WINDFALLS

PET ROCKS HAVE no place in this gallery. Nor do sequined right gloves or CB radios. In this anniversary issue. we’re celebrating Windfall classics: items and inventions that have come into their own during the past 10 years and have proven to have enduring and cosmopolitan value Jug wine is one such classic. Before 1974, when Gallo introduced its new line of “finished cork varietals,” wine was reserved for swanky dinners. Fresh pasta and pita bread were untried pleasures in those dark days before frozen yogurt, the Sony Walkman and unfettered permanent waves. And a video game still meant watching the Cowboys on TV. There’s no doubt-10 quick years have changed us forever.



CONSIDER THE BLUR jean. Vogue ran its first Levi’s ad in the Thirties. Chic Sixties radicals elevated stone-washed denim to a new high. But it took fashion’s passion-the designers-to give birth to the status jean. The first designer jeans-introduced by Sasson in 1977-were so tight-fitting, you had to lie down to zip them. Soon thereafter, says El Paso manufacturer Jim Viola Jr, anything with five pockets and a label would sell. Today, designer jean sales have slowed somewhat, but, says Viola, ’That’s just because everybody has a pair.” Calvin Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, Cheryl Tiegs-take your pick. These jeans, with labels from Calvin Klein, are available at Sanger Harris.



THE KITCHEN, IN the past decade, has come into its own. Speckled coffee pots have given way to coffee makers that perk cheerfully before you roll out of bed. New-Wave fryers, dryers, drainers, de-veiners, et al., are de rigueur for the yuppies. But the real heroes of the kitchen are classic workhorses: the food processor and the microwave oven. Once mistrusted for its fallout, the microwave has zapped its way into the hearts of Americas cooks. They master tasks as varied as dehydrating Squash to drying pantyhose. This Sharp model is available at Dallas Stove Hospital. O exalted food processor, how did we dice and slice before your blades came into our lives? You shred and mush and turn potential pastry to the “consistency of little peas.” In the whir of seconds, you can mash a hardened ingredient to mayonnalse, mousse or sorbet. This marvel, Cuisinart’s Super Pro, is the top of the line. Drool over it at The Kitchen Witch.



WHAT WOULD THIS gallery be without light beer? When Miller Brewing Co. answered the cry for a less-filling, lower-calorie brew, company fathers feared that Lite would be deemed sissyfied-a girl’s beer. Ingenious commercials starring behemoth pro athletes pul those fears to rest, and the light race was on. Natioally, the frontrunner is Bud’s regular brew, but the Miller Lite isn’t far behind. Here in Texas real men (and women) prefer Lite-we’re its No.1 market.

SOME OF US are still hoping the fitness craze is just a fad-that Dr. Kenneth Cooper and all things aerobic will jog back from whence they came. The end, we fear, is nowhere in sight. Anyone in the business of selling work-out wear knows that sales continue to soar. Terri Coit, whose Workout shop stocks this cardiovascular conditioning suit, has been in full swing for eight years. Many of the 600 classes Offered there have a waiting list of people jogging in place to get in.



FOR AULD LANG syne, we’ve included a pair of boots like the stompers shown in the premiere Windfalls [October 1974]. Exotic eel-skinned essentials from Mistletoe (our supplier a decade ago, too) grace the feet of everyone from trumpeter Doc Severinsen to the backfield of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Way back when, cowboy boots were considered a must for the socialite on the climb. Now they are just.. .well, practical.