The Morning News from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 59

mwm m' ROADS A SUPPLEMENT TO THE NEWS-JOURNAL PAPERS SERVING THE BRANDYWINE AND CHRISTIANA REGIONS JUNE 21, 1984 Cassettes inspire young imaginations Listening to tap mysoogs By MARSHA MAH Special to Brandywine Crossroads 4 4s i 4 I 1 4 VJ -J? EIGHT-YEAR-OLD ELIZABETH Hartman is one of 50 Wilmington area children who regularly visit the past and future, the seashore, and the wild, wild West. Elizabeth, a student at Lombardy Elementary School, is a Little Thinkernik and a member of the Little Thinker Fun Club. She collects Little Thinker tapes, educational cassettes geared toward children ages 4 to 10, which take her to faraway places in her imagination. "I've found them fascinating," said her mother, Virginia Hartman of Normandy Manor. "They're perfect for a child who is good at drawing and has a vivid imagination." The hourlong tapes, which are available at local toy stores for about $7, are the creation of a Florida businessman and grandfather, Harvey Jerome, 61, who sometimes is called Grandpa Thinkernik.

Although entering their sixth year of production, the tapes only recently have been distributed through major toy chains. Listening to the breathless voice of actress Nancy Hamilton, Elizabeth is whisked away on adventures that take place in her imagination no books, no pictures, no video. Intermittent lapses of music give her time to create her own illustrations on a special pad of paper included with the tapes. Hartman bought the first tape a few years ago at the suggestion of a friend for her younger daughter, Cathy, now 6. But it was Elizabeth who really took the time, she said.

"I'm amazed at how detailed her drawings are," Hartman said. Children who purchase the tapes may join a Little Thinker Fun Club and receive birthday and Christmas greetings. For a while Jerome also sent free newsletters, but he said in a recent telephone inter- Staff photo by Jim E. Call Billy and Elizabeth Hartman listen to Thinker Tapes in their backyard. Elizabeth draws according to instructions given during the recorded program.

Cheryl Van Bergen of McDaniel Crest bought a tape for her daughter Jackie, now a 5-year-old kinder-gartner at Lombardy, when she was 3. "She likes to draw now, and I think the tapes inspired her," Van Bergen said. Jackie has several of the tapes, including the ones about manners and morals, an animal safari and weather. Van Bergen was so impressed with the tapes that she suggested them to her friend Cathy Soukup of See TAPES, Page 5 ally hundred of letters, some sad and some funny." While other companies produce cassette tapes for children, Jerome said his product is "the Cadillac" of the industry. "We have the only activity tape.

The others are read-alongs and lack quality," he said. His company, Jerome Enterprises now has 19 titles for children, everything from morals and manners to weather and poetry. Each was researched carefully and produced at a cost of up to $40,000. view from Fort Lauderdale, that he abandoned the idea when membership in the club grew to 375,000 children in 43 countries. The club's mascot.

Little Thinker, is a chubby, pint-sized version of Rodin's famous sculpture. He soon may appear in cartoons and on T-shirts, Jerome said. Union Camp has purchased a license to put the Little Thinker on drawing tablets. "He's very humanistic," Jerome said. "Children seem to think of him as a Dear Abby.

We get liter Caryl E. Huftakot photo Cal Brackin career as a producer, performer and teacher is keeping him very busy, and happy. SIGNPOST by Richard Sanger How 'Dixie' really did rise again I thought I detected a hopeful note in the voice of the man on the telephone. "Could I speak to Dixie, please?" "This is he." "He?" Silence while he collected his wits. "I was calling for Dixie Sanger." "This is Dixie Sanger.

What can I do for you?" An embarrassed giggle. "I'm sorry I thought Dixie was a she." "Sorry to disappoint you." And so to business With minor variations, that conversation gets played out about once a week. It wasn't easy, but I learned to keep my mouth shut and let the other party do the stammering. A couple of times I tried levity. "You were expecting maybe a beautiful blonde?" I would inquire solicitously.

That just seemed to make matters worse Every once in a while a caller will get around to asking what's really on his mind: "How in heaven's name did you ever get stuck with a name like that?" "Baseball," I reply. "You can blame it all on infield chatter." True enough as far as it goes. But the truth is you can blame it all on Chip Goldsmith, who chooses now to be know by his given name of Stuart. Chip (he is out of circulation range, so I will venture to use the cast-aside nickname) was my shortstop at Friends School when I was breaking records as the slowest right-handed pitcher in the Independent School League. We were a sketch, the two of us.

a duo so dynamic that rather than break up we went off to college together. I threw a roundhouse curve that floated up to the plate as big as a Kent County cantaloupe. Chip had a delivery to first base that arched high enough to draw rain. We put up a good front, though. Close students of George Estock.

