Wallingford Shop's Variety Is Far Beyond Conception

It is with a special fondness that Peggy Allen, 22, remembers two of the thousands of customers who've strolled into her little shop on a shaded side street in Wallingford.

"One of them," Allen said yesterday, sitting behind a desk at The Rubber Tree on Burke Avenue North, "walked in, looked around and said `I've lived around here all my life, and I always thought you guys sold plants!'

"The other one walked in, browsed through the foil-wrapped little items on the shelves, then stood back and said `Gosh! I thought these were herbal teas!' "

Allen laughed, which is something of a requirement at The Rubber Tree, being that it is one of America's first and oldest condom-supply shops.

In our age of AIDS, the selling of protection against disease as well as pregnancy is serious business. But a sense of humor is plainly all right in a place that sells condom postcards, condom candy, and condom bumper-stickers, in addition to a rubber for every occasion.

And if they smile at the condom-shaped mints, wait till they see the mint-flavored condoms.

"Sure, lots of people come in, look around, and giggle," said co-worker Nancy Skinner, 28. "But that's part of maintaining a healthy, positive attitude about sex. Sometimes, you know, it's kinda funny."

Or, when you get to be my age, most of the time . . .

Uh, where was I? Oh yeah: The storefront operation opened in 1975, then as now under the nonprofit banner of Zero Population

Growth.

"The idea was first birth control and then disease prevention," said Julia Forbes, one of the founders. "Today, with AIDS, the emphasis is probably the other way around."

As a low-key specialty shop, The Rubber Tree also helped relieve the pressure on those trembling youths who, slouching through the rites of manhood, had to first undergo testing at the neighborhood drugstore. Something like:

"CAN I HELP YOU, SON?"

"Um. Some gum. Box of Q-Tips. And (whisper) one rub'r."

"ONE RUBBER! YES SIR! WHAT BRAND, SON?"

"Cough. Uh . . . r'jans."

"TROJANS, YOU SAY! WHAT SIZE, SON?"

"S-s-size?"

"YOU LOOK LIKE AN EXTRA-SMALL TO ME! TRY THESE NEW TINY TIMS! HA HA! AND SAY HELLO TO YOUR DAD FOR ME!"

As we all later learned, one size fit all. Or should have. But as Peggy Allen informed me yesterday, there now are variations from slightly larger to slightly smaller condoms, along with new brand and style selections that are beyond, well, conception.

Arrayed on The Rubber Tree's three walls of shelves were 60 varieties of condoms, including lubricated, ribbed, smooth, rough, thick, thin, latex, and lambskin. Their descriptions and applications take up four pages in the shop's brochure.

Trojans, at 3 for 90 cents, remain among the cheapest brand, but Embrace sells for 15 cents each while a lambskin (sheep intestine, actually) brand that conducts heat costs $22.50 a dozen.

There are imported brands from Sweden, Japan, Germany and elsewhere, including a new $1.30 model with a rubber-tube slip-on applicator for the hurried inept.

"Our busiest days are Fridays and Saturdays," said Allen. "Sometimes we'll get 100 people in a day. They go across the street (to the Wallingford Center), get a croissant and latte, then come in here and pick out their condoms."

The shop also offers mail orders of stock, which includes contraceptive foams and jellies, books, and assorted literature on disease and birth control.

And as Allen says, working at a condom store can be a real ice breaker during stuffy cocktail-party conversations.

"It's like `Wow, you do what? Hey everyone, come over here: Peggy sells rubbers!' "

But in fact most her customers are shoppers concerned about safe sex, and have thoughtful questions about quality, texture, and safety.

"They care about disease and overpopulation," Peggy Allen said in The Rubber Tree yesterday, "as we all do here.

"I have to admit, though, I never thought there was so much to learn about condoms - and that I'd be the one to know it."

Rick Anderson's column appears Tuesday and Thursday on the Neighborhoods page and Saturday on A 2 of The Times.