Just a taster. We are having a gathering of the vacuum people here in St. Charles next weekend. Charlie sent this out as a teaser. It's captioned "Helen and Ida await you at the door of Tarantula Arms."

We are full up at Tarantula Arms but if you are planning on being in the area, let us know and join in the fun.

It is getting beautiful here. Enjoy the scenery and good company.

in the background? A carillon perhaps?

Our neighbor to the east and indeed that is a carillon. They hold regular concerts, although temporarily suspended due to some construction (see link below.) Naperville was #2 on the list of places to live is the US by Money Magazine.

Here We Come!!!

Fred, Can't wait for the weekend. Louis and Billy will be arriving here on Tuesday to spend some time with me and then we will drive to St. Charles on Friday.

Hopefully the weather will be good so we can do a boat trip up and down the Mississippi to see all the bluffs in their Fall colors. I don't think Louis and Billy have ever seen the lock and dam system the Mississippi River uses to control the water.

The drive to St. Charles from here will also be a beautiful trip as well. I will also take them to Galena IL so see a lot of the historical sites there.

Well better put some of my vacuums to work...Perhaps put my new Constellation to work...

Morgan

Is coming down from Canada mid-week. Charlie was wondering if we could have a fire in the fireplace and it looks like that is very much within the realm of possibility. If you are coming, leave the shorts behind and bring warm clothing. We will probably have two fireplaces going. You can never tell what kind of weather you will have in the fall in the Midwest. Just had my furnaces serviced for the winter. We are all set!

I didn't say I was coming...yet!!!
Right now my car is losing oil by the quart every couple of hundred miles, dunno where it's going so I'm leery about driving it to Chicago and the other half is still away with the new truck.

Morgan,

I hope you have serviced the Isotta Franchini for the long drive! You may want to put some stone blocks near the furnace, prior to departure, to be used as foot warmers for your back seat occupants. That open back on the laudau could be chilly.

I told Fred to have an ample supply of seasoned and green wood for our fire in the hostility area, whoops, I mean hospitality area of Tarantula Arms.

Charles, we will boil a caldron in your honor, or Maggie Hamilton that is, and sent it's vapors of vacuum delight on a strong west wind to LaLa---try to catch the Kirby ordorific in the air!

Pete, plug those oils leaks, (I'm sure you can find something), and get that truck moving with the Canadian front. Use it as a tail wind! I just got home from Nassau and the weather was as rainy and icky as it is here in Tarheel State.

This was how I felt when I learned of the latest mini-meet.

We would love to have you come down for a visit. When Morgan arrives we can send Max up with the Isotta Frachini to get you. Never a dull moment at Tarantula Arms.

Car? We don't need a car - We have a car! An Isotta Fraschini. I paid $28,000 for it. Not like these cars today made of chromium and spit!

I know that you guys are going to have so darn much fun!! I am really going to miss being with all of you. My company arrives tomorrow and leaves on Saturday, darn the luck! If last minute airfare wasn't so out of sight I would hop on a plane when they leave as well and join you. Have a great time and I know that I will be thinking about you all. Terry

Concetta,

Darling, you know it won't be the same without you. I'm giving up my suite to Morgan but will be taking the "Slattz" suite.

Hopefully we will call you at some point and you make you feel guilty for missing out! You will be with us in spirit.

H.L.

I have been moaning all along that it just won't be the same without you. Who will shower attention on Ms. Bridget and take the old girl for a walk? Whenever I set up the bed in your room, she says "Oh boy, Terry is coming and he let's me sleep in his bed!!" She's going to wonder what the heck is Helen Lawson doing in Terry's and her room.

You are one of the most delightful guests, always wonderful company, conversation and a fabulous help in the kitchen! You will be here in spirit, and I guess I will just have to load those dishwashers myself.

Fred

Fred, Be sure and give our little princess some extra treats for me. She is looking younger all of the time, that is a fantastic picture of her. You know that I will miss all of you. Terry

Here we see seated:
Ida, Helen, Agnes, Concetta and Veda from a previous "mini-meet" at the notorius Tarantula Arms.

those poor ladies! what ghastly outfits --- remind me of those awful getups that the girls in the hotdog on a stick joints are obliged to wear.

As I explained to Fred N a couple of weeks ago, I was planning to attend the gala event but one of the Supervisors at work was fired and since that elimination left me the only AM Supervisor left on staff, my time off request was rescinded by my Manager. You all at Tarantula Arms have a fantastic time and I am looking forward to seeing the pictures. Luv ya all!!
Robb

Fred:
Your friends from St. Louis have their steamer trunks and cosmetics bags all packed up for the trip. Will be in Chicago about 4:00 tomorrow. Can't wait to see you and everyone (especially Tania). I have a surprise for her that will bring a smile to her face. I do hope you'll allow me to load up the old Kitchen-Aid in the back. I love that dishwasher and can't wait to hear it run (my aunt had that exact model, she's been dead since I was 15). She built her home in the late 1950's and that was the machine she had.

