Potions, Notions, Emotion at Love-Oriented Bazaar

There is still time for 67-year-old Maria Bocci.

“Just because we are no longer 29 doesn’t mean we can’t look,” the widowed woman said.

Bocci and her 72-year-old friend Dorothy Dee Patton were among the oldest people attending the “Love Affaire” eSaturday where they sought the arrows of Cupid amid romance-revitalizing seminars and several dozen booths selling aphrodisiac wares.

“We have the money,” Patton said. “All we need now is the husband to spend it with. I’m looking for a good-looking man with a lot of intelligence who would want to travel with me. You either have the spark or you don’t.”

So the Mission Viejo resident scouted for men. She watched some younger singles play the “Love Yacht” game where the prize was free accommodations at a tropical beach paradise. She even signed up to be a contestant on the “Love Connection” television show at one booth.

“They told me, ‘You look like a real live wire,’ ” Patton said.

The young and the old, the married and the single, the beautiful and the--well--the not-so-photogenic came to the Orange County Fairgrounds on Saturday to rekindle the flame in their relationships or spark new romances.

Hundreds came to shop and to ogle.

“I lost the girl of my dreams,” said Jerry Bradshaw, 29. “I was following her around a couple of the booths, but then I lost her. I think she slipped out the back. I’m going to have to go look for her.”

Bradshaw, a divorced man from Yorba Linda, walked off with his 8-year-old daughter, Taylor, in search of the blond woman in a purple blouse and white skirt who stole his heart.

Like many singles Saturday, he was gathering the rose of love a second time.

Louise Heiden, a divorced 56-year-old from San Juan Capistrano, said the “Love Affaire” was an unusual place to meet people.

“I don’t really care for the bar scene,” she said. “So I thought this would be a fun place to meet people. . . . I wouldn’t mind a young one. I’m easy.”

Capitalizing on the gallants and coquettes, dozens of merchants were selling the accouterments of romance in booths lined in rows inside Building 10.

Satin and lace lingerie, chocolate candy and diamond rings were offered as keys to a lover’s heart. Plastic surgery, romance-intensifying seminars and hypnosis therapy were promised as means to jump-start romance.

Purchase a product, ignite the passion.

“After awhile--especially if both husband and wife have careers--you need something to get back the feeling you had during the first six months you were married,” said Steve Herring, 26, of Huntington Beach. “In a rat-raced world, it’s easy to get into ruts. And any time or money spent to break marital ruts is a very good investment.”

Christa and Karl Maier have been married 23 years and they were not looking for anything to revitalize their relationship.

“We don’t need this,” said Christa, 45. “We want to know what it’s all about. It’s a curiosity.”

Curiosity can be strong. The Maiers traveled 1 1/2 hours from Palm Springs to be with friends at the fair and see its displays.

Christa’s prescription for a successful marriage had little to do with Aphrodite paraphernalia.

“Give a lot and listen,” she said.

The fair was the first of its kind in Orange County, organizers said. Irvine-based Pola Productions, which advertises love-reinvigorating cassette tapes on local and national cable television, staged the fair.

“When men have love affairs with other women it’s because they’ve lost interest,” said Gloria Polakof, the chief executive officer of Pola. “What this does is renew the romance so that he would not want another woman.”

Paul Micco, 28, was skeptical and said the purported romance-inducing sales items were too gimmicky for his tastes.