European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 30, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Fuller Brush Man keeps foot in the door by Jeannine Stein los Angeles times a Sharp Knock draws the Whittier calif., resident from her living room to her front door and the smiling face of a Salesman. Quot i Quot says the woman blinking into the sunlight. Quot i Don t think i need anything  Quot of Quot the Fuller Brush Man says cheerfully. Quot would you like to take a look through the Catalon some new items  a a she flips through. Quot of give me one of these bottles of Pine cleaner and some of that stain remover Quot for a Man teetering on the Edge of obsolescence Barry Holden s a pretty Calm Guy. Quot yeah Fuller Brush was a household word 25 years ago Quot he says. Quot if you lived in your House More than a month you probably had one come to your door. But As time went on ladies went to work and the salesmen just started to  Holden i a piece of americana slipping away in this Donna Reed less world. In its 1950s heyday the company had about 30,000 people trudging door to door in neighbourhoods where windows did t have bars and pit bulls did t lie in wait. The Fuller Brush co. Is not completely doing away with its door to door Independent distributors but Holden s occupation is becoming a dying line As the company offers other ways to sell. A network sales program concentrates on Selling to an established network of friends family and businesses and on sponsoring other people to do the same. Salespeople can also sell at Home parties fairs and. Flea markets or Over the phone. But if any City should still boast a door to door Fuller Brush Salesman Whittier seems the natural Choice. Single Story Homes sit neatly in Placid Southern California suburban neighbourhoods where Christmas lights still Dangle from roofs and a plaque engraved Quot the Smiths Quot hangs from a porch. Here the 50s Don t seem that far away. Holden s Brown loafers Lap tap tap on the pavement As he strides from one House to another calling on regular customers 1,200 in All rotating neighbourhoods every few months. He works evenings when customers Are most Likely to be Home. Now.4 7, he s been with Fuller Brush for 20 years he s worked in Whittier where he s lived and raised a family for 15 years he inherited his route from the previous lat Barry Holden has been setting brushes for 20 years Salesman. It s stayed pretty steady with new customers replacing the old. Wherever he stops he does As much talking and listening As he does Selling. Quot sometimes t really feel that i should have been a psychologist he chuckles. Quot people will really cry on your shoulder when you re the Fuller Brush Man. Quot it s actually cheap therapy. Some people Are very quiet. I be called on them for four or five years and Well Chat and then All of a sudden this one time i come by and they just  Ltd this is life the Way a Fuller Brush Man sees it widows desperate to talk to someone Young single mothers living with their parents families trying to make ends meet retirees filling their Days with baby sitting transient neighbourhoods where people never know their next door neighbors. But thinking about that does t Send him into a spiralling Funk. Quot i feel like part of the family out Here he says. Quot kids come up to me and say the Fuller Brush Man most kids Don t know who the Fuller Brush Man is but these do cause i be been coming Here since they were babies. Quot people have always been receptive to me. I Hope they like me and the products and i think a lot of times i really feel a and i m not bragging about myself a but i be always Felt they bought the products because i presented myself properly to them. I mean let s face it there Are 1,500 products probably not All the same Quality but that do the same thing that you could buy at any  he stops at a Home and chats briefly with the occupants one of whom says enthusiastically Quot this is a great Guy he comes Over takes the order drops off the stuff the next Day there s a Bill in the Quot Mailbox a you just Don t get that kind of service  Holden smiles. And you know that this is Why he s the Fuller Brush Man. Last year Busy one for nutrition research by Colleen Pierre the Baltimore Sun 1992 was a Busy year for nutrition news. Here Are the highlights food Labelling the biggest and Best news was the publication of the final regulations governing the nutrition Labelling and education act. Now manufacturers can get on with developing accurate labels for almost All grocery store foods. For the first time standardized labels will appear on meat poultry fish and even fruits and vegetables. Descriptive terms like Quot Light Quot Quot Low fat Quot and Quot fresh Quot will no longer be Tricky. The labels will begin to appear in mid-1993. All must be in place by 1994. A weight control the National institutes of health consensus conference on voluntary weight loss gathered the brightest