Reaching Out to Touch Someone Special

A. H. Buchman of Los Angeles knows a partially blind and partially deaf woman who needs a telephone with large push-button letters and numbers and with a handset that has adjustable , amplified sound. He says many phones have one of these features, but he has not yet seen one that has both. Can you help with this “phoney” communications problem, or will Buchman never get the message?

Two readers want to be babied about a similar situation. George Flahan of Victorville is interested in finding stamped flannelette kimonos to embroider for babies. And Jeanne Wright of North Hollywood is looking for a Carter’s Grow-Sleep Sac, which is a sleeper (similar to a nightgown) for babies from newborn to about 30 pounds. The sleeper has a double zipper in front and a 10-inch portion at the bottom that can be opened at the seam for growing. Can you help these readers with their growing pains, or will the bottom line be: “Baby, it’s cold outside”?

Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Peggy at (714) 882-3053 (afternoons and evenings) is highly allergic (violent sneezing and a runny nose) to all beauty aids except Prince Matchabelli Abano bath oil ; she has used the product for 40 years and even puts the oil on her skin instead of perfume. Now she has learned that Abano bath oil has not been made in two years, and her supply is almost exhausted. (Another reader looking for the same product is Shoshanna at (213) 454-3649.) Since this situation is nothing to sneeze at, please help before this problem gets under the skin of both readers. . . . Juanita at (818) 795-3878 also has a beaut of a problem. She’s looking for a jar of Nail White paste, which she believes has been discontinued by Revlon. Please help so that Juanita can stop biting her nails over this dirty matter. . . . The next question is indeed a horse of a different color. Elizabeth at (213) 696-4785 needs to complete a set of glasses, 3 3/4 inches high and 3 1/8 inches in diameter, that depict haute ecole riders of the Spanish Riding School in various stances; captions are in German and French. Please help so that Elizabeth will stop horsing around before her parties.

Note: The Reader-to-Reader Help Line is only for one-time items and for products that are no longer available in stores. And you must give us written permission to publish your telephone number, so that other readers may contact you directly.

For Viola MacDougall of Van Nuys, who was looking for Allercreme bath and hand soap, we have news we hope will not get under her skin. Mrs. M. G. Morris of Northridge says to contact Owen Laboratories, Division of Alcon Labs Inc., in Dallas, Tex., for a list of sources or perhaps the product itself. In addition, an unidentified reader suggests contacting another Texas firm, Allercreme Dermological Products of San Antonio. She says this company sent her six bottles of Allercreme dry-skin lotion after she called. The reader says the firm accepts credit cards or will send COD. (She did not say which of the methods she used.)

Our readers were positively on their toes with help for Ken Saltzman of Los Angeles, who was looking for shoes with a negative heel. Mariam Kaplan of Westchester says the original negative-heel shoes are available from Woolfson Natural Foods, 212 W. Main St., Urbana, Ill. 61801. If you send a paper tracing of both feet, they will send a catalogue indicating the styles they have in your size. Kaplan says the Woolfson people are “very nice to deal with.” Cathy Schwartz of Studio City says negative-heel shoes are manufactured by a Canadian firm called Roots and are available through Natural Footwear Ltd., 1162 Caledonia Road, Toronto, Ont. M6A2W5. Their telephone number is (416) 781-3574. And Leanore Motley of Mar Vista reports that she orders her negative-heel shoes from Easy Feet, P. O. Box 751, Fairfield, Iowa 52556, (515) 472-8378. She says she buys the EarthShoes, but that they have others for sale.

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