Longing for a Store With a Short Fashion Outlook

Wilbur Young of Van Nuys is longing for a store that sells short short sports jackets for a man 5 feet, 2 inches tall. Can you be good sports and help, or will Young have to wait for a tight fit a bit longer?

Another reader with a clothing problem is Adam Quandt of Palmdale, who is looking for a man’s sweat shirt made by Allen A. in Orlon acrylic for winter. Can you help without working up a sweat, or will Quandt lose his cool, if not his shirt, during his search?

Estelle Viertel of La Mesa wants to get her hands on some Octagon soap. Can you help with a source before Viertel loses face, or will this continue to be a problem that just won’t wash?

Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Lois at (714) 639-3337 is putting on a variety show for a senior citizens community and needs the words and music for two numbers, “Ferdinand the Bull With the Delicate Ego” and “The Little Dutch Mill.” (The latter includes the line, “Now a little Dutch boy and his little Dutch girl fell in love by the mill at night.”) Please help and make sure the music doesn’t stop for Lois and her seniors.

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.

For Virginia John of San Juan Capistrano, who was sniffing around for a hard-rubber Oxford toy for a dog, the dog days are over. Another dog lover says the item is available at Long’s drug store in Upland (and perhaps at other Long’s stores).

For Julie Escalante of Glendale, knocking her brains out in her search for an original cattle skull, we have a number of sources, and that’s no bull. Jeff Stanfill of Gardena sent us two mail-order addresses: Frontier, 2910 San Bernardo, Laredo, Tex. 78040, (512) 723-5409, and Prairie Edge, P.O. Box 8303, Rapid City, S.D. 57709, (605) 341-4525. Mrs. N. Mason of Solana Beach says the skulls are sold at the Saddlery, Canyon Road, Santa Fe, N.M. 87501. Another reader says Nancy Herroz sells these skulls on Sundays out of her pickup truck on Pacific Coast Highway just west of the Malibu Civic Center; her answering service number is (619) 585-2083. We also heard from two readers who are willing to part with cattle skulls; to get details, just take the bull by the horns and send us a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Lucy Caillouet of Lake View Terrace, who was looking for old-fashioned tortoise-shell hairpins, need tear her hair out no longer. Celeste W. Meakin of Rancho Mirage, Carol Zimmerman of Marina del Rey, Harold L. Dittmer of Los Angeles and Mrs. K. Hamilton of Rancho Palos Verdes all said the fall, 1987, catalogue of the Vermont Country Store lists tortoise-colored hairpins at $10 for a dozen; however, these are plastic. The address is P.O. Box 3000, Manchester Center, Vt. 05255.

Perhaps Charles Schellenbarger of Claremont, who was looking for tie-it-yourself bow ties, won’t have to travel to London after all. John Fields of Fields Bow Ties, P.O. Box 406, Kenwood, Calif. 95452, says he is “the best-known mail-order bow tie merchant in the U.S.” and invites Schellenbarger (and others) to contact him.

Gertrude Waggoner of Hawthorne, who wanted old-fashioned lye soap, should soon be able to come clean. L. Yegliss of Los Angeles says the soap is unavailable in the United States but can be bought in Mexico as Don Maximo Fortissimo Sacamugre. Yegliss and several other readers said they either have some soap on hand or else make their own and would share the recipe or sell the soap. A stamped, self-addressed envelope will flush out further details, and that’s no lie.

We finally have some sources for shag-rug rakes (for Marge Russell of Burbank). Right near her as the dust flies are Grand Hardware at 6410 San Fernando Road, Glendale, and Old Time Hardware, 2515 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena. (This is from owner John Blair.) And Susan Chamberlain of Chamberlain Carpet & Upholstery Cleaners in Newhall says they stock a professional Grandi-Groomer that they will sell by mail for $25.30, which includes shipping and handling. Write P.O. Box 243, Newhall, Calif. 91322-0243, or telephone (805) 254-2331.

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