronicles of the firm's first two decades. Looking at photographs of the duo as long-haired, bearded teenagers, Listug effortlessly spins anecdotes, punctuating his commentary with frequent, almost reflexive chuckling.

"I remember, as a teenager, driving with my parents past this guitar-repair shop called the Blue Guitar, in the Old Town area of San Diego," he said. "I thought guitars were the coolest thing, and I couldn't imagine anything cooler than working on them for a living. So, I pestered Sam Radding, owner of the American Dream shop in Lemon Grove, to hire me, even though I didn't have any of the necessary skills. Eventually, a work bench opened up, and I quit my job painting buildings at San Diego State University and started doing finishing work. That was in August 1973.

"A week or two later, Bob Taylor got a bench there. He'd been coming around for a while, buying guitar parts and showing Sam the guitars he'd made. At the time, Bob was 18 and I was 20."

In spite of his hirsute appearance, the young Taylor was quiet, reserved, and very "straight," and, for a while, the rest of the American Dream employees more or less ignored him. One day, Bob abruptly put an end to that.

"He came in where a few of us were eating lunch, sat down, and firmly announced, 'Well, I'm Bob Taylor,'" Listug remembers. "It was a real ice-breaker, and after that we all got along great."

"I remember being quite the odd duck in a real hippie shop," Taylor admits. "My hair was a lot longer, and I had a beard, but otherwise I was just a clean-cut boy in a white t-shirt who went to church three times a week with his mom and dad and sister. My whole life experience up to that time was just being a 'good boy.' I'd never been in trouble in my life; I spent my time in school doing projects and getting straight A's, winning industrial-arts expositions. I didn't know what alcohol or drugs were. Still don't. Didn't know about college, or girls, or anything except tools, and working with things. And here I was, working with these kids who, compared to me, were partying, wise-to-the-world, guitar-building, hippie musicians. So, Kurt, Bob Huff, Michael Stewart, Steve Hilliard, Sam Radding, and Barbie Cousins -- they'd be off to the side, giggling at me."
You might say that Taylor ended up at American Dream partly by default, partly by provident design. As a 17-year-old, he had seen a 12-string acoustic guitar in a local store window, and, lacking the funds to purchase it, had decided to make his own. He built three guitars while still in high school, working on them at night in the back of a service station, in between filling gas tanks and wiping windshields. Eventually, Taylor took his finished instruments to Sam Radding at American Dream. Radding was convinced that he had a future in the trade.

During their first year at American Dream, Taylor and Listug made a few guitars, but mostly did repairs. When Radding decided to sell the business in 1974, the employees split into rival purchasing groups of two, each team jockeying for position while trying to figure out how to come up with the requisite capital. Finally, a triumvirate of Taylor, Listug, and Schemmer bought the American Dream. Euphoric with ambition, they renamed it the Westland Music Company.

"We thought that would sound impressive, and make people think we were bigger than we really were," Listug laughs. "But Bob was the real guitar-maker, and, besides, we had to have a logo that would fit on the headstock, so we soon named the guitars Taylor guitars."

By the time the fledgling company hoisted its new banner, Taylor and Listug had a pretty clear idea of how their guitars would differ from others on the market. Their first few instruments certainly functioned well enough, but they weren't exactly things of beauty.

"Those first guitars had some structural problems, and sometimes the backs would ripple," Listug recalls. "We knew they couldn't compete, aesthetically, with the best guitars on the market, so we just kept working at it until we had a marketable-looking guitar."

After selling a few prototypes at the workshop, the partners decided to take their wares directly to dealers. In 1976, Listug loaded some guitars into Bob Taylor's van and headed for the music stores in Los Angeles. "They liked them, and I actually came home with checks in my hand," Listug says.

One of the first dealers to buy a Taylor guitar was the venerable McCabe's, in Santa Monica. John Zehnder, who today is the store's chief repairman, director of its music school, and banjo and mandolin instructor, remembers those first Taylors.

"In 1976, Taylors provided an affordable and viable alternative to Martins, which were the standard," Zehnder said in a phone interview. "The Taylors' low-profile necks, and the fact that they offered several choices as to neck widths, were a real advantage. Plus, they sounded good, and, because of the way they were made [with bolt-on necks], we were able to make repairs instantly, which was greatly appreciated by our customers. In many ways, Taylor guitars were a real breath of fresh air."

Random acceptance, however, did not translate to across-the-board success. Wholesale receipts just barely enabled the luthiers to continue making guitars.

"We got into this business just as the acoustic guitar market was going south in a big way," Taylor says. "It was dying a cruel death. We first started trying to sell Taylor guitars at a time when Mossman, Gurian, and LoPrinzi [guitars] were just peaking, so every time Kurt would get to a store, another rep had just been there, and the dealer would say, 'Oh, we just took on the Mossman line. We don't have any money left.'