Will see you soon.

tom g.

I am sure that there will be plenty. The old girl runs like a top and is like new. Whoever owned it never used it. We are looking forward to seeing you and the rest of the St. Louis contingent. Charlie is now in the basement, completely reorganizing my vacuums. Should be a great time!

along with her mother, Charlene Listerine...

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Charlie Watrous spent last evening and this afternoon rearranging my whole basement. I was instructed to purchase some chrome shelving units and was allowed some time downstairs where he rearranged everything. I have put the photos in Collections Album.

Love those chrome shelves. I bought one last year for the kitchen to store all my small appliances on,.,well some of them anyways.

Of the gathering in real time please!!1

Whew, still cleaning up after the gala event.

Fred, Thanks so much for sharing the pictures. Sure looks like you all had a great time. The playrooms are looking fantastic. As always you really had a spread, all that food looked so good. Sure don't plan to miss another one!! Lots of new faces there too, would love to have met all of them. Terry

Those were great!

Just a quick note to say thanks to Fred for being such a gracious host this weekend, a good time was had by all! What a bunch of wonderful people to spend time with. Great people, vacs, food, laughs, who could ask for anything more! Thanks to Jeff Parker also for welcoming some of us over to his place to see Hooverland, what a great collection! Thanks also to Morgan for the dinner Saturday night, it was great and very kind of you to pop for the groceries! I hope to see you all whenever we can get together again, hopefully sooner than the convention, maybe a mini-meet here in St. Louis. Take care and hope everyone had a safe trip home!

Rick

WOW, I wish I could have been there to partake in the festivities!!! One of these days I'll have to attend a Tarantula Arms mini-meet...

that looked like FUN! so how was it, *veg-ou-matic*? looks like a ga... good time!

Here are the best of my pictures! Enjoy!

I had a marvellous time, now it's back to the daily grind...

~Fred

Great pictures Fred, thanks for sharing!!

Fred,

Thanks for being such a wonderful host!!! It was the perfect ending to a great week of fun for me. Louis and Billy arrived in Dubuque on Tuesday afternoon and spent time here until we drove to St. Charles on Friday. Fred, everytime you host an event it gets better and better. Seeing the St. Louis group added to the enjoyment as well.

Morgan

Fred:
What a wonderful weekend. I loved every minute of it. The Food, The Friends, The Vacuums, oh my. I'm DEFINATELY going to work on the VCCC Cookbook. I want your waffle recipe for the book. Already have Morgan's Potato recipe. As always, the fun ends way too soon. Thanks again for being such a GREAT host to all of us, and allowing us to run rampant through your home. Hope Helen makes it back home in one piece, she's so fragile you know. Glad to know she keeps her hair natural, like mine (LOL). As we talked about, there will definately be a St. Louis Mini Meet sometime in the next couple of months. Can't wait to see everyone again. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you. I WANT a Maytag Wringer so bad I can't stand it. Thanks for being so nice to Derreck. It was his first exposure to the 'group' and he can't stop talking about how much fun he had.

With Much Love and Respect;

T.G.

is Derrick?

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that I met this weekend for being so nice and making me feel welcome to the group. Also a very special thank you to Fred Nelson for allowing us all into his home and providing such a wonderful place for all of us to get together and play with vacuums. It seems like a very colorful group that I hope to be a member of for a very long time. I really enjoyed meeting everyone and am looking forward to getting together again. Until then.. :)

Derreck

Looks like everyone had a great time. The Maytag Wringer Washer brings back some memories--my wife & I had one when we were first married. We bought it at a garage sale a few doors down from where we lived, and pushed it home on its own wheels. What a great money saver--fill it up and run several loads with the same water!
Jeff

Looks like you all had a great time, I was longing for you all weekend! Thanks for the pictures, almost like being there...

Charlie was still logged in on my 'puter! Ohhhhh, think of the fun I could have - and the damage I could do...

My goodness, I don't even know where to start!

Oh, yes I do.

I first want to thank Jeff Parker, my wonderful host for the weekend. I walked into his house and immediately felt at home. I'm not sure what I did in a previous life to deserve a friend like Jeff, but it must have been a dilly.

I also want to thank the lovely Ida for inviting me to the festivities. Her home is so warm and inviting, her hostessing skills so great that even though I had never met any of the folks before, I felt right at home.

