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The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 33

Location:
Orlando, Florida
Issue Date:
Page:
33
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

I T7 Hie Orlando Sentinel New 'Simpsons' episodes start this week, E-6 WEDNESDAY, October 10, 1990 Clothes with special meaning 1 X-T Why people can't part with old treasures By Jean Patteson OF THE SENTINEL STAFF Greg Dawson TELEVISION il" IV i TOM BUHT0N8ENTINH. r' Every spring, Betty Kraus-man packs away her old, multicolored, hand-crocheted poncho. Every fall, she digs it out again. "I have every intention of giving it away," said the Ormond Beach art teacher. "But when I see it, wash it, throw it over my shoulders, I wonder whatever possessed me to even think of not wearing it.

It's so warm, so dashing. It'll be just fine for one more Florida winter." We live in a disposable society. We're constantly pressured, especially by the fashion industry, to replace the old with the new. And for the most part, we willingly comply. But for many of us, stashed somewhere in a closet or trunk, there is a garment we can't quite bring ourselves to part with.

It may not be worth much. It may no longer fit. But, for a variety of reasons, we just can't throw it out. "In part, it's the sentimental value," said Krausman, 66, of her reluctance to retire her poncho. "My sister-in-law crocheted it for my birthday about 15 years ago.

"But it's also such a practical thing. I wear it over everything from slacks to dressy dresses. On cool evenings, I curl up on the sofa and use it as an afghan. I've even draped it in the back of still lifes for my students to paint." Krausman was one of 20 who responded to The Orlando Sentinel's request for letters about old clothes readers can't bear to part with. Usually, the reasons for hanging on to old clothes are sentimental.

The garments awaken memories, making places and events that happened years before spring back to life. This is what happens when Har 1 1 TOM SPlTZSENTINEL Fashion memories: Harriett Lake models the 'victory suit" she bought in 1945; Jill Rodgers wears the 'hippie shorts' she uses to recall times of 'peace, love and flower power'; Rachel Socas-lrizarry, now a size 8, holds her size 24Vfe prom dress, 'Twin Peaks' fell flat when Bob came along When my editor suggested I write a column about the fact that no one cared anymore who killed Laura Palmer, I balked. There seemed to be a macabre Lyn-chian contradiction to the notion of writing a column about how no one cared anymore who killed Laura Palmer for readers who didn't care anymore who killed Laura Palmer. The best way to serve the growing non-interest in Laura Palmer, I argued, was to ignore her much the way David Lynch has, in fact. But Monday morning I read a story by Los Angeles Times television critic Howard Rosenberg that brought all my Peaks frustrations and grievances rushing back to the surface.

Rosenberg said three Hollywood film editors, not connected with the series, had shown him, in freeze frame, the final minutes of the season premiere a dazzlingly horrific passage in which the Charlie Man-son-like figure "Bob" appeared to be bludgeoning Laura in the railroad car. Not so, according to Rosenberg, who described exactly what did happen, which contradicts everything we have been led by the nose to believe about the longhaired, maniacal Bob. Well, I don't mind being as teased and perplexed as I was at the start of Twin Peaks when Lynch sprinkled the landscape with tantalizing red herrings, but I don't like being taken for a sucker. Lynch set me up when, after weeks of building elaborate clues and speculation around all the main (and secondary) characters, he suddenly refocused attention on Bob, glimpsed once by Laura Palmer's mother in a vision. This deus ex machina of dragging Bob into the picture was a total cheat.

At least Dallas had the self-respect to locate J.R.'s assailant within the visible universe of characters. But then, according to Rosenberg's account, Lynch blithely compounded the cheat by changing his story about Bob in the season opener and hiding it from the viewer. What sort of arrogant nonsense is this? Are we supposed to watch every episode twice once at normal speed and once in freeze frame? This isn't mystery, this is manipulation. I think Lynch and friends ran out of story last spring and are making it up as they go along. Meanwhile, I can think of lots of questions about television that interest me more than "Who killed Laura Palmer?" They include, but are not limited to, the following: Who finished the Cracklin' Oat Bran? How does Willard Scott decide which days to wear his toupee? How did E.A.R.T.H.

