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Thread Number: 7601
What Vacuum Did You Want |
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| Post# 83787 11/10/2009 at 18:07 (5,279 days old) by briankirbyclass (Eudora Kansas) | ||
Those of us who have been facinated with vacuums since childhood (which i think is most everyone here), which make/model(s) did you wish for (or want) the most? - that you didnt, or couldnt have. And, did you finally get to own one later in adulthood? Id have to say all of the 1960s-70s Eurekas - Cannisters and Uprights,all of the 60s-70s Luxes,and any Central Vac. Also the Rainbow was a very interesting machine to me as a kid,,as was the Filter Queen,,they all had such neat attachments. Of course all of the Kirby models were facinating,and i was lucky to have a Grandma that had a DS50,,so i got to use it whenever i wanted to. I remember when Electrolux came out with the 1205,, an Aunt bought one, and i just got there as the Lux dealer was just leaving the house,,so i got to use it when it was brand new. Thought it was the greatest thing in the world,,a brand new 1205 right out of the box, not even used yet at all! I remember how shiny it was. I have either owned, or gotten to use(whenever i wanted to) most every make and model i wished for. | ||
Post# 83790 , Reply# 1 11/10/2009 at 18:57 (5,279 days old) by arh1953  ( River Park, in Port St. Lucie, Florida) |
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| Post# 83798 , Reply# 2 11/10/2009 at 20:07 (5,279 days old) by vacman117 (Chicago, IL) | ||
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| Post# 83803 , Reply# 3 11/10/2009 at 20:40 (5,279 days old) by xraytech () | ||
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The vacuum I most wanted as a child had to be a Hoover Concept Two. Although it was out of production at the time I also remember wanting a Singer Golden Power Master like my hair dresser had in her gameroom | ||
| Post# 83807 , Reply# 4 11/10/2009 at 21:43 (5,279 days old) by caligula (Wallingford, Connecticut) | ||
I wanted that G. E canister.
As a kid I wanted several machines, like the General Electric canister pictured here, but the one I saw was the same shade of green without the chrome trim. I first saw it as an ad on tv. Another favorite was the G.E. Roll-Easy. I have tried to acquire every brand and style that were used by the mothers, grandmothers, aunts and so on, of my friends. That was a tall order, but I got most of em. And, as I said last week, a major piece has been missing. The coveted Electrolux C-A! I'd actually stopped wishing for that one, but fate has blessed me again. Alex Taber | ||
| Post# 83811 , Reply# 5 11/10/2009 at 22:35 (5,279 days old) by briankirbyclass (Eudora Kansas) | ||
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That is awsome Alex! Im so glad you finally got one! The small school i went to in Kindergarten had a late 1960s Lux CB,,,and the teacher would let me use it! I want to say it had a dark blue top. same color as a 1205? It was kept in the janitor's closet next to the Kindergarten room (of course i knew where EVERY vacuum was kept wherever i went, and what kind it was!) Evidently my mother had told the teacher before i started school that i was interested in vacuums,so, the first day of school,(after the rest of the kids went home) she let me go roll out the Lux CB, and use it. I remember it had a HUGE long floor brush,,and was fun to use. I remember wishing it had the Power Nozzle, as it did have a plug in for it. Sure was nice of that teacher to take the time to let some kid play with the vacuum,,i wonder how many teachers nowadays would stay after school to do that? I remember she was a very sweet,patient and kind person. Aahhh memories. | ||
| Post# 83817 , Reply# 6 11/11/2009 at 00:52 (5,279 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS) | ||
great question. I always wanted a Hoover Convertible, especially the metal based rounded hood like the 65, 66, ETC. They were everywhere in my town and this was in the 80's. The new vacuums were Concepts and of coarse they were everywhere too. I finally got my first Convertible in the late 90's ( a 69) it was my sisters and she stopped useing it because my brother in law got her a newer " metal" convertible with the full hood, model U4109, it was one of the last metal ones. He picked it up from a yard sale. Anyhow I used it for a while then traded it in for a new vacuum at a vac shop and kicked myself ever since. I now have almost every model of metal based convertible out there and yes one of them is a close to MINT 69, thanks to all our members in St. Louis Rick,Marty,John ETC. Now the one vacuum I HATED was KIRBY!!! I love them now though and have about 25 of them. | ||
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Post# 83825 , Reply# 7 11/11/2009 at 06:37 (5,278 days old) by countryguy (Astorville, ON, Canada) |
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I was fascinated by my aunt's vac - a Eureka Golden Crown rotomatic as well as the chrome dome Rainbow that a few of my mom's friends owned. My mom had a FQ and at the time I didn't like it at all. I always wished that she would have something nicer LOL I do have a FQ now, as well as the chrome dome and a blue/white rotomatic but haven't been able to find the elusive Golden Crown. Gary | ||
| Post# 83830 , Reply# 9 11/11/2009 at 07:59 (5,278 days old) by luxg () | ||
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As a child I always wanted a Electrolux XXX around 12 I finally got one. My next most wanted was a GE Roll Easy. | ||
| Post# 83835 , Reply# 10 11/11/2009 at 08:08 (5,278 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
My dream vac as a kid...