Eddie Sanicki and the other Wilmington Blue Rocks, we knew what you had to do to look like a ball player. And sound like one. That was where the chatter came in. "Toss it in there, Dickie boy," Chip said by way of encouragemeni for his gangling pitcher. See BONA FIDE, Page 2 Thrift shop clothes get worn praise By EVA MESSNER Special to Brandywine Crossroads Would you like to buy a Geoffrey Beene $300 dress for $65 or a $70 Bill Blass silk blouse for $23 or a $125 London Fog all-weather coat for $16? So would and I can tell you where to do it.

But there's a catch: They all are used. When something has value, it has value regardless of its past. In fact, since they don't make them like they used to, having a history actually may enhance value witness the trends of restoring old homes and buying antiques. But not until spiral-ing prices drove good clothes out of reach did it become respectable to buy previously owned clothing. In the 1980s, used clothes have come out of the closet.

Economic necessity has transformed secondhand into a chic trend. In the north Wilmington area, resale shops are expanding and dressing up their images, too. No longer in church basements or behind bleak storefronts, many of today's resale shops boast stylish window displays and carpeted floors. Some have entrances flanked by carriage lamps and potted trees. Cadillacs and Mercedes-Benzes sit in the parking lots next to Volkswagen Rabbits and Chevy station wagons.

Inside, the clothes are astonishing what you'd expect to find at Saks, Nan Duskin or Lord Taylor. Although not every garment wears a designer label, names like Blass and Anne Klein appear abundantly among the racks of clean, well-pressed garments. The prices, not the labels, will start your pulse pounding, however, which probably accounts for the conspiratorial air among the shoppers in resale shops. Total strangers talk to one another. Appraising another's find, a woman will break into a grin, roll her eyes and whisper, "I'll bet that was two hundred new." The only competition exists among those who share the same dress size; in resale shops, everything is one-of-a-kind.

When I first encountered resale shops, I had no trouble figuring why people bought clothes there. But who gave such beautiful clothes away? The clothes definitely are in style not so much as a perspiration stain or a wrinkle. Did they all die? No. Some people just have more money than others and can afford to indulge their expensive tastes. When a new issue of Vogue appears, some will toss out their wardrobe and buy everything new.

Se USED, Page 4 done man Soncs-csnd- Timing has helped make Cal Brackin a happy fellow By CARYL E. HUFFAKER Special to Brandywine Crossroads AL BRACKIN has the best of all possible worlds, and he knows it. "I am extremely are able to attend luncheon theaters tend to be retired senior citizens, Brackin said. In addition, he said, "we are starting to get business people who take the time for a long lunch. Before, we mainly got bus tours, but we've gotten good reviews, and now we have a lot of private reservations.

Owner Ralph LaFrance is also offering a very good hot buffet." This is not Brackin's first involvement with a luncheon theater. He taught school for 10 years, teaching music from kindergarten through 12th grade. It was fun, but it was very confining, he said. "I could never do any theater at night, because it would interfere with the shows we were doing at school," he said. "Finally after 10 years I quit.

The first show I auditioned for at The Three Little Bakers, I won a lead, and I just kept getting leads. I stopped teaching See BRACKIN, Page 2 the nightclub reviews. "They told me, 'Anybody who can keep 300 people quiet for an hour must be doing something "They get a whole hour of me. It's in the form of a 1940s radio show, with the top 10 tunes. It's really a tribute to women.

I sing a lot of songs with women's names in the titles." Brackin's new show at Springs Valley, which he put together, is called "Dear Mr. Ziegfield," with music from the heyday of stage shows. Using music that has been loved by the public for decades, he has assembled the pieces into a cohesive show. Using such old favorites as "Love Me or Leave Me," "Second Hand Rose" and "My Man," Brackin has directed the show so that the more than two dozen songs are performed by imitators in the style of singers such as Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, Fanny Brice, Will Rogers and the Dolly Sisters. This re-creation is definitely a nostalgia trip, but the majority of people who happy.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I really, really, love teaching, and I'm performing," said Brackin, who heads Cal Brackin Productions, which is booked this summer at Springs Valley Luncheon Theater near Avon-dale, Pa. In addition to producing the shows at Springs Valley in a turn-of-the-century barn, Brackin is also teaching theater, music, dance, circus arts and video in the Learning Enrichment Experience Program of the West Chester (Pa.) schools. He also will be appearing in a Three Little Bakers Dinner Theater production, is music director at a camp for the month of July, and has his own nightclub act, which he has been performing in New Jersey to rave reviews. "I was very flattered," he said of.