The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 11

Pr- Wednesday, Sept, 4, 1885 Ann Landers 2 Jeane Dixon 2 Couples 4 San Bernardino, California The Sun Going strong J5 I ft i 'Walking John' dealt fateful blow By IONE OLIVER For more than 35 vears. John Finger walked for the March of Dimes. He logged more than 1,000 miles and raised approximately $13,000 for the organization that began during a polio outbreak that left most of its survivors crippled. But the 69-year-old Anaheim man is not walking anymore. There a note of sadness and a faint nint oi bitterness in his voice as he explains how a naralvzing stroke he suffered last November made him a veritable prisoner of his wheelchair.

"I'm a walkaholic who can't walk. I'm a March of Dimes nut." he said, managing a toothless grin. Then, more soberly, he added, "I'm like a drug addict who can get arugs. i a walker who can't walk. I'm really tied down." However, if he never walks again (and he vows he will), Finger has a storehouse of memories that help him pass tne time as ne waits for the strength he hopes will return to his legs.

While he was becoming known as "Walking John" and "Mr. WalkAmerica," during his many marches, Finger was busy developing a hobby collecting pictures and autographs of celebrities. He has a dozen albums filled with pictures that show him sitting or standing beside well- known political leaders, sports greats and movie and television stars. He says tnese number in the thousands. Among tne most nH7Prf nf thpse nhotos is one he had taken with the Queen of England, arranged for him by his good friend Mayor Tom Bradley, during me queen's visit to Los Angeles.

He said about 1,000 celebrities have signed a Bible he always carries with him. Why the Bible? Fineer said someone once told him that nobody believed in the Bible anymore, so he decided to prove him wrong. So, whose autographs are included in the hnnk? President Jimmv Carter. President Experts tell how to put your best leg forward Gerald Ford, Mayor Tom Bradley, Debbie Reynolds, Billy Carter, urma rjomoecK, Asner, John Wayne, Don Rickles, Steve Yeager, Hank Aaron, Mariano Duncan, Pedro Guerrero, Willie Mays and several hundred more. He said Mickey Rooney declined to give mm an autograph, but Finger has a picture taken with the well-known actor.

Finger began his marching and hobby in his former home in High Point, N.C. On the morning of Jan. 22. 1948. he started out on what was one of the first, if not the first, March of Dimes walks ever sponsored tor tne henef it of Dolio victims.

He was nulling a wmnn and askins for donations. At the end of the walk, his wagon contained several hundred opposite end of the spectrum from camouflaging baggies. Maybe that's why the dominant color is black. However, while skin-tight knits may seem extreme to adults, there is an appeal to the idea of a sleek, trim look. That's why modified versions of the stirrup pant are now appearing.

"They're being cut a little easier and less revealing, which opens them up to the missey market," says Fishburne. At least some segments of the missey market are ready. According to one retail chain observer, denim stirrup pants offered by a San Francisco store were grabbed up in a matter of hours. And, at least one Los Angeles boutique has begun selling stretch fabric versions. The latter reportedly aren't made of the same material as '60s ski pants and don't have the same curve-retaining fabrication.

However, they do mark a fashionable development on the stirrup pant theme. "I predict you'll see a lot of stirrup pants," says Marlene Yarchever of Marlene's in Redlands. At her store, she carries junior versions as well as an (Please see Pants, AA-4) By JACKIE RICHARD Sun Staff Writer If you're not quite sure which leggy look to put forward this fall, you're not alone. What with stirrup pants, trousers, cropped pants, city shorts, gauchos, jodhpurs, knickers, clam diggers, jeans and the tentative re-emergence of palazzo pants, the whole scene can get a bit confusing. In a market where young consumers clamour for the very latest trends while their older counterparts look for season-jumping classics, the garment industry has responded with almost enough leggy choices to suit a centipede.