"I remember one particularly bad day, clear as a bell," Taylor continues. "It was Friday, the end of another work week. There was no money; we were so broke. It was a pretty depressing scene. Then, late in the day, this guy came into the shop. His name was Charlie See -- grandson of Martha See, founder of See's Candies. He ended up buying a guitar that was hanging on the wall, and ordered a Brazilian rosewood 815 with abalone on it. It was about 7:30 that evening by the time he left, and he wrote us a check for $1,873, which was like a hundred-thousand bucks to us! All of a sudden, we were back in business. We had enough money to pay that month's $163 rent and buy more supplies. We could make guitars for another week or two."

In 1977, Taylor Guitars linked up with a distributor in the hope of boosting sales. It would prove to be an unproductive move.

"We ended up getting only $150 for a 510, $380 for an 855," Taylor recalls. "That was a very unprofitable time, but it was a great learning time. It forced me to learn something about production techniques. I had to separate the chaff from the wheat -- what's important, what's not important. The main improvement was simply getting past a stupid mental barrier -- the notion that if you take a lot of time to accomplish a task, somehow it's better than accomplishing the same task, just as well, in less time. I'm glad I was very young when I learned that that notion just doesn't make sense."

Taylor and Listug ended their affiliation with the distributor in 1979, but for years, the company remained fixed at a plateau of making 10 guitars a week and not seeing a profit. Because they were unable to break into any new markets, newly finished guitars just lay, unsold, around the shop. Bills went unpaid.

"We were really stupid," Listug recalls with a grin. "We thought that if we simply made more guitars, we'd make more money. So, we'd hire extra people to turn out more instruments, and then we'd have to spend more time and money marketing the extra production. All we were doing was raising the overhead. And, without any capital to pay for expansion, we just dug ourselves a deeper hole of debt. Then, Bob got married, and one day he said, 'If I can't make a living at this, why am I doing it?'"

"Actually, by that time, I'd kind of mentally burned my bridges as far as doing anything else was concerned," Taylor allows. "Every once in a while, people would ask me, 'Well, what if it just doesn't work out?' And I'd say, 'It has to work out.' I detested the thought of having to explain to everyone why I quit. That kept me going more than anything else -- the fear that for two years or more, I'd have to run into people who'd ask, 'What happened?' and I'd have to explain that we weren't doing well and had to give it up."

To save the business, the partners fired everyone and slowed production. In the short term, that enabled each of them to take home $100 per week -- enough to make ends meet. Gradually, they paid past-due bills and retired ancient debts. It was, to be sure, a meager living.

"When we got to the point where we could take home $200 a week, I thought we were doing great," Listug says. "I had a friend who was making $300 a week, and I remember thinking, 'Whoa -- $300 a week!'"

Adversity, it would seem, is best visited upon the young, who don't know enough to be stymied by it. As lean as things were, the Taylor gang never was at a loss for good times.

"Matt Guzzetta [currently Taylor's Senior Machine and Tool Designer] ran a motorcycle gas tank manufacturing shop right next door," Taylor remembered. "We'd have these big, pot-luck, music-and-food parties once a month on a Saturday night. Everyone would open their shop and we'd have maybe four local bands going -- a lot of really great San Diego players. Matt ran his shop for years, and when it finally closed, I had him do a job for me at Taylor Guitars, and he's been here ever since. But if you ask Matt -- as much as he likes working here -- he'll tell you that we ruined everything and began going 'downhill' after we stopped having those parties."

In 1981, Taylor Guitars took out a bank loan to purchase equipment that would enable them to smooth out some production wrinkles. But without the benefit of marketing, unsold guitars continued to pile up. A year later, they sold a number of guitars to a single dealer, and used the cash to put Listug on the road in a quest for new dealers.

"I told him, 'Don't even come back if you don't get any orders,'" Taylor laughs.

Listug's new role of traveling salesman took him throughout California and as far as Maine. Being away from the daily grind of the business renewed his energy and perspective, but the trip wasn't without its disasters.

"I had second thoughts about all this when my car broke down in a snowstorm in Wisconsin," he says. "But the dealers I visited loved our guitars. On the way home, I sold the six guitars I had with me, so we had cash for Christmas."

In 1983, Taylor and Listug bought out Schemmer. Newly equipped with machines they'd designed to handle the most laborious aspects of tooling and processing raw materials, the streamlined company finally began turning a profit. The influx of money was spent on technical refinements that resulted in higher-caliber guitars. Things were looking up, but a breakthrough was needed. It would come from a most unexpected source.

In the mid-'80s, synthesized rock so dominated the charts and airwaves that acoustic guitars seemed anachronistic -- the implements of coffeehouse folkies and '60s diehards. Up to that time, Taylor Guitars had allowed its distributor to represent the company at the semi-annual trade shows of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM). But, in 1984, Taylor and Listug exhibited their own guitars at the winter NAMM show, and ran smack into that era's industry realities.
"Those NAMM shows were hard," Listug says. "We were set up near the Martin booth in 1985, when we showed our Artist Series [limited-edition, color-stained guitars]. Even Martin was singing the blues about how lousy business was."

