Prospecting for Special Jewelry Repair
Barbara Hedden of Orange County inherited some beautiful antique jewelry , but she is having a difficult time finding someone to repair the pieces , because the gold in antique work is of a different color and the parts are difficult to find. Can you help Hedden out of that heavy-metal fix, or will she be full of gild for even having broached the subject?
Donna Hope of Lakewood would love to find a product called Living Nails , available at Gemco stores before they went out of business. Can you help by putting your finger on a source or two, or will this be nail-biting time for Hope until somebody comes up with a handy address?
For a bedridden person, Elizabeth Benton of Inglewood needs some unscented talcum or cornstarch powder. Can you nose around for some, or will Benton have to keep her powder dry because our input wasn’t worth a cent?
Gloria Lee of La Crescenta has been hammering on her need for some six-foot grape stakes to repair an old fence, but nobody seems to carry them any longer. Can you enclose a few sources for Lee, or will her only of- fence be that she graped too much when so little was at stake?
Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Carol at (213) 454-0234 would like to locate an old railroad baggage cart , the type used years ago on train platforms; she doesn’t care how old it is, as long as it is movable. Please help by seeing to it that Carol’s wish is in the cards--and in the bag. . . . Pam at (805) 584-2428 would love the cross-stitch embroidery kit (or just the chart) of a jointed teddy bear sitting by an old black Singer sewing machine. Now don’t double-cross Pam for baring her problem; put her in stitches instead. . . . Joe at (213) 596-9738 is trying to locate a can of the original Simoniz car wax (yellow can with red lettering); he finds the newer formulas unsatisfactory. Instead of rubbing it in, please make this a red-letter day for Joe.
Note: The Reader-to-Reader Help Line is only for one-time items or for products no longer available in stores. And you must give us written permission to publish your telephone number, so that others may contact you directly.
Bern Bennett of San Pedro, who needs shorts with buttons or snaps in front and ties on the sides, will not be caught short much longer. Moyna Harris of Anaheim says after a long search she got the manager at Eagleson’s Big & Tall, 123 Orangefair Mall, Fullerton, to order them from a firm on the East Coast. Nikki Allen of Beverly Hills says elastic-less shorts are available (at $45 for three pair) from the Vermont Country Store, P.O. Box 3000, Manchester Center, Vt. 05255-3000.
And a reader who lives just a short distance away from Bennett has a number of these shorts; we have forwarded the information to Bennett. Anyone else interested should drop us a short line in a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
For William Schnell of Los Angeles, who was looking for ski pajamas, things are warming up considerably. Harold Helton of Laguna Hills and E. B. of Los Angeles both suggest Lieberg’s Department Store, 421 E. Main St., Alhambra (ask for Bill Hutton). Ruth Sein of San Clemente says she finally found some ski pajamas in the Penney catalogue.
We also heard from a San Diego reader who has some unused (still in original plastic bags) ski pajamas Size M (145-170 pounds); she’ll take $20 plus shipping. If anyone is hot for those, send us a stamped, self-addressed envelope. And Shirley Patrick of Cucamonga and Lucy Edwards of Palm Springs both recommend L. L. Bean, Freeport, Me. 04033, 24-hour phone, (800) 221-4221. On the other hand, Ethel Baxter of San Fernando says that 100%-cotton thermal underwear (available at K mart) is better than ski pajamas; they never lose their shape, she says.
More on unusual place names: Tom Militello says he has set up a computerized information data base for Italian surnames. Anyone interested should write to POINT (Putting Our Italian Names Together), 6932 Crest Road, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. 90274.