Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 45

IP! i I i II ii i A mm mwu 9 'i-f WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1978 4f W.iy Wl sian Orthodox Church. This community strives like others scattered around the world to preserve its way of life. A young member of the Old Believers religious sect takes a break from work in the vineyards near Woodburn, Ore. The Old Believers are a breakaway group of the Rus The Old Believers in the New World. nmim in OW Believers of Russian descent in traditional dress leave their church in Wood-burn, Ore.

Old Believers are a religious sect which refused to accept reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century and which has kept its faith through three centuries of world travel. By WILLIAM and MARY MORRIS Today's word game asks you to pair words similar to each other in meaning. Ten are numbered; 10 lettered. Just try to pick the lettered word closest in meaning to each of the numbered words. You'll find the answers below.

the difference between good and bad, but sometimes they take the bad way. The main problem is the kids get 16 years old and want cars." Some Old Believers have remained in Russia since they first refused to accept reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1660s. Others drifted across Russia to China, then moved to Australia and South America. Many of those here came from Brazil in 1963 and some of their number have since moved to Alaska, seeking a return to the insulated life of the village. Old Believer men do not shave and usually wear delicately belted tunics.

The women wear brightly flowered long dresses and scarves to hide their hair, which is considered erotic. Many of the problems of adaptation involve the schools. Old Believers used to pull their children out in the sixth grade, but now more students are going on to junior high and high school, and school officials say they tend to be good students. "The Russian parents want more discipline in the schools," says Jens Robinson, Wood-burn's school superintendent. "They say 'hit the but that's not kosher in American public schools." The Old Believer community unified behind Natalie Egoroff, a 31-year-old mother of 11, who kept her children out of school because she feared they would be Americanized.

After a trial at which she needed a translator to tell her what was happening, she was sentenced to jail unless her children returned to school. She complied. But her case prompted spokesmen for the Old Believers in this area to meet as a group with school officials for the first time. They said they wanted their children to attend public school, but asked that they be excused from sex education and evolution classes. School officials agreed to those requests.

Most schools in the area have had Russian bilingual programs for several years to deal with what one school administrator called "a real tower of Babel." The Woodburn area also has two banks with Old Believer tellers and Russian-speaking aides at the county health clinic, post office and county housing authority. "One Old Believer who has lived all over the world told me that the United States has been the most hospitable and has the most favorable laws, but it is killing them, eroding the culture," says Robinson. Residents concede that there was some antagonism toward the Russians when they first moved to the area. But as the Old Believers tended to keep themselves, the community tensions eased. Lukeria Efimoff, a 21-year-old bank teller, says some youngsters are attracted by the American lifestyle, but many guard their traditions.

She says she wore American fashions when she first started work, but since her marriage a year ago has resumed wearing the long dress and babushka. Mrs. Efimoff brings her lunch to work because Old Believers are not supposed to eat food prepared by someone outside their faith. But she says some teen-agers go to drive-ins for hamburgers and watch movies and television, which also are forbidden. "A lot of times the kids like to be free like everybody else," she says.

"They think there's a better life here It's hard on the parents because they are taught this is the only way to live and they want the same for their children." Old Believers are not allowed to use birth control and large families are encouraged. Many have 10 or 12 children. "Young girls are told the woman fishes the baby out of the river and they are never told any different," says Magda Schay, the health educator at the county clinic. "Some marry at the age of 14 or 15 and all of a sudden are faced with the hard facts of life." Mrs. Schay puts out a newsletter ih Russian with items like information on childhood immunizations and tips on how to keep the numerous Old Believer religious fasts put still eat nutritionally.

They are urged, for example, to eat peanut butter on days when they are not allowed to have animal protein or dairy products. Mrs. Schay says Old Believers were wary of doctors and hospitals when they first arrived. They have become gradually more accepting of medicine, although home birth is still the norm. "They feel they can accept some things without giving up their own basic way of life," she says.

"But when you give up what is dear to you, how do you replace the empty holes? People who are really worried and dedicated probably will move out of here." EDITOR'S NOTE It's a long way from 17th century Russia to 20th century America, but the two have come together in a small Oregon town. There the Old Believers, still observing their ancient traditions, live side by side with last cars and fast food and watch their children combine both lifestyles. By LINDA KRAMER Associated Press Writer WOODBURN, Ore. (AP) Like many Americans their age, the teen-agers cruise in souped-up cars down the streets of this Willamette Valley town. But these teen-agers are the inheritors of a religious rebellion that began in 17th century Russia.

Their elders stroke their untrimmed beards and worry, like most parents, about the boys driving too fast. And they fear that American freedoms are luring some youngsters away from a faith the Old Believer religious sect has preserved through three centuries of world travel that led some to Oregon 15 years ago. The 4,000 Old Believers in this area have approached the American way of life cautiously and many still speak Russian as a primary language. Unlike some religious sects, they have accepted modern conveniences while guarding their traditions delicate balance. "I'd like to bring up my children the way I have been," said Fedor Frolov, a 37-year-old father of five.

