Searching for a Glade in the Shade

Elsie Miller of Laguna Hills wants replacement material for an umbrella top on a patio that gets full sun. She’s looking for vinyl or something similar that can be attached to the underside of the ribs with small aluminum clamps. Can you spruce up Miller’s outdoor life, or will there be a shadow of doubt that she’ll ever make it to the top again?

For a son who works overseas, Lois Leander of Fontana needs a Tilley hat, which she says is a soft hat worn in the tropics. Can you help Leander out of the woods, or is she in over her head?

Lil Yegliss of Los Angeles has been on the lookout for those little white plastic shades that people put on their eyes while in the sun, but she has not been able to find them. Can you help put this problem into the proper light, or will Yegliss have to fry on the beach without being able to put the sunny side up?

Bonnie Walton is in the market for a fruit ripener bowl, which she describes as a large plastic bowl with a dome-shaped cover with holes in it, and which is used to soften fruit bought in a grocery store. Fedco, she claims, used to stock these at one time. Can you be a peach and come up with a pear of sources, or will Walton be berry disappointed when nobody out there gives a fig about this culinary grape of hers?

Reader-to-Reader-Help Line: A.J. at (805) 947-8227 wants to locate the plastic case that encloses a Butch electric hair clipper Model 65, made some time ago by Oster. Who will volunteer to turn A.J.’s home back into a clip joint? . . . And as long as we are on a hairy subject, Mary Louise at (714) 499-1018 would like to replace her bonnet-type Gillette Max Hatter hair dryer, which is about to give up the ghost. How about seeing to it that Mary Louise will no longer have to be sorry for her fringe on top? . . . Ross at (714) 963-3330 is looking for a children’s quilt in good condition that has the Winnie the Pooh pattern and is about 4 by 5 feet in size; it was carried many years ago by Blue Chip Stamps and possibly by Sears. Can you see to it that Ross again feels young at heart? . . . Annie at (714) 590-3675 wonders whether anybody has any Faberge Woodhue scent, which hasn’t been made in years; if so, woodhue scent some to Annie?

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.

Mrs. Albert Smith of Redlands, who wanted a chrome blouse tree, may feel like climbing one. We had only one reply, from a Los Angeles reader who has such a tree; the information has been forwarded to Redlands.

However, for Mrs. Jack Shultz of Whittier, who wanted a cast-iron lamb mold for cakes, we have a possible substitute, and it’s fairly sheep too. Susan Palacios of the Graber Olive House Kitchen Shop, 315 E. 4th St., Ontario, (714) 983-1761, says they stock a heavy-aluminum (not cast-iron) two-piece lamb mold for $11.95; it’s 10 inches long and 7 inches tall. Perhaps this will staunch the bleating in the Shultz household.

For Hazel Fearing of San Clemente, who wanted cotton ribbons for an old Underwood portable typewriter, we have some key answers. Marco Thone of San Diego, who also uses old typewriters, suggests a nylon ribbon from Sears at $2.49 and 20-pound bond paper as a second sheet; he also says to keep the typewriter covered when it’s not in use, to minimize ribbon dryness. Wayola Larson of Altadena reminds us that, amazingly enough, erasable-bond paper is a great absorber of ink and that the poorest-quality paper (newsprint) reproduces the best letters.

An unidentified reader says to see whether film ribbon spools are available; film ribbon is only for single use but it gives a good black image. And a letter from Joan Howard of Los Angeles, who has some old, unused Underwood ribbons, has been forwarded to Fearing.