Waterloo Region Generations
A record of the people of Waterloo Region, Ontario.

Mabel Marjorie "Mabe" Bechtel

Female 1911 - 1987  (75 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    Event Map    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Mabel Marjorie "Mabe" Bechtel 
    Born 25 Apr 1911  , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Gender Female 
    Name Mabe Bechtel 
    Name Mabe Morrison 
    Name Mabel Marjorie "Mabe" Morrison 
    Name Mabel Marjorie "Mabe" Weist 
    Residence 1972  Bridgeport (Kitchener), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Eby ID Number Waterloo-23103 
    Died 1987  [1, 2
    Buried Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Person ID I23103  Generations
    Last Modified 6 Apr 2024 

    Father Herbert Jacob M. Bechtel,   b. 16 Apr 1886, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 30 Jan 1972, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 85 years) 
    Mother Laura Etta Boehmer,   b. 29 Oct 1885, Arthur, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 11 May 1944, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 58 years) 
    Married 3 Sep 1907  [4
    Family ID F41932  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Lloyd Arthur "Trix" Morrison,   b. 3 Jan 1913, Owen Sound, Grey Co., Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1961  (Age 47 years) 
    Last Modified 7 Apr 2024 
    Family ID F9134  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2 John Weist,   b. 1906, Guelph City, Wellington Co., Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown 
    Married 7 Oct 1933  Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 7 Apr 2024 
    Family ID F57942  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Demise about Diner

      Petro-Canada edict spells Doom for tiny restaurant

      By Greg Crone Record staff

      If there's a neighbourhood Diner in heaven, it must look like Mabe's Place

      Bacon sizzling on the grill. Cigarette smoke hangs lazily in the air. The pattern on the yellowed linoleum floor is worn clear through in front of the grill. The chipped arborite counter is slippery, buffed over the years by countless elbows.

      The food is good and plain; grilled cheese sandwiches, french fries, burgers and the like. Best of all, breakfast is served all day. If you're a little short, no problem. You can put it on your tab. Catch you on pay-day.

      But Mabe's Place, next to the Granite Club at 243 Park Street. In Kitchener, is soon to be just a memory. At the end of April, it's coffee maker will stop making brew, it's deep fryer will be drained of oil and its grill will go forever cold.

      Petro-Canada is closing 1,000 of gas stations across the country, including the one at Park and Agnes streets that also been home to Mabe's for as long, it seems, as anyone can remember.

      "I was shocked really", said Paul Fleming, who along with partner Marlene Schmidt, has owned Mabe' for the last five years. "One day you got a job at the end of April, you don't. Big business is just eating up the little guy"

      The restaurant called Mabel's lunch for years. When the owner Maple Morrison, retired and sold the business, the restaurant was briefly known as The Cottage, Fleming and Schmidt bought the business with a $15,000 loan and renamed Mabe's :unch that loan has just been paid off "Now it's too bad goodbye."

      The dream of owning their own business ended with a two line letter from Petro-Canada, informing them their lease is terminated and requesting that they vacate the premises by April 30 leaving it in proper repair and clean condition."

      Fleming said he was told to take anything he wants because Petro-Canada plans to level the site. They don't want any competitors reopening a place., what the government doing they we supposed to be creating jobs not taking them away.

      It hurts, said Yusuf Saleh, who has been manager of the gas station for 4 years. "I don't really know what I'm going to do."

      Saleh noted that the Uniroyal Goodrich Tire plant across the street is scheduled to close. Seagram's Distillery is gone and a nearby Domtar plant closed two years ago. "This whole street will be like a ghost Street."

      Fleming believes he could have stayed open even with the Uniroyal Goodrich plant closing. Mabe's is one of those few places people on welfare can afford to eat, he said cigarettes and lottery tickets will always sell and children come in after school to buy candy.

      "I'm going to miss the place" said longtime customer Lloyd Hewitt, who was sitting on the narrow counter, nursing a coffee. "They used to say Petro-Canada stood for Pierre Elliott Trudeau rips off Canada. Now it's that mulrooney. He's trying to close up the country."

      "It's a dying breed" said Fleming, 32 of his restaurant "I used to come in here when I was a kid to buy candy. That's when you could buy candy without paying the GST. That's when a double bubble with a penny, not $0.05. Now even the comic aren't in colur."

      For now it's business as usual at Mabe's. Fleming said he doesn't know what it do when it closes.

      "I don't know, maybe I'll go on welfare like the rest of the customers I am between a rock and a hard place with the economy the way it is."

      Nothing will beat owning his own business. "It's the independence." There's something wrong, you know what's wrong when your in charge. Did not taking crap from somebody else."

      Fleming has started a petition calling on Petro-Canada to change its mind he is already collected 2000 signatures, but he doesn't have much hope when you're up against people like that, they don't care. Whenever you pick up paper, something's closed. It's a scary

      Kitchener-Waterloo Record

  • Sources 
    1. [S87] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - Woodland CC#4510 Internet Link .
      > Lloyd (Trix)/ Morrison/ 1913-1961
      > Mabel (Mabe)/ Morrison/ Nee Bechtel/ 1911-1987

    2. [S3231] Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208514306/mabel-morrison.

    3. [S74] News - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - Kitchener-Waterloo Record (1948-1994), Obituary of Herbert J. Bechtel - 1 Feb 1972.

    4. [S74] News - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - Kitchener-Waterloo Record (1948-1994), Obituary of Laura Boehmer Bechtel - 11 May 1944.

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 25 Apr 1911 - , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarried - 7 Oct 1933 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - 1972 - Bridgeport (Kitchener), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBuried - - Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth