Thread Number: 2983
A Model R "Flight of Fancy"
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Post# 33045   2/23/2008 at 00:38 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        

Those of you who may sometimes question your sanity about collecting vacuum cleaners, or wonder about the scope and depth of your obsession... well, perhaps this candid discussion that partly reveals the scope and depth of MY obsession may be of some comfort to you.......

When I was 9 years old my family moved to a new home, new community, new school, new church. One of the first things that I scoped out at the church, along with the mimeograph machine and its sticky black ink, was the vacuum cleaner. It took a little bit of sleuthing, well, okay, snooping. I finally found it, stored in a closet in the narthex under the stairs leading to the balcony. It was an Electrolux Model R - the first time I had ever seen that model. I was quite intrigued by it and didn't take many days before I was intimately acquainted with it and all its parts. We lived right next door in the parsonage, and the church was always open, so it was no problem to sneak over there and play with the sweeper.

Also in the closet were the remnants of its predecessor, a Model XXX. There were two stairways in that church, and a closet under each one.

One day when I was using it in the narthex, the custodian, a crabby old lady named Miss Fannie Godsey, busted me. She came in and demanded, very crossly, "What are YOU doing with MY vacuum sweeper??!"

*GULP.*

I think that was the first time I ever admitted to anyone outside of my family that I liked vacuum cleaners. How else could I explain it? So I came clean, pun intended. I said, "I dunno ... I just think it's fun to use the sweeper and my mom's is a really crummy one. It's nowhere as nice as this one."

Well, Miss Fannie got a sort of half-smirk on her face and said, "Well, then, since you like the sweeper so much, you can use it -- EVERY week -- cleaning the ENTIRE auditorium." I think in her mind she thought that was punishment for me. Little did she know I could hardly have heard better news!

So vacuum I did, very diligently and thoroughly, every week. The entire auditorium, even on the floor under all the pews.

Okay, fast forward about 35 years. One day I was down at my former church practicing the organ. I went into the narthex in the back to "water the plumbing." When I came out of the rest room I was looking around in the narthex, just, you know, gazing. Suddenly, for the first time, it dawned on me that ... there are two stairways in the narthex, and ... two closets!

Well.

It occurred to me that it might be fun to bring down one of my Model R Electroluxes (yes I have two of them - see link) and put it in the closet, and pretend that's the vacuum the church uses and that's where it's stored. (Actually, they had a beat-up Royal upright, an even-more-beat-up Eureka Bravo and what was left of a funny little red plastic canister vac that looked like a ladybug.)

The next time I came down to the church I brought with me a complete Model R with all the accessories, a time-worn XXX, and just for an extra little thrill, an XXX floor polisher attachment in the original box. I carefully arranged all the attachments and stuff in the way I envisioned the custodian may have had it, and stored the XXX and polisher on a shelf in the rear of the closet. It all looked just perfect. I had completely "set the stage" for my Model R flight of fancy!

I walked away leaving the closet door a bit ajar - just enough to partly see inside.

Then I went in to the sanctuary to do some practicing. Later I came back again and pretended to be back there for the first time. I wandered around looking at the stuff on the tables, then looked in one closet, then walked over to the other, "pretend-wondering" if there might be a vacuum cleaner back there somewhere ... And there, would you believe it, I saw ... a Model R Electrolux and all the attachments! I was very excited to find that!!

I opened the door and brought out the vacuum and all the attachments, and used it in the sanctuary. I left it sitting in there and went out for a while. Then I came back, wondering to myself if the custodian was there cleaning and whether or not he had brought out the vacuum. When I went into the sanctuary I was quite surprised and pleased to see a lovely Electrolux Model R and power nozzle in there!

I sometimes do equally strange things at home, like, I'll turn on a vacuum cleaner then go outside and walk around to listen to it from out of doors. One time I actually made a videotape of me vacuuming with my Model 513 Kirby, then played it back on the TV (with a very good sound system).

I went outside, and as I walked up and down the sidewalk and listened to the vacuum, it sounded very realistic, both because it was playing from a good sound system and also because you could hear the rise and fall of the motor as I pushed it back and forth across the rug.

A tiny embarrassing moment occurred when one of my neighbors came out at the same time, said hello, and then asked who was running the vacuum inside. Thinking very quickly, I said it was Arlee cleaning his room! Whew!! How would I have ever explained what I was really doing??!

Okay ... feel better now?

(And now, let's hear some of your peculiar sweeper fun!!)

P.S.: Neither I nor my younger brother liked Miss Fannie, and we were always looking for ways to get even with her for being such a grouch. Tim liked to play with the phone, so he used to call her and disguise his voice and tell her to come over to the church because they were going to have a potluck and she needed to clean the kitchen - imagine her broke face when she got there and there was no one around!!