was the Eureka Empress with the white tool box and the white version of the classic Eureka woven hose. The print ad I saw made it look so modern and cool (see link below - scroll down to the bottom of the linked ebay page to see the ad - ignore the message that says the item is no longer available). Then they came out with the Empress II, and the magical TV commercial for these vacs made me want to have one too! The voice-over on the commercial had a woman whispering over and over again: "Empress two......Empress two....." CLICK HERE TO GO TO eurekaprince's LINK on eBay | ||
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Post# 83836 , Reply# 11 11/11/2009 at 08:28 (5,278 days old) by compactelectra (Palm Springs) |
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I Guess You Want What You Don't Have
My Mom had that exact green GE Swivel-Top. They bought it at the local hardware store. They knew I was crazy about vacuums and left me out of the decision. The machine I was always fascinated with and could never get my hands on was the Lux Model G. One our way to Sears at the local mall one day in the late 60's, we passed a storefront that had been leased by Electrolux. The only thing in the room were two Model Gs. I'll never forget it. Have never seen an Electrolux store in a mall. Still one of my favorite machines and in my humble opinion, one of the best vacuums ever made. 
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Post# 83843 , Reply# 13 11/11/2009 at 09:45 (5,278 days old) by gsohoover (Reidsville, NC) |
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My Favorite Vacs My Great Grandmothers Kenmore twin fan upright. Then any older Kirby or Kenmore. I also love Electrolux V and XII. Plus the Any Coffee Can Hoovers. | ||
| Post# 83849 , Reply# 14 11/11/2009 at 11:41 (5,278 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
My Story...
My parents Jack and Mary-Lou came from opposite sides of the tracks - Dad was a Canadian National Railroad labourer's son and Mom came from the best part of town, a Doctor's Daughter. From when I can remember about 6-7 years of age, visits to both sets of Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles introduced me to several vacuum appliances fascinating to me, the budding Tinker-tot. On the paternal side, Gramma Kerr used a Bissel-type manual Carpet Sweeper, broom and dustpan daily and would run her Electrolux 'Loaf' on full-tilt Cleaning Day in her small house and later the tiny one bedroom 2nd floor-of-a-house efficiency apartment with Grampa. Don't know if it was a model 30x or 50x but I do remember the lovely silver-ish Alligator hide pattern...and it was so quiet! Grandmother Sheafe, on the other hand, always had a fully tricked out Filter Queen and she used all the accessories (when she didn't have the cleaning girl/maid Mary using it) As she aged she always had a Filter Queen to the day she died at 89. It wasn't as quiet but it too had a soothing powerful sound. Grandmother Scheafe was an early widow (in a very grand 4 story Victorian Mansionhouse downtown across from the City Park. Grandfather had left her a wealthy owner of many properties in London Ontario. She had 3 sons and 3 daughters and my Mom was the youngest by 9 years. Grandmother turned the 2nd and third floors into self-contained 3 bedroom apartments sometime in the early 1950s (the size of most one story houses). W lived on the second floor, with Uncle Harry and Aunt Bernice and their two kids Craig and Liz on the 3rd. We all moved from there when I was 7-8 years old, into actual houses Gram owned throughout the city and thus our middle class lives continued. Before I was born I just don't know what Grandmother had and my Mom doesn't recall, since when she was growing up there were servants/staff to do all that. As I recall, Mom and Aunt Bern would lug Grandmother's Filter Queen up the stairs for their cleaning days. There was no more house staff other than Grandmother's Mary (who's last name actually was Martin...Mary Martin) who lived with her as a Lady's Companion long after Grandmother moved and until her death. We brought the Filter Queen with us when we moved to Cathcart Street in South London. Uncle Harry had started a big successful Furniture Store so he & Aunt Bern moved out to the new schmantzy ranch house suburbs in Byron Village beside Springbank Park and they bought a GE Swiveltop. My Dad's brother Uncle Wynne was a wavy haired handsome go-getter who married stunning statuesque red-headed vivacious Carol. Wynne worked for GM Chevrolet and always drove the flashiest models. They had twin daughters and a son and lived the very modern Cocktail Life. Aunt Carol always reminded me of Laura Petrie with red hair, in her pedal pusher capri pants or stunning fashion dresses tooling around town in the various Chevy Impalas - always a two car family. She had a Hoover Constellation and boy oh boy, I loved that vacuum. I thought Aunt carol was the most beautiful woman in the world...until I fell in love with my grade 2 teacher, Miss Sims. That adoration was replaced by my grade 6&7 teacher MR Reaume. But I digress... Meanwhile back home, Dad bought Mom a new vacuum cleaner - the green Electrolux 89 with all the bells and whistles and this is the one I remember best. I wrote about this very vacuum last Christmastime, I think, when after all these years it turned out my brother had it after Dad used it in his workshop and kept it going with his own creative parts transplants. Now I have it, along with examples of every vacuum I can recall relatives using as I grew up. Oh, I wanted them ALL!! :-) Today both my sister Nancy and brother Jim have one vacuum for their homes and both are new Electroluxs - Renaissance-style. Not sure what Mom is using now in her 3 bedroom high-rise apartment - I must check that out this holidaytime. Mam's ZB89 with Dad's hybrid modifications: 