minds in obesity research. They concluded that most people who lose weight regain it. Obese people with medical risks should be Content with a loss of 10 percent body weight and develop lifestyle changes including healthful eating and exercise which will help to maintain that loss. A food guide Pyramid the . Department of agriculture published the Long awaited final version of the Pyramid a graphic depiction of the principles of healthy eating As presented in the . Dietary guidelines. For a copy Send a $1 Check to superintendent of documents consumer information Center department 159 a Pueblo colo., 81009. Request document he 252. A milk a group known As physicians committee for responsible Medicine announced that everyone especially children should avoid milk. The american dietetic association notes that there is no evidence to substantiate this recommendation. In fact milk is one of Only a few foods Rich in Calcium a nutrient quickly absorbed by children and essential to their growth. A cancer prevention a group of researchers led by or. Paul Talalay announced the isolation of Sulf Oraphine a natural component of Broccoli and other cabbage family vegetables that seems to boost human and animal cells ability to fight cancer the discovery reinforces observations that people whose diets Are High in these cruciferous vegetables have lower cancer rates. What does All this mean despite the fact we Veall been eating forever nutrition science is still in its infancy. Ongoing research however tends to underscore the premise that eating a wide variety of foods moderately is the Best bet for Good health. On the family clean Start might help a struggling student q James c. Dobson do you Ever favor removing a child from one school to Transfer him to another yes there Are times when a change of schools a or even a change of teachers within a school a can be in the child s Best interest. Educators Are reluctant to approve these transfers for obvious reasons although the possibility should be considered when the situation warrants. For example there Are occasions when a Young student runs into social problems that can be resolved Best by giving him a clean Start someplace else. Furthermore schools vary tremendously in their difficulty some Are in higher socioeconomic areas where a majority of the children Are More intelligent than Normal. The mean in in schools of this nature May fall Between 115120. What happens then to a child with average ability in such a setting although he might have competed successfully in an Ordinary school he is to the lower 15 percent at Einstein elementary. My Point is this Success is not absolute it is relative. A child does not ask a How am i doing Quot but rather Quot How am i doing compared to everyone else Quot Little Johnny May grow up thinking he is a Dummy when he would have been an intellectual Leader in a less competitive setting. Thus if a child is floundering in one academic environment for whatever reason the solution might involve a Transfer to a More suitable classroom. Q s i am an adult who is not coping Well with self image. I feel ugly and disrespected and unworthy. What encouragement can you offer a a in t about time you made friends with a yourself Arentt there enough headaches in life without beating your Skull against the old Brick Wall of Inadequacy year after year if i were to draw a caricature that would symbolize the millions of adults like you with Low self esteem i would depict a bowed weary traveler. Over his shoulder i would place the end of a mile Long Chain to which is attached tons of scrap Iron and old tires. Each piece of junk is inscribed with the details of some humiliation a failure an embarrassment a rejection from the past. He could let go of the Chain and free himself from that heavy Load that immobilized and exhausts him but he is somehow convinced that it must be dragged throughout life. So he plods Onward furrowing in the Good Earth As he goes. You can free yourself from the Chain by realizing that Many of the standards you May be using to judge yourself Are Only temporary. For example plastic surgeon or. Maxwell Maltz author of psycho Cybernetics said that in the 1920s, women asked him to to reduce their breasts. In biblical times King Soloman asked his Bride to love him despite his tanned skin for in his Day White was right now the bronzed Soloman would be the Pride of the Beach modern women Are ashamed to admit that they carry 10 extra pounds yet Rembrandt would have loved to paint them. Your personal Worth is not dependent on the opinions of others or the temporal fluctuating values they represent. The sooner you can come to accepting the transcending Worth of your humanness the sooner you can come to terms with yourself i must agree with the writer who said Quot while in the race to save our face Why not conquer inner space a it s not a bad idea. Laniz Atton Torado Springs the stars and a tropes a saturday january 30, 1993