Waist Not, Want Not
Pregnant women who ski--now there’s a market!--often resort to buying or borrowing men’s stretch pants because they are more generous in the waistline.
Along comes a company with an “oh but of course” product: stretch ski pants for pregnant women. Manufactured by Roffe Skiwear, Mom-2-B pants feature an expandable front panel that can be eliminated (after pregnancy) by merely zipping up the pants in front, which tucks the panel inside. All for $120.
“It’s not only for pregnant moms but also for women who have bigger tummies or who’ve just had a baby and their stomach muscles are looser,” says Abe Lopez, manager of Sports Chalet in Santa Clarita, whose store carries the pants.
How pregnant can you be and still ski safely?
The company’s research shows that most women quit skiing around the fifth month of pregnancy. However, Dr. Stephen Pine, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Tarzana Medical Center, notes, “My feeling is that moderate skiing on a nice easy slope is OK during the first trimester.”
Roffe dealers in the area include Val Surf & Sport (with three Valley locations) and Circle Ski and Sport in Westlake Village, but the pants may have to be special ordered. Or you can order the pants directly by dialing (800) 448-8794.
In-Depth Advertising
You may have been one of those who noticed the three-dimensional display ads for Camel cigarettes that appeared recently on free-standing carousels in shopping malls across the Valley.
The backlit transparent image showed a camel dressed like Don Johnson, with a cigarette dangling out of one side of his mouth. In the background is the Hollywood sign and a blond bombshell poised on a flashy red car.
Even though the image is only a quarter of an inch thick, it looks as if it’s about two feet deep, explains 34-year-old Grayson Marshall of Los Angeles, who patented the technique he spent years developing. “The image is clearly visible anywhere from 3 to 30 feet away,” he says.
The difference between his 3-D image and others, according to Marshall, is that his subjects seem to extend both in front of and behind the actual surface.
Shoppers weren’t the only ones who stopped to stare at the ads, notes Michael Belli of Mall Media Network in Van Nuys, which sold the ad space. He says a number of his other advertisers asked about them as well.
Real Retro
This being the 1990s, there seems to be a peculiarly large number of restaurants around town with a 1950s/early ‘60s theme. The revivalist restaurants feel like Hollywood movie sets. “With juke boxes on each table,” elaborates Arturo Hernandez. “And the waiters wear all the fashions from that time.”
Hernandez has been a cook for 10 years at the other kind of ‘50s/’60s restaurant. The kind where the Naugahyde looks as if it was tacked down on the booths about 20 years ago instead of two. Where the decor is more nondescript than “notice me.” Where there’s more a feeling of community than of coolness.
The Rocket Coffee Shop--part of the Rocket Bowl Center--on De Soto Avenue in Chatsworth has been sitting there since 1962.
“I’ve been coming here for 25 years,” says Oscar Moses of Canoga Park. “I used to come here four times a day. I’ve cut it down to two now. I met my third wife here.”
Moses is prodded along in his story by Harry Bullis, the center’s manager.
“Well, yeah, I’m a bachelor again,” Moses continues. “There’s not going to be a number four!”
When asked what he thought about the growing number of revivalist restaurants, Moses commented, “They’re all right. It breaks up the monotony.”
Local Motion
Life may be getting more technological, but you still can’t fax a case of beer across the country. Chugging around the Valley on routes as regular as any Federal Express, UPS or U.S. Post Office truck are the Southern Pacific Transportation Co.’s trains.
“We’re a small switching terminal that loads up the local trains. They go out for the day and come back here, stopping at all the industries along the way,” says Lynn Moore, chief clerk at the company’s yard in Van Nuys.
On average there are about five local runs a day. The yard also handles trains coming in from the East Coast or headed out in that direction.
The local trains pick up or deliver around the Valley (all the way to Oxnard). Shipments range from lumber and auto parts to grain and pizzas, says Jack Gothier, the yard’s train master.
“Between the two breweries”--Anheuser-Busch and Stroh--”we pick up an average of 20 carloads of beer every day,” he notes. The freight then gets sent to distribution points in and around Los Angeles.
As train master, Gothier deals with problems that have long been part of the vehicle’s folklore.
“People are still hitching rides on trains,” Gothier says, as he walks around the maze of tracks in the secluded yard. “But when they jump off in the yard here, they realize this isn’t where they’d like to stay.”
Overheard
“I always tell my children: ‘When the teacher asks you what’s the greatest invention in the world, don’t say the wheel. Say the cellular car phone.’ ”
--Mother at Fromin’s Deli in Woodland Hills