Hoping to lure rockers into trying their acoustics, Taylor and Listug accepted a challenge from Glenn Wetterlund of Podium Music in Minneapolis to create a guitar for one of the day's superstars -- Prince, who needed a 12-string for some recording sessions. At the time, Prince was in his "purple" phase, so Taylor made him a purple-stained 655. But, there was a catch: Prince would not perform with instruments bearing a visible brand name. As a result, Taylor would make a guitar that would be seen by millions (Prince played it in both his Purple Rain and Live Aid videos) -- and the Taylor logo would be nowhere in sight.

Whether the "Prince guitar" in any way impacted the eventual re-emergence of the acoustic guitar is debatable, but it sure didn't hurt Taylor Guitars. By then, word of Bob Taylor's handiwork was spreading through the music world, and famous and unknown musicians alike were snapping up his guitars. In the hope o1

Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers was founded over a quarter century ago to restore the lost art of fine woodworking. Formerly a Bates college professor, Tom Moser left teaching in 1973 to start making one-of-a-kind furniture in an old Grange Hall in New Gloucester, Maine. His wife Mary managed the selling and finances, while their four sons trained as young apprentices.

There was no business plan, no product, no sense of marketing and to their banker?s horror, no cash or cash flow.

The first advertisement which ran in Down East magazine read, "Antiques are prized for their qualities of age, design and purity of craftsmanship. Our furniture is inspired by traditional design, constructed with pride and executed by hand, restoring a relationship between man and his practical art." Since then little has changed in the company?s intent or product.

Tom?s early designs bore a strong resemblance to Shaker, Queen Anne, Pennsylvania Dutch and other antique forms. From spiral stairs to a waterwheel, from wooden canteens to a harpsichord, the company?s position was, "if it?s made of wood, we can do it." In time this search for a proprietary form was synthesized into a coherent and unified body of work for the home, office and academic environment.

In nearly thirty years, the company has grown from a one-man operation to over sixty cabinetmakers (about half men and half women). Tom Moser continues to conceive and design new products in collaboration with his youngest son, David. His oldest son, Andy Moser is an accomplished craftsman and works in the shop. Aaron Moser directs the company's growing sales to universities and businesses.

In 1987 the company built a new workshop facility in Auburn, Maine, not far from its original location. In addition to mailing catalogs, Thos. Moser Cabinetmaker currently operates five showrooms located in Charleston, Chicago, Freeport, New York and San Francisco.

Union Star -- making quality cheese for more than a century
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It all began with the age-old question of ?low fat.?

In the early 1900s, almost all Wisconsin dairy farmers sold their milk to local cheese factories. The introduction of the ?Babcock Test? - a method for determining the butterfat content of milk ? led to scaled pricing of milk based on fat content. Simply put, cheese factories were only willing to pay top dollar for milk with a high fat content. Thirteen farmers including our Great Grand Uncle, Henry Metzig, were upset that their milk was considered ?low fat,? and responded by starting their own cheese factory as a co-op in Zittau, Wisconsin.

In 1911, Henry bought out the others and formed Union Star. To close that deal, however, Henry had to make a major commitment ? agree to work on Sunday. Since the co-op had always been closed on Sunday, the local farmers? wives had been left to deal with that day?s milk production themselves. This was no small task, because Sundays were focused on preparing the family dinner and going to church. In the end, Henry agreed that it was better for one cheesemaker to go to Hell than all the farmers' wives.

Back in those days, there were more than 2,800 small cheese factories scattered across Wisconsin. Today, there are only a handful of these factories still in operation. Our family?s continued success is due, in part, to the cheesemaking?s own version of women?s liberation.

Henry?s daughter, Edna, was one of the first women to become a licensed cheesemaker and work in a factory setting. It was no surprise that soon after marrying local cheesemaker Eugene Lehman, they were running the Union Star factory. What did surprise the neighbors, however, was when they opened a small retail storefront. You see, cheesemakers back then were not known for dealing well with customers.

My wife, Jan, and I bought Union Star from Great Aunt Edna in 1980. I had a degree in accounting and, just like my Great Grand Uncle, wanted to run my own business. The family tradition of independent cheesemaking carried the day and we?ve been here ever since. Today, our sons are also part of the Union Star story.

Over the years, we?ve added new cheeses to our line and obtained new equipment. Our dedication to quality, however, has remained the same. We still purchase top quality milk from local dairy farms and turn it into premium cheeses.

If you?d like to taste some of the finest Wisconsin cheeses, see a real cheese factory in operation, or learn more about how cheese is made, come on in and see us.