"I won't give up easy. If it doesn't work, it is his own problem. But I will give them what my father gave me. "We bring up the children and tell them 1 -Augur 2 Mulish 3 Deft 4 Propitious 5 Guileless 6 Ecstatic 7 Affirm 8 Impoverished 9 Impartial 10 -Erudition A Scholarship Innocent Just -Favorable Depleted Foretell Aver -Obdurate I Enraptured Dexterous ANSWERS: IF; 2H; 3J; 4D; 5B; 61; 7G; 8E; 9C; 10A. loxtronn, llu U7J-H Gays and Dolls i.

mi- 2 ft' Bernhard Says 2 Monuments Impress Boy By ANDREW BERNHARD When I was a schoolboy I was taught, along with the ABCs and the multiplication tables, that George Washington never told a lie and grew up to become the Father of His Country. And that to honor his memory there stood in Washington, D.C., the tallest memorial in the Western Hemisphere, the Washington Monument. What most impressed me about the monument was its height, 555 feet and a few extra inches. The highest structure in our town, Sioux City, was the Floyd Monument, about 100 feet tall, which stood on a tall bluff overlooking the Missouri River and was visible for miles. It commemorated the death in that vicinity of Sergeant Floyd, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the then unexplored Northwest in the early 1800s.

It could be seen from great distances. I was much too young to know how Sioux Cityans hit on the idea of commemorating the unlucky sergeant with so striking a monument, or what he had done on the famous expedition but to die. I just knew his monument was the tallest thing I ever had seen and thus was the ultimate in height. I learned later that the Washington structure was more than five times taller and indeed was the tallest shaft on the continent for a number of years. Building restrictions in Washington do not premit higher structures than the Monument to this day.

Now, just a few days ago, I came across a little new item telling me that the tallest structure in Washington is actually growing less tall, in fact is sinking into the ground. Like most of the government buildings in Washington, it is built on land that once was a swamp, and swamps have a tendency to sink under heavy pressure. Because of this all Washington structures are tested regularly. The Washington Monument is sinking. Not fast, not visibly but nevertheless it is going down, down, down.

It sank a quarter of an inch in the last 30 years. The engineers whose job it is to watch the slow sinking of the Monument figure that its tip will disappear below the surface in the year 113053. Our Floyd Monument out in Sioux City may not be as tall as the Washington shaft, but citizens there can take pride in the fact that their monument went up a lot faster than the one honoring the Father of His Country. The Washington Monumnet was authorized in 1848 but funds for its construction were not voted until 1876. It was completed in 1884 but not I opened to the public until four vpa later.

i.x it I By DOLORES BARCLAY Associated Press Writer NEW YORK He stepped off a plane from Hong Kong a few days ago just 13 inches tall and already he's a star and a stir. Gay Bob. An acknowledged "homosexual" doll who totes around his very own closet. He's been hounded by the media and denounced by anti-gay groups, and he has baffled major department stores. And through it all, Bob has remained unruffled his blond crewcut neat as a pin, his blue earring shining bright, his California tan flashing sunshine.

"It's a real giggle and kind of fun," said Bruce Voeller, executive director of the National Gay Task Force, "I think we should deal with it lightly and enjoy it. "One concern, though, is that employers will have one in their office and think that it will suffice for having an openly gay person on their staff," Voeller quipped. Protect America's Children, an anti-homosexual lobby, on the other hand, finds nothing amusing about Bob. "It's more evidence of the desperation the homosexual campaign has reached in its effort to put homosexual lifestyle, which is a deathstyle, across to the American people," said Edward Rowe, the Miami-based organization's executive director. "I can only hope that the children who are given these Gay Bob dolls will not comprehend the meaning and intent of the campaign that is behind their manufacture and distribution." Bob, who has a penis, is the brainchild of Harvey Rosenberg, a 37-year-old inventor of whimsy who is fast at work on a vampire repellant kit.

"I was afraid how people would receive Bob," he said. "Now, I have internal ecstasy." In the past two months, he's sold 2,000 dolls. Gay Bob has recently come out in boutiques in San Francisco and New York, including Fiorrucci, Art Adventures and What's billed as the world's first gay doll stands 13 inches tall, wears one earring, a custom-made flannel cowboy shirt and sports a $15 price tag. Rosenberg had spent most of his professional life working for large corporations developing and designing marketing concepts. Then his business began to fail, his marriage crumbled and his mother fell seri ously ill with cancer.

"I decided then that I had to change my life. I had to do something that was important to me." That was two years ago. Last September, Gay Bob was conceived as part of a whole family of dolls representing lifestyles that are often subject to criticism in today's society. Heavy Harry and Fat Pat are Bob's parents. They come in a refrigerator with a diet book.

Marty Macho is a brother who lives in a garage with a four-wheel drive truck. Executive Eddie, another brother. Chicken Little. But Rosenberg has not yet received commitments from department stores. "I showed it to buyers from a major department store chain and they liked it," he said.

"Then they told an executive about it and before he even saw Bob he said, 'Kill Rosenberg, who heads Gizmo Gizmos for a Better World" spent $10,000 of his own money to create Bob. "I'm not gay," he said, "but we had something to learn from the gay movement, just like we did from the black civil rights movement and the women's movement, and that is having the courage to stand up and say, 'I have a right to be what I comes with an attache case and cordovan shoes. He has two martinis every day. Straight Steve is a brother who lives in the suburbs in his baby blue leisure suit. Then there are the sisters.

Fashionable Fran comes in a pocket book filled with credit cards. She spends her day shopping and having beauty treatments. Liberated Libby reads Cosmopolitan and expresses herself through sexuality. Anxious Al and Nervous Nelly, the youngest members of the family, have been through every type of therapy and self-help program. Bob was put on the market first, said Rosenberg, "because it was politically right to do so." The doll, selling for $14.98.

is also sold though mail order ads in gay periodicals..