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Post# 83853 , Reply# 15 11/11/2009 at 12:37 (5,278 days old) by arh1953 ( River Park, in Port St. Lucie, Florida) |
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| Post# 83854 , Reply# 16 11/11/2009 at 12:40 (5,278 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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The asstute observer will obviously notice that there were problems with the cordwinder and hose at some point after Mom ceased using it and got her new one in the 80s. She thought Dad tossed the 89 out but he took it out to the Dad Zone workshop...where Mom never went. Dad's solution was to transplant a red cordwinder from a ZB 86 with a gray replacement cord, and got his hands on an Electrolux replacement hose at some vacuum shop and knowing Dad it was a used and probably free bargain at the time. Jim found the vacuum after dad died and took it home to his basement workshop. A few interesting things about this hybrid hose Dad concocted...first off it is the beige weave pattern hose from the Canadian Electrolux AP series that followed the 80 series. The replacement hose's ball-bearing coupler was molded in beige so only fits ZB80 and Loaf series Canadian vacuums. Even tho is has the molded box for the electric pigtail this hose has no electric fittings and would have required an exterior cord wrap. Similarly, the intended electric AP hose has a larger brass ferrule that fits inside the AP series electric handle end that has no exterior cord socket, as it took its power feed from the hose coils, so a smaller diameter green 80 series microswitch handle will not fit. By this time Electrolux had abandoned the microswitch handle that came with the green 89. Though the handle molds are the otherwise the same the power strip insert contains no switch and no socket for an exterior wrapped extension cord. But Dad Jack was a clever fellow. He took the microswitch assembly strip with the exterior pigtail socket from the 89 and fitted it to the AP series handgrip, creating a two tone one-of-a-kind hose for the 89 that operates the late 89 Power Nozzle as intended - with finger pressure on the switch paddle. When the hose got too leaky Dad artistically wrapped the hose in red plastic bag material from Tuckey's Hardware Store, to match the red cordwinder. Then he spiral wound the long cord snugly eliminating all those fussy rubber cord straps in favour of just one pale green clip at each end. In short, it's an AP100 style non-electric hose Factory replacement for an 89, cleverly modified by my father. A thing of pure beauty, I tell ya... Brother Jim tells me that Dad called this vacuum The Baboon because of it's red rump. It runs extremely well with full suction and having cleaned it up and marveling over Dad's ingenuity I decided to keep it just as it is. I have more than enough green 87s and 89s with powerhoses. I'd have to say that this will understandably always be my all time favorite vacuum no matter how large and diversified my collection is and evolves. Dave 
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| Post# 83867 , Reply# 17 11/11/2009 at 16:02 (5,278 days old) by briankirbyclass (Eudora Kansas) | ||
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Wow, what a fun thread! Man i would have LOVED to have had a Lux like that when i was a kid, Dave! Funny story - Compactelectra, i know exactly how you felt when your parents didnt include you in the new vacuum buying process!,,this is sore subject between my parents and i, even today,almost 40 yrs later. (i dont bring it up to them anymore) My parents had a new home built when i was 7,with wall to wall thick sculptured carpet of course, so naturally that called for a new vacuum! All we had at the time was a dumb old Connie,,which i HATED! Compared to a Lux Model G or 1205,new FQ,or Central Vac,,i was embarrassed of that old Connie! I was praying every night that they would have Central Vac installed(which they should have, as it adds value to the home), but instead, Mom took it upon herself to actually go and buy a Hoover DAM Powerdrive,,WITHOUT ME! Can you imagine the nerve! ( she insisted i had to take swimming lessons, and thats where i was when she went to buy the new vac.) I remember being VERY hurt when i came home to find what she had done.- the ULTIMATE betrayal,,,by ones own mother yet! HUMPF! Whats funny is,,the last time i brought up the subject to her, Mom (now in her mid 60s) clinched her teeth. HAHA,,isnt it funny that left as much of an impression on me, as it did her. How could she have done that,(buying a new vacuum without me being there) KNOWING how much i liked vacuums! Oh well, such is life. I still say my arguement is valid. HAHA I did get the last word on the subject tho, about 10 years later,,after the fact had been established that I was doing most of the vacuuming by then anyway, i took that DAM and traded it for a used Rainbow D2, with PN. Loved it!! Even bought the new larger 4qt. water pan! Boy, i put alot of miles on that old D2. When i got sick of the D2, i traded it for a Kirby Classic 3, with ALL the attachments,,even the Handi Butler, and Saber Saw. Which i eventually sold for much more than i paid for it. Hey, maybe Mom buying that DAM wasnt such a bad deal afterall. And, turns out, learning to swim at a young age wasnt such a bad deal later in life either. | ||
| Post# 83932 , Reply# 18 11/12/2009 at 19:09 (5,277 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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I was also transfixed by wringer washers, stand mixera, sewing machines, typewriters and...floor polishers - anything mechanical with moving parts, really. It seems now whenever I find a singular example of some neat thing out of the woodwork comes more clamouring for attention and adoption. Saw these wto at the ReStore today. Which one shall I bring home? 
