Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 89

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES StTDRi Ann Landers, 3-F Bunny Flarsheim, 3-F Bedtime Story, 5-F Alligator Express, 8-F fffl OCTOBER 7, 1984 section i in I I I 9 1 Gene Ray has his eye on making marbles a professional sport Don't look now, but your lapels may be missing again Just in case you have a Nehru jacket stashed in the back of your closet, hang onto it: The fashion flash JEFF nuniiEnnEnc fad of about 15 years ago is about to burst (pop?) onto the scene again, the Wall Street Journal reports. Three trendy designers Jean-Paul Gaultier and Kenzo of Paris and Yohji Yamamoto of Tokyo have resurrected the high-collared jacket without lapels that ran the fashion course from avant garde to big seller to tired trend in record 'A -V': 4. if '(, I If 'V: nehru nine, oome retailers, however, are greeting who is he? the return Qf tne Nehm even at prices in the $450 range, with a certain skepticism. But a partner in London's Crolla shop says the store is selling four Nehrus a week, and buyers have included actor Bill Murray and rock stars David Bowie and Elvis Costello.

Some seller will rename the jacket because, as a Bergdorf Goodman executive asked, "Today, who knows who Nehru was?" (He was prime minister of India. And another good trivia question is the spelling of his first name: Jawaharlal.) Another designer has turned his attention to alternatives for trousers, including the sarong. "What is masculine? What is feminine?" asks Gaultier. "Just because you wear a skirt does not mean you are not strong." Gaultier also has kaftans, harem pants and an array of other exotica for men. Fashion writers have dubbed his look "Florence of Arabia." 4 it Sure, some people might think Otis Eugene Ray is a little touched in the head.

He gets to talking about the power of the pyramids or about one of his many odd inventions or about how marbles is going to be the next big professional sport, and folks get to wondering. Gene Ray has an answer for them, too. "I've lost my marbles," he readily admits. "But I have spares." Gene Ray has spares all right. In his South Pasadena condominium they are found in cigar boxes, in candy trays, in leather cases and in old salad-dressing bottles.

But most he hoards in a big blue bag. Gene Ray's marble bag, kept in storage, weighs one ton. Inside are 200,000 immies, mibs, purees, pee wees, aggies, cat's eyes and other glassy spheres used to play his favorite game. He used to tow his bag around town on a trailer, as he spread the gospel while introducing himself to anyone who didn't run away first. He called himself "Mr.

Marbles." MR. MARBLES the 57-year-old inventor who gave the world Knuckle Pool and Ingenuous Mystique, a board game he advertised recently in the Wall Street Journal is an electrician by trade but a dreamer by avocation. He dreams, for example, of building a great pyramid to house 5,000 inventions, including a number of his own. He dreams of a better world where the environment is not contaminated by unthinking men. But mostly he dreams about marbles.

He dreams of city parks filled with kneeling children who are having fun flicking marbles all over the place. He dreams of adults, sipping cool drinks and playing marbles for big money, maybe in the high-roller world of Las Vegas. He dreams of radios blaring marble songs, hopefully the one he wrote, The Big Marble Game in the Sky. He dreams of the first full-length marbles movie. "I've written it," says Mr.

Marbles, his Alabama accent thicker than cornbread batter. "This country boy, he likes marbles, see. The movie starts with the sun comin' up, lookin' like a big old marble. Next you see the boy killin' a snake with a marble from his slingshot. He starts playin his marbles, gets better and better and becomes a professional.

The movie ends with the sun goin' down, a big old marble." IT COULD ALMOST be an autobiography. Mr. Marbles began life as a country boy in the little Alabama town of Wetumpka, got interested in marbles early, and as he nears retirement hopes to make money from the game by either playing or promoting it. One of the 15 children of a homemaker and a prison guard, he enjoyed inventing games for his brothers and sisters during Depression years. One exciting game involved being chased by bloodhounds.

Other games, somewhat safer than being pursued by even friendly dogs, involved marbles. "It's the greatest game there is," says Gene Ray, whose hamhock hands can fire a pretty mean marble even now. "You aren't gonna get hit on the head playin' marbles. You aren't gonna get your arm broken like in football playin' marbles There are a lot of benefits to playin' marbles. You need creativity.

You got to decide the game you're gonna play, you got to make up rules, you learn how to barter, and you improve your hand-eye coordination. It's not like one of these electronic games where you play against a machine. In marbles, you play against a person." Please see MARBLES, 2-F I rn i4 PI Kt it Learning a new language Physicians are being urged to learn how to interpret body language to discover and treat the real problems that many patients disguise. "Body language can tell physicians that patients have problems they feel uncomfortable discussing," says Dr. Philip Michels, a clinical psychologist and associate professor family medicine at the University of South Carolina's School of Medicine.

Chief among them are health problems that patients consider to be personal matters, particularly sexual problems. When a physician asks a patient if he is having a problem with impotence, the patient may respond with a sarcastic, "No, everything is great!" Michels says the patient's nonverbal response may tell a different story. In addition to the tone of voice, Michels says the doctor should notice if the patient is smiling excessively, leaning back in his chair, averting his eyes from side to side, nodding his head and extending his feet. These are signs of deception, he explains. "Emotions are very private and hard to get at, but physicians need to examine them for the total health of the patient," Michels says.