We also would go into the men's room, lock the stall from the inside, then slither out under the bottom. When you're skinny and only 5 and 9 years old, it's easy to do. Not so easy when you're fat and, like, 60! Each time it happened she'd go to my dad and complain that the door stalls in the men's room kept sticking and she was obliged to climb underneath to free the latch.

Can you imagine how hard it was for us to stifle our evil giggles as Dad would sit at the supper table and announce to Mama that Miss Fannie was having trouble with the men's room doors again.......



CLICK HERE TO GO TO charles~richard's LINK


Post# 33046 , Reply# 1   2/23/2008 at 00:39 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33047 , Reply# 2   2/23/2008 at 00:40 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33048 , Reply# 3   2/23/2008 at 00:40 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33049 , Reply# 4   2/23/2008 at 00:41 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33050 , Reply# 5   2/23/2008 at 00:41 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33051 , Reply# 6   2/23/2008 at 00:42 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33052 , Reply# 7   2/23/2008 at 00:43 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33053 , Reply# 8   2/23/2008 at 00:43 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33054 , Reply# 9   2/23/2008 at 00:44 (5,878 days old) by charles~richard ()        





Post# 33061 , Reply# 10   2/23/2008 at 06:57 (5,878 days old) by logan ()        

Very nice pictures with all of the original attachments! VERY NICE! I am impressed! I liked the story you wrote. I remember when I was a little kid going to someone's house and I would get so excited when I eventually found whatever type of vacuum they had (especially when it was an Electrolux!) I can fondly remeber discovering a 1205, Super J, Model E (not automatic), and Model L. MEMORIES...

Post# 33171 , Reply# 11   2/24/2008 at 20:25 (5,876 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS)        

kirbyvertibles's profile picture
So was the R the first with pn or was the F the first with pn?

Post# 33178 , Reply# 12   2/25/2008 at 00:58 (5,876 days old) by charles~richard ()        

The F was the first Electrolux with a power nozzle.

The Model R came after the F was introduced. In fact, I suspect the primary reason for the existence of the Model R was to be able to offer an economy model with a power nozzle.

The economy model just prior to the R was the S -- which is nearly identical. And, for a while, the S (which was introduced at the end of the Model AE run) was the lower-tier companion to the F. See attached Model F "beauty shot."

The only differences between the S and R are the color scheme, the fact that the R had a cord halo or optional cord winder, and the R also had a power nozzle connection.

The Electrolux designers had really "gone cheap" with the Model S, not even having provision for cord storage - no halo and no way to attach a cord winder. You had to wrap the cord around the rear-end of the machine. So when the late F came out, it makes sense to presume that the economy model was upgraded at the same time and renamed the R.

The earliest Model R had the same-color combination attachments as the F - two-tone gray and white, but with its own hose (same color combination as the F but different stripe pattern). Presumably, the early R also had the same-color Power nozzle as the F -- gray base with white wand, but I am only guessing on that as I have never seen an early R with a power nozzle.

Then when the G came out in 1960, as I said, the R was still the lower-tier model until the Model L was introduced in 1963. The later Rs have the same hose as the earlier model, but with two-tone white and turquoise attachments, and a white power nozzle with turquoise bumper, same as the G. (Also note that the Model R was the lower-tier model to the Model G until 1963 when the first Model L came out.)

What some people don't realize is that the production dates of the lower-tier models did not run concurrently with the deluxe models but were rolled out independently. So there was some overlap of the economy models onto concurrent deluxe models.

In other words, it did not go like this:


LX + E (1952)

AE + S (1956)

F + R (1958)

G + L (1960)


-- But like this:

LX #1 (1952)

LX #2 (1954)

... E (1954)

LXI (1955)

AE #1 (1956)

AE #2 (early 1957)

... S #1 (1957)

F #1 (late 1957)

... S #2 (1958)

F #2 (late 1958)

PN1 #1 (early 1959)

... R #1 (1959)

G #1 (1960)

... R #2 (1961)

G #2 (1962)

G #3 (1963)

... L #1 (1963)

G bronze (1968)

... L dark-tan (1969)

From then on with the 1205 and Golden J, the two last Model Ls -did- run concurrently, e.g., the 1205 came out in 1969 as did the turquoise L, and the Golden J came out in 1974 as did the gold L.

(Note that some of the above dates are best-guess conjecture, put together from bits and pieces of Electrolux literature along with my memory of when I saw what. 100% accuracy is not claimed but I think it's pretty darn close!)




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