My only regret is that my suitcase was too small to smuggle some people back to Baltimore. I threatened to fold up Tania and have her stow away, and that lovely woman said it was okay with her!

Helen would have come too. What a charming, charming man. And he's got a voice like butter melting on a hot biscuit. Oddly, we found out that we have a friend in common! I guess it really is a small world.

I'd have liked to take Ida home with me too, but I don't think I'd want her and Helen in the same suitcase. Too inconvenient for catfights, you know.

I really did come close to dog-napping Jack.

Here's a summary of what went on this weekend: After Jeff picked me up at O'Hare, we sped along home and got settled. Then it was off to Tarantula Arms for a lovely dinner, fabulous wine, and some of the nicest people I'll ever hope to meet.

And oh my, did we ever play with vacuums! I think I learned more in that single night than in my whole life. One very nice thing was that I got to see the Electrolux canister my grandmother had. I still can't remember the model, but it brought back some nice memories.

I think Jeff and I got to bed about 1:00 AM, which is late for both of us.

Saturday morning, Jeff and I met Ida and John at an odd little house in Aurora that was stuffed with vacuums in various states. Everything from MIB to Used Hard and Put Away Wet. Still, there was much to salvage so we hauled them all down the world's most treacherous staircase. Couple of times there I thought I was going to take a header. Luckily, the knees didn't go out until later.

Then we headed back to St. Charles, dropped everything off and went back to Jeff's to powder our noses.

With our Evening Faces on, Jeff and I went back to Tarantula Arms for another wonderful evening. Morgan led the cooks that night and we had brats, chicken breasts, mashed potato casserole, greenbean casserole and I can't remember whatall else. Dessert one of the nights was a wonderful banana cream pie, and boy howdy, you should have seen Tania dishing it up. I can't remember when I've laughed so hard.

Oh. Saturday night was when I had a few glasses of a little something to ease the pain, and boy did it ever work. I was feeling NO pain at all. Poor Tania couldn't say the same--I practically held her hostage in the dining room while I rambled on.

Later on, there was a singalong, with Louis at the piano. We weren't exactly the King Family Singers, but we got the Hoover Song out with gusto!

More playing with vacuums, of course. This was my first experience with a Vibra Beat, and Consumer Reports was right--what a racket! I have a video that I'll post soon. Jeff taught me all about the Kirbys and I fell in love with the first Electrolux upright. Morgan had to keep a close eye on his hose adaptor...

After an evening the ended much too quickly, we went back to Jeff's and just crashed.

Sunday morning, it was a quick stop at the Pick Kwick for some last-minute items then back to Chez Parker to begin the preparations for the evening's festivities.

Sunday night was an intimate little dinner party with Helen, Ida, Veda, Agnes and me in attendance. Everything was delicious, and Jeff did it all himself. I'm ashamed to admit I was no help at all--too busy enjoying the guests!

The lovely guests left earlyish due to extreme fatigue. I was pooped myself, and I hadn't even done anything! A lovely time was had by all.

All through the weekend, I'd find myself sitting in Hooverland, just staring and staring. What an absolutely wonderful place. Jeff has done a wonderful job.

Monday morning, it was get packed and leave for Baltimore.

So that was my adventure. Somehow, I managed to luck out and become friends with my Jeff. And that wonderful man invited me to come and I felt like I had made the A List. Really, I felt like a queen all weekend! I feel lucky to have made such wonderful friends. As I told Jeff, leaving was the hardest thing I'd ever done.

I'm sure I've left a lot of details out, but my head is just too full right now to sort them out.

Enjoy the pictures!

veg

I posted this in applianceville as well:

Veg: It was my pleasure to be your host for the weekend, and what an honor for me to call you a friend. I've been travelling a rough road the past month or so, and you've been there to pick me up, make me laugh, and even give me a shoulder, never asking any questions. I can't find the words to express how I really feel about it all, but here are two: THANK YOU.
Next time I promise a real guest room for you too!

I'd also like to say a public thanks to Ida, Helen, and Veda, AKA Fred, Charlie, and Little Fred. If guy is lucky he has one really good friend in life who'll walk thru fire for him, and I am so blessed to have three friends like that. Thanks to all three of you for a fab weekend of vacuums, washers, food, laughs and fun, and for everything else I may have missed. You guys are the best, I'd have never made it without you!

Thanks from the bottom of my heart!

Jeff(your Hoover man)

Veg, I know just what you mean, there is nothing like a gathering at Ida's or Jeff's. I was sad all weekend because I wasn't able to be there. They are just such great guys and I count my blessings every day for having them in my life. Just hope that you will consider joining the VCCC and coming to the convention in Omaha this coming September. I am looking forward to meeting you. Terry

What more could I possibly add to all the wonderful pictures and testimonials than those of the previous posters?

