Volunteer Squad’s Olympic Medalist

Vilma Pallette will be having a lot of pictures taken of herself Monday. That’s because she will be at the White House in Washington, receiving a President’s Volunteer Action Award on behalf of the 30,000 volunteers who staffed the Olympic Torch Relay and Summer Games last year. Pallette, who was manager of volunteer services, said the pictures will serve as souvenirs because the silver medal she’ll be holding is to go on display in the proposed Olympic museum.

“I’d love to keep it,” Pallette said, but added that that wouldn’t be fair because “I was just one of the volunteers.” The San Marino resident began work on the Games in 1981 as a member of an advisory commission. She shifted to Olympic headquarters in 1982 as a file clerk and--”because I happened to be there at the right time”--was named manager of volunteer services, a paid position for which she declined compensation. She credited the thousands who volunteered with being “committed and determined to make the Games work.”

The Olympic volunteer force grew like Topsy. In the spring of 1982, there were 20 volunteers; that fall, 400, and by the Opening Ceremonies there were more than 30,000, including 1,100 at the headquarters. In all they contributed nearly 1.2 million hours of labor to the Games.

A ‘Rosie’ Retirement

In this spring filled with ceremonies commemorating the end of World War II, it would be easy to overlook Emma Lea Wall’s retirement at Hughes Aircraft Co. next week. But her departure as a welder at the company after 34 years will mark the close of a career that really did begin as a riveter on an aircraft assembly line during that war. Now 63, Wall spent most of her working years as a welder. Aircraft and equipment she’s helped make have ended up all over the world--and out of it. The latter was part of an unmanned satellite that landed on the moon, she explained.

Her co-workers will be throwing her a lunch Thursday, much to her chagrin. Guests will include her 91-year-old mother, Dora, who has never seen where her daughter works. “I think it’s very nice,” Wall said, “but I’d like to just retire, clock out and go home.”

When the ceremonies are over, she says she’ll leave with “mixed emotions.” But she is looking forward to devoting more time to her flower gardening. “If it blooms, I like it,” she said.

Give a Kid a Job Break

Since its launching 12 years ago, more than 130,000 students have found summer work--ranging from florist’s assistant to lifeguard--through the First Break program. This year the sponsors of First Break hope to increase that number by 10,000--2,000 more than last year--and make a dent in unemployment among young workers. A project of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Unified School District, First Break has just opened its campaign for summer, 1985. It seeks job commitments from 5,000 companies. For information, call (213) 625-6688.

Leary’s New Program

Dr. Timothy Leary, counterculture guru and one-time psychedelic drug experimenter and advocate, is now offering computer lessons. The cult figure of the 1960s has turned his attention to computer programming and has founded Futuique, a software firm. He’s also taking his show on the road by offering his own brand of computer communication through a series of workshops that cover such topics as “communicating with electrons.”

Those interested in Leary’s approach to personal computing should take a trip to the Masonic Temple at 1720 Ocean Park Blvd. in Santa Monica. There, beginning April 28 at 9:30 a.m., Leary will conduct four consecutive Sunday seminars on new ways to use personal computer software. Leary claims his course will help people “attain electronic literacy, expand consciousness and re-program the brain.”

Each seminar will include five hours of lectures, demonstrations and discussions by Leary and his staff, plus as many as five more hours of individual or small-group tutoring. Cost is $40 per seminar in advance or $50 at the door. Information: (213) 392-7032.

Feet-First Thinking

There may be some hope that the frenzied, workaholic 1980s are taking a lesson from less earnest times. At least that’s the impression Mark Brenner, an L.A. businessman, gives when he talks about the way people are putting their feet up on their desks to conduct business on the phone, think, or simply to relax.

The way Brenner sees it, people are learning the value of laying back during harried days by propping their shoes on the nearest piece of furniture. This posture, he claims, contributes to the foot-elevator’s self-confidence and quality of thought. Moreover, this position is becoming socially acceptable in small groups, Brenner maintains, adding that he sees nothing wrong with several people in an office meeting with their feet up.

To back his position, Brenner has collected advertisements by AT&T;, Sperry Topsider, Dictaphone and MasterCard that show executives with their highly polished shoes pointing at the ceiling. He also has a file of news clips describing such luminaries as NBC President Grant Tinker and Walter Cronkite taking it easy in the proper manner.

Brenner’s angle is this: He and his partners have designed and are marketing something called the Executive Foot Couch, a padded, rectangular, portable piece of furniture that resembles a legless ottoman. These come in several varieties, including a model that massages the ankles--and a J. R. Ewing version for the ruthless. So far, Brenner says he has sold the foot couch to several major stores on both coasts. In the best of all possible worlds, his novelty would become a fad on the order of the Pet Rock, says Brenner. But he’ll be satisfied if executives start packing their couches in their briefcases, because they’ve decided they don’t want to scuff the desktops of colleagues whom they might be joining “in conference.”