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| Post# 83933 , Reply# 19 11/12/2009 at 19:15 (5,277 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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I already have several colors and all-chrome of the General Electric polisher style, and it is badly rust encrusted but the cream & greige Hoover is flawless. Too many polishers? Nawwwwww, just no display space assigned yet; I'll just shift the dresser down another 6 inches. :-) Dave, it never ends... 
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| Post# 83935 , Reply# 20 11/12/2009 at 19:33 (5,277 days old) by thevacuumman (Borger, TX) | ||
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i always wanted a Fantom Fury or a Singer Twin-Fan | ||
| Post# 83948 , Reply# 21 11/12/2009 at 22:34 (5,277 days old) by portable (Corvallis, OR) | ||
Dave -
I LOVE your stories. You're a great story teller. Fred and Brian - I can also sympathize with not being included in the vacuum buying decision. When I was 10, my parents replaced their Hoover Model 28 with a Convertible Special Model 31. I was FURIOUS! They deliberately hadn't told me they were going vacuum shopping, because they knew I would make a scene in the store and delay them for hours. I wanted the beautiful Convertible Model 65 with the headlight. Instead, we got the B.O.L. 31. They also bought a car a few years later that had BLACKWALL tires! The horror! Grrrr..... John L. | ||
| Post# 83952 , Reply# 22 11/12/2009 at 23:06 (5,277 days old) by hoovercelebrity (Germany) | ||
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John- What was that story about you somehow getting your hands on a model 65 and some hot fireplace ashes? Was that your story? :-) ~Fred | ||
| Post# 83954 , Reply# 24 11/12/2009 at 23:22 (5,277 days old) by kirbyotronic () | ||
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Spelling correction... "Soul", not sole. Late night brain fart. :) | ||
| Post# 83955 , Reply# 25 11/12/2009 at 23:36 (5,277 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS) | ||
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Man I was lucky, the one and only time my Mom ever bought a new vacuum in my lifetime she took me with her. It was a big deal in our family, my Dad even went. We had to have the best Eureka rotomatic power team out there. After that I bought all the rest of the vacuums. The one childhood machine that would be my biggest dream now would be the very first vacuum that I ever saw. It's what my Mom had from when I was born untill I was four. Well she had it many years before I was born. She got it in 1972-or 73 and it pooped out in 1988 or 89. That was a harvest gold Eureka Rotomatic power team 1600 series. This vacuum would bring tears to my eyes if I ever found it because it was the start for me. Mom told me that I was glued to it from the first time I was on the floor while she was vacuuming. Not even crawling yet. God, she used it three times a day every day and I never got tired of it. I can remember humming to the sound of the vacuum. I would sit on the floor behind it with the exhaust blowing in my face just humming in harmony with it at the age of three. Then I remember sitting on the power head holding on while she tried to push it. Sadly I was the one using it the day it died. Everything was going fine and then it started making funny electrical noises then poof,,,,,nothing. I'll never forget that day because that's also the same day we got the new dark blue one. I still have it. If I ever get the gold one I might have to fist fight the old lady for it. lol and yes she would win. | ||
| Post# 83999 , Reply# 26 11/13/2009 at 23:17 (5,276 days old) by portable (Corvallis, OR) | ||
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Hey Fred -
Yes, somewhere in one of our old newsletters I told the story about a friend and I vacuuming up not-quite-cooled fireplace ashes with a RENTED Hoover 65. His mother had it on loan while her Kirby was being repaired. The damn Hoover ignited and burned the hearth rug beneath it. It melted the vinyl bag. We called a vacuum store and ordered a replacement outer bag and put it on the machine - all before she discovered what we had done. There is no more sick feeling than watching a vacuum go up in flames while still PLUGGED IN. Pretty hair-raising. I was about 16 at the time. JL | ||
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