Keeping Her Eyes Open for a Solution

Cordelia Via of West Covina is crying her eyes out because she can’t find those little glass eyecups for bathing her eyes. She is not fond of the plastic eyecups that come with an eye solution. Can you help find a solution to Via’s glass struggle, or will she have to keep trying to make eye contact?

Evelyn Zwerg of Sherman Oaks had a dismal Independence Day because she couldn’t find the calcium carbide powder that is used in toy cannons. At one time she was able to buy a product called Bangsite, but Bangsite has evidently taken a powder. Can you help, or will Zwerg never again get a bang out of the Fourth of July?

Ann Brodfuehrer of Ramona is trying to locate a plastic shampoo brush with pliable bristles. Those with stiff bristles are not acceptable. Can you help before she gets her dander up, or will Brodfuehrer be convinced that she’ll never escape our brush-off, not even by a hair?

Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Two readers are asking for discontinued Metlox dinnerware. Beverly at (213) 452-1002 needs the Margarita pattern, yellow pottery with orange rims and centers that feature stylized daisies. Mary Ellen at (818) 288-7217 needs items in the California Tempo Poppytrail pattern: dinner plates (No. 4406), salad plates (No. 4404) and a divided vegetable dish. Please help these readers with their Metlox before they have to take Maalox. . . . And while we’re still in the kitchen, Helen at (213) 545-5559 is trying to complete an almost-50-year-old set known as Red Anthurium, Santa Anita Ware, Flowers of Hawaii. Please help, so that Helen can stop seeing red.

Note: The Reader-to-Reader Help Line is only for one-time items and for products that are no longer available in stores. And you must give us written permission to publish your telephone number, so that other readers may contact you directly.

Steven Salotwinsky of San Diego, who was looking for 4 1/2-inch, old-fashioned wooden clothespins, no longer has to worry about being on pins and needles. M. C. Chapman bought some at the Fedco in National City. Other chain stores that carry these clothespins are Woolworth (from a Sunland reader) and Sav-on (from Karmee Dolley). June Livingston of Venice suggests Moskatel’s in Los Angeles, and M. Kamens saw some in Farmer’s Hardware in Whittier. But it wouldn’t be fair to pin down Salotwinsky to such a long trip. We also have two mail-order sources. Katherine Lanin of Los Angeles suggests the Triarco Craft Shoppe, 14650 28th Ave. North, Plymouth, Minn. 55441, and Lloyd D. Overacre of Downey says the clothespins are available from Golden Gait Mercantile, 421 Main St., Ferndale, Calif. 95536, (707) 786-4891. (Golden Gait specializes in difficult-to-find items; ask to be put on the mailing list for their new catalogue, which is due out soon.) We also heard from seven readers who have the old-fashioned clothespins in various sizes and amounts; for a list, please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Denise Irwin of Northridge, who was trying to locate a playhouse pattern that fits over a card table, must have played her cards right. Luana Welker of Northridge has a pattern she will let Irwin copy. Another reader says Childcraft, Princeton, N.J., sells a printed plastic cloth that fits over a card table and serves as a playhouse. Mary G. Shinnick of Sierra Madre will let Irwin have a playhouse she made 15 years ago. And Linell Mathisen of Anaheim sent us a bunch of pattern instructions from an old issue of Family Circle. We have forwarded all this to Irwin.

By no stretch of the imagination will Florence Warsher of Laguna Hills, who was looking for non-stretch, all-cotton socks, have to go barefoot. Most readers suggested Buster Brown socks, which seem to be available in many places. Margie Ezell of Los Angeles and Phyllis Schilt of Beverly Hills saw them at Woolworth and Newberry’s. Jane Dods of North Hollywood and H. Epstein of Santa Monica say Quigley’s carries them. In addition, Epstein and Laurel Romm of Torrance write that Bullock’s and/or the Broadway carry Prince socks made by Bonnie Doon. And Susan Wood sent us the home address of Buster Brown, just in case. It is 646 Steamboat Road, Greenwich, Conn. 06830.

For Macy of Newport Beach, we have another nearby source for large-size Pendleton or Evan-Picone clothes. Gail Conway, buyer for Lady Bullock’s Sportwear, suggests that Macy visit Bullock’s South Coast Plaza store and ask for Mary McClean, manager of Lady Bullock’s. The telephone number is (714) 556-0611, Ext. 314.

Herb Hain cannot answer mail personally but will, space permitting, respond in this column to readers who have--or need--helpful information. Write (do not telephone) to You Can Help!, You section, the Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.