Ida is fabulous and I love spending time with her and being a "cohost" of sorts to the mini-meets at Tarantula Arms.

I did find this wonderful picture of Tania that I wanted to share. You can see by the expression on her face how much fun she is having.

I know I have a better picture of her somewhere in here................how about this?

"Whoops!----my eyelash got stuck!"

Here's our girl looking better than ever! What a gal!

Glad to see you back posting! It looks like everyone had a great time with plenty of good food and good company. Looks like "vacuum-ins" are becoming popular along with the wash-ins.

Glad that everyone made it home safe and sound.

Also, looks like we have another vacumm person. Let's see how fast Veg gets a large collection going. LOL!

Take care,

Joe in Buffalo

Veg Sweetie,

What a wonderful review you have written. It was such a pleasure meeting you and spending some time visiting with you. And to know you knew my Billie.........well, what an added treat. (I'll post one of my favorite pictures of her later in this thread.)

Thank you so much for coming to our mini-meet and being a part of the VCCC for the weekend. I truly hope you will continue to indulge your vacuum fancies with our members at mini-meets and our conventions. It was wonderful to see you interact with all and to play with Ida's vacuum collection. If you learned some things, then hooray for you! It is always a pleasure to share, "the knowledge".

Here is a picture of you from my collection from this past weekend. Please stay in touch.

HL

Helen, you sweet-talker! Thanks for posting that hideous picture of me! Oh wait a sec--all pictures of me are hideous. Nev' mind.

Anyway, just wanted youall to know that I've got the three videos posted in case you want to take a look.

veg

Veg:
It was wonderful meeting you, although you hardly said a word all weekend. Sometimes, it really is too, too much to take all in at once. Jeff is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to Hoovers. I owe him big time for one of my favorites, a Hoover model 25 that he gave me years ago. Helen and Ida are great gals, who should keep their hair natural, like mine. (I know, I know, if they kept their hair natural like mine they'd be bald).

You and I didn't really have much of a chance to talk, but if you ever have any questions about sweepers that Jeff can't answer, feel free to give me a call. Again, it was nice to meet you, and great to make a new friend. You are invited to come to the St. Louis Mini Meet we are planning for the first weekend in December. I promise you'll have a great time.

Tom G.

I hardly said a word all weekend? Me? Musta been some other guy--just ask Tania! And Veda. And Agnes...

Thanks for the invite to St. Louis. Heavens, how many times a year do you guys get together? I could start building up some Frequent Flyer miles.

veg

Veg,

Here is a picture of Billie mugging for the camera in the kitchen of our old house. She is complete with Hollywood sunglasses too!

Veg,

Here she models her red velvet hat with the Dalmation scarf we brought her from Disney. What a character---and one that is missed greatly.

It's been years, but I'd recognize that smile anywhere!

A doll. A real doll.

veg

on the counter behind Billie in the first photo? It LOOKS like a little doggie ... who is squatting to take a dump. Hopefully that is NOT what it is............!!! hahahahahahaha

Billie had been trying on a blond wig and then she "Helen Lawsoned" it to the counter to go back to her natural brunette.

Veg:
I don't think you and I got a chance to sit and talk all weekend long. I still don't even know what kind of vacuums you like or what you have in your collection. And you don't really know anything about me either. If you come to the St. Louis Mini Meet (first weekend in December), you'll get a chance to see my collection. I LOVE vintage cleaners, some of my favorites were made between 1910 and 1920. I have an almost complete Hoover collection, starting with the 1913 Hoover Senior. I have a model 1 Royal from 1910 as well as a model 1 Eureka from 1910. I LOVE Electrolux too, the only one I don't have is a model V and Stan Kann (My very, very good friend) has one that he's not too crazy about, so I get to take it home to 'play' with every once in a while. I like Rexair, Filter Queen, Compact, Etc. I designed the Air-Way Signature Series, and have a passion for Air-Way (have one of each model ever made). I am not too fond of 1950's and 1960's plastic vacs, prefering the more vintage sweepers. But I also have an extensive collection of very modern machines, like dyson, aerus, simplicity, miele, etc.

Hope to see you again, and learn more about you and what your collection is like. Remember, first weekend in December, in St. Louis. Will post more about it next week when you have plans finalized.

Tania is one of my best friends, I've even asked her to marry me one day (and she said 'yes'). I'll invite you to the wedding.

Sweet talker!

veg

Just got back the films from Saturday night. Here is Helen doing her show at Tarantula Arms.

What a show that must have been!! Thanks for sharing that Fred.