Force ever get on the air? Why did Murphy Brown house painter Eldin Bernecky shave off his beard? Why hasn't George Will decked Sam Donaldson by now on This Week With David Brinkleyl What ever happened to TV commercials for bread, like the old "builds-strong-bodies-12-ways" ads for Wonder Bread? Exactly what sort of "elective" surgery did Joe Garagiola have, and who voted on it? Why does the wrong video always win the big money on America's Funniest Home Videosl Can you believe it was only a year ago that Prime Time hive's Diane Sawyer was a media darling and made the cover of Time magazine? What's the real story behind Ken Ward's leaving Wiseguyt Who is that obnoxious corporate bully in the Eastern Airlines commercial, and is he supposed to make us want to walk rether than fly Eastern? Why is there now more graphic language during the "family" hours of 7 to 9 p.m. than there is from 10 to 11? How many times have upscale diners ambushed by Folger's Crystals actually spat it out and said, "We knew this stuff tasted like storm runoff? And how many restaurants have switched to Folger's Crystals and not told their customers? How do they work it out so that all the network newscasts break for commercials at the same time? fl Has any parent in his right mind actually made any of that hand-held Jell-0 that you see Bill Cosby and a table full of kids slinging around in the commercial? Why didn't Alf have a farewell episode? -k 4 who now lives in Winter Park. "My little dressmaker offered to make me a coat with some material made from wood fiber. It cost more, but I did not have to go through all the red tape. I still have it." Manley also has the cloth shoes with wooden soles she wore during the war.

"I have kept these items as a sentimental souvenir and memory of a period I can never forget'vshe said. Jill Rodgers treasures a clothing keepsake from the Vietnam War era a pair of cut-off Levis jeans covered with '60-style patches and embroidery. Please see OLD, E-2 She still has her "victory suit" a plaid jacket and long, black skirt stored in a closet in her garage. It cost $35 an outrageous sum for a woman whose monthly paycheck was $78. She burned her Marine Corps uniform.

Louise Manley, a French war bride who lived in Paris during the Nazi occupation in 1943, has kept a coat and pair of shoes that remind her of the war years. "During the occupation, we had to get stamps to buy clothes made of wool. We had to stand in line. We had to give the reason why we needed to buy the items," explained Manley, riett Lake takes a certain plaid suit out of storage. During the final years of World War II, Lake was a payroll sergeant in the U.S.

Marine Corps, stationed in the Southern California desert. "I was a clotheshorse even in those days," said Lake, whose mammoth, walk-in closet in her Longwood home is legendary in Central Florida fashion circles. "Can you imagine what it was like for someone like me to wear nothing but a uniform for 2V4 years? I vowed that the day I got out I would buy whatever was on the cover of the current issue of Vogue." In 1945, she kept her vow. TOM BURTONSENTINEL- Collectors find I Michael Keaton savors his role on other side of law magic in all things Disney i fr III By Tom Jacobs By Linda Shrieves LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS OF THE SENTINEL STAFF OS ANGELES What do you do after star- ring in one of the most successful films of all time? David Koutroubas, known to his friends as the Duck Man, once stopped his van in the middle of Boston traffic to climb a light pole, where he retrieved a prize: a temporary parking sign that read "Donald Duck Parking." In Seattle for a wedding a couple of years ago, Coral Springs resident Lynn Scherr stopped at the city's Disney Store and was soon dragging his family across the Northwest to check out The Disney Store in Portland, Ore. "The wedding became secondary," said Scherr, laughing.

And when a fast-food restaurant featured a Disney promotion, complete with Disney banners and Disney tabletop signs, 30-year-old David Schiller showed up rapping at the door on the promotion's final night. The manager unlocked the doors and, while the other employees closed the restaurant, Schiller took down the banners himself so he could add them to his collection of Disney plates, pins and knickknacks. "These are some of the things we go through; to get these pieces," said Koutroubas, a Tampa flea market vendor who trades in the arcane world of "Disneyana." Over the weekend, Koutroubas and 100 other collectors of anything Disney flocked to Orlando for the annual convention of the National Fantasy Fan A If you're Michael Keaton, who donned gray" tights and a black mask to become the superhero of summer 1989, the answer is obvious. You do; the next interesting thing that comes along. In Keaton's case, that happened to be the role of a smooth-talking psychopath in the John Schle-I singer thriller Pacific Heights.

As portrayed by Keaton, BatmanBruce Wayne was a deeply troubled, neurotic man. But Carter; Hayes' psychological problems go well beyond' that relatively commonplace level. What's more, he doesn't solve crimes he commits them. "If I was going to play it safe, safe, safe, I prob- ably wouldn't have done this movie," Keaton said in a recent interview. "I thought, 'I don't know if I should play this guy.

That's a pretty evil image to "But it was a good role. It was worth taking a chance. I was challenged by it. I knew it wouldn't 1 be easy to play. "My general philosophy or approach is to play things that interest me and are varied," he ex-J plained.

"If I get opportunities to play different; things, why not play them?" Please see KEATON, E-4" 5 JOHN RAOUXSENTINEL Julie Hunter, a St. Cloud collector, displays her wares at the convention of the National Fantasy Fan Club. Please see COLLECT, E-3.

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