4-' i I 1 St. Petersburg Timei MAURICE RIVENBARK "Right now marbles has the stigma of bein' for kids," Gene Ray says. "But if you throw some money down, it changes things." Know the difference between an aggie and a mib? Bombsie and bowling? Here's glossary other marbles. Generally larger than others. STEELEY Usually a large ball bearing.

Popular as a shooter during the World War II era. These definitions come from two books. Mr. Marbles' Marbles for Everyone is available by mail for $5.95 (including tax, postage and handling) from Gene Ray, P.O. Box 40302, St.

Petersburg, Fla. 33743. The Great American Marble Book, by Fred Ferretti, is published by Workman Publishing Co. for $2.50 and may be available at some bookstores. term denoting the correct form for shooting.

To rest one or more of one's knuckles on the ground while shooting with thumb. LOST HIS MARBLES Slang for a person with bad judgment or mental problem. MIB The object or target marble. MILKY Translucent white glassy. MR.

MARBLES Renowned authority on the game of marbles. PEEWEE A very small marble. PUREE A small, clear glass marble. SHOOTER The marble shot at shooter marble along the ground to hit a target. Generally popular with those who aren't any good at traditional shooting.

(See knuckles, shooter.) CAT'S EYE A clear glass marble with a colored center resembling a cat's eye. COMMIE An ordinary glass marble. GLASSY A glass marble. IMMIES Slang for most marbles games. Also used to describe imitation agate.

KNUCKLES DOWN A general Marble games, 2-F. AGGIE A marble slightly larger than the norm, most often agate, sometimes limestone. Most aggies come from Germany, are heavy and highly prized. AMERICAN FRIED Larger than average glass marble that has been heated, then iced to create inner cracks. Used as a shooter.

(See shooter.) BOMBSIE A rather unsophisticated way of shooting; usually throwing. BOULDER A marble 1-inch in diameter or more. BOWLING Rolling or throwing a TtemaggrimHiypwwirfmawpwi n1 Making Day Care Work How to Avoid For Two Tlaying Favorites" Organizing "Mom Time -You Can Breastfeed -TVrfns and Research: Aggressive, -Passive Roles: The Left-Handed Connection Why Twins switch i -Jl I. I I if i kLkytz j. Av 'is -Z-' tea" A parting of the ways: from haircuts in a barbershop to salon styling sa in ElOiiBT A double dose of advice There are articles titled "Eating for Three" and "Multiple Dangers." And there are advertisements for the Maclaren Double Buggy, the One-Stop Twin Book Shop and the Twin Matey baby carrier.

Not surprisingly, the publication's title is Twins, reports the New York Times, and it is billed as "the magazine for the parents of multiples." Founded by a mother of twins in Overland Park, the slick-paper, four-color, 64-page magazine attracted 6,000 subscribers after its first issue appeared in July. More than 20,000 copies of the second issue are being distributred. "The magazine is for the 500,000 parents nationally who have twins under the age of 15," said Barbara C. Unell, its founder and editor, who is one of those parents. One of the reasons she started the magazine, Mrs.

Unell says, is "you find yourself constantly adapting information originally intended for the parents of single children and then wondering whether it's really applicable to your family." The magazine provides a mix of articles about child-development findings involving twins, parenthood advice for families with twins and the personal experiences of parents and their twin children. Now sold by subscription, the magazine will be carried in B. Dalton bookstores starting in November and on newstands next year. The magazine appears every other month. Subscriptions are available by writing to Twins magazine at P.O.

Box 1 2045, Overland Park, 66212 or by phoning 800-821-5533. OiMfl of plants. Barbershops, where my hair had been cut for 38 years, and where I had never made an appointment, don't have plants. They have terrazzo floors and hat racks and magazines and fish-bowls full of lollipops for good little children. But no plants.

Customers can read Sports Afield. But this salon, with mirrored walls and chrome fixtures and fake-leather chairs, was filled with mostly women stylists and customers. The only male customer was leaving. I became nervous. I was in an alien environment There wasn't a Sports Afield in the place.

MY FEAR became near-panic when my stylist swung a leopard-print cape around my neck. I looked silly. I looked even worse after she washed my hair and combed it forward into my face. She snipped and clipped and Creating a hairstyle, 2-F. I had a bad experience with a hair-cutting salon.

It happened about five years ago, as best I remember. One morning I looked in the mirror, and an older man looked back at me. I studied him. He had the beginnings of crow's feet around his eyes, definite lines in his forehead, shadows under his jowls and disheveled hair that was thinning on top and sprouting from inside his ears. He looked something like me.

An older me. A me I imagined I might become sometime in the future. But he was me now. How can this be? I thought. Until that moment, aging had been a slow-motion experience, without noticeable change from day to day or even year to year.

The face in the mirror seemed always the same, viewed as it was through sympathetic eyes. Until Now, the face in the mirror, this older man stealthy time had created, needed help. He needed it because this world is youth-oriented. Help would start at the top. MORE THAN anything, it seems, a man's hair symbolizes virility, youth, vigor.

That's silly, yes. My hair, coarse and unruly, thinning to the rear and retreating from a face in trouble, had no vigor, no style either. So it was that I ended up with a hair-styling appointment. I remember that the salon had a lot St. Petaraburg Tim JACK BARRETT Please see HAIR.

2-F "A perm? I don't know.".