Here's an update on current looks. Stirrup pants: "TAemost important pant for fall," says Kathy Fishburne, spokeswoman for May fashion office. When worn with big-shouldered tunics and oversized tops, they are one pivot point in the highly touted inverted triangle reportedly "the" silhouette for fall and winter of 1985-86. As most adults have noted, teen scene stirrup pants bear a marked resemblance to exercise leggings. Typically made of clinging knits that are sometimes ribbed or textured, they're the dollars, he said.

The retired textile worker and cab driver moved to California with his wife, Gertrude, and four children, in 1957. He continued to walk whenever he touno time (and he always seemed to find time.) By 1983, he had logged 980 miles. He oeciaea to return to High Point to record the mile. During the recent Olympics in Los Angeles, thp spvappnarian worked at the VIP entrance on the floor of the Anaheim Convention Center as a volunteer security guard. Finger doesn't have a car, so the garage of his modest Anaheim home has been turned into his "trophy room," where he keeps his albums and Bible and scores of other Staff Illustration by Griffon mementos collected during his treks across the country.

Gertrude helps him keep nis tropny room in (Please see Walker, AA-3) For some teenage girls, 'women's movement' are dirty words "My daughter and her friends won't call themselves feminists," she says. "But when they run up against male chauvinism a word they're more likely to use they go after it." Clearly, these young women have benefited profoundly from feminist gains. Most plan demanding careers, many in male-dominated fields. They expect to raise children while working, and want financial independence. But these desires are not solely the result of ambition.

"These young women expect to get married," says one guidance counselor, "and then they expect to get divorced." All those interviewed cited divorce statistics when explaining their desire for self-sufficiency. And that, too, makes some uneasy with feminism. For example, Barbara Machem, raised by her divorced mother, wants an education "because you can never rely on a guy." But that doesn't make her a feminist. "I don't think feminists can have a really good relationship with a guy, because they're always so edgy about being taken advantage of." Some blame feminists for high divorce rates. "The women's movement has made it easier for (Please see Feminism, AA-3) having to accept an oppositional definition of being a woman," she says.

Besides, most feminists in the limelight are in their 40s or 50s and "the last thing these teenagers want to do is say that they're ideological clones of their mothers." Ironically, the movement's successes may have paved the way for these lackluster responses. Many teenagers question the need for an organized movment when they see sex discrimination is on the wane. Joanna Aptekar, 17, for instance, claims "I'm very ambitious, and I care about being treated equally." But she does not call herself a feminist. "Those are expectations I grew up with, not something I've had to fight for." And Yolanda Kinnard finds the Equal Rights Amendment "senseless because we are equal. It's like fighting for a ring you have on your finger." Those sentiments trip the alarms for feminists with a sense of history.

After winning the vote in 1920, Ehrenreich says, the women's movement stopped dead in its tracks. "The younger generation of women decided to be flappers rather than feminists." Though she is concerned about the mood among younger women, Ehrenreich warns against judging too much by vocabulary. By ALEXIS X. JETTER Pacific News Service PALO ALTO Feminists have an image problem with teenage girls. Not just with those who mimic Madonna, but with career-oriented, independent-minded young women.

Ask these girls about the women's movement, and you'll get a yawn or worse. "Feminists are large-boned, unkempt women who wear hoop earrings and a lot of turquoise," says high school senior Coco Colligan. "A radical, someone who would also protest about the arms race and Nicaragua," says junior Joanna Aptekar. "Braless athletes," offers Barbara Machem, student body president at her high school in the San Francisco suburb of Daly City. "Feminists hang out in bars and pick up men," says her classmate Carolina Soto, while the yearbook editor, Yolanda Kinnard, says, "Feminists are women who want to be men homosexuals." "Everyone," concludes Colligan, "feels threatened by these feminists." Barbara Ehrenreich, feminist author and herself the mother of a high schooler, thinks these attitudes reflect adolescence more than politics.

"It's hard enough being a teenager without Staff photo by Gary Votti John Finger, who raised thousands for charity, is now wheelchair bound. c..