Gracious Good Afternoon From St. Charles!!

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fnelson487

fnelson487

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 14, 2003
Messages
715
Location
Palm Springs, CA
Well the gathering is underway of the vacuum folk in St. Charles. Below you will see a photo of Terry manning the busy switchboard at Tarantula Arms. He is seen listening in on a converation between someone known as the Countess and Charlie. "Really Phonecia, you wouldn't BELIEVE what they were saying." Check out those gams. The only thing missing is the Sarah Coventry. Attached is a link to a photo album containing some preliminary pics. In those pics you will see a very nice exercise room dismantled and replaced with a vintage vacuum showroom. I guess they figured out that I don't use that exercise equipment very often.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/fnelson487/album?.dir=/99b5&urlhint=actn,del:s,1:f,0
 
Ah very good afternoon to you too Fred, although overhere it is evening right now. Thank you for sharing the pictures. Normally I'm not very interested in vacuums, but I always have a look at the pictures, especially because the American vacuums are so more colorful than most European vacuums from that time.

One vacuum in the pictures raised my special attention, it is the blue metallic one on the room divider, the one with the big wheels. What brand is that? My mother had the same model but in different colors. In Holland it was sold under the Holland Electro brand. Could you tell me a bit more about it?

Enjoy the weekend!

Louis
 
Hoover Bags n Headsets...!!!

Well doesnt he have the pins for it, me thinks he auditioned for Leftenant Uhura...!!!

Looks like a fine time will be had by all,

AND..Who brought the Dyson and broke it...
Can it be mended??
Will it work again??
Do you want it to???????

Cleaning Contest Request:...Pitch the Dyson against the Tristar,

Enjoy
 
A fun time at Fred's!

You guys have waaaaay too much fun! What a fantabulous collection Fred!! Can we safely assume that the next vacuum convention will be held at your lovely home?;-)

Venus

PS Charlie: you actually looked like you behaved yourself this time! ;-)

Terry: How I remember those old PBX machines. My mom used to be a PBX operator in her youth. There is a historic hotel (the Gunther) in San Antonio that still has their original PBX machine on display near the lobby. I would love to play with one of those again!
 
Dinner tonight is at Hooverland

I have an 8 pound prime rib in the oven. With it will be Yorkshire pudding, masted potatoes, asparagus in lemon butter sauce, and a yummy cake for desert.

Just waiting for the guests to arrive...
 
I have no leftovers!

They ate it all!!!
I am jealous of Fred Nelson though, the past 2 nights we've had dinner at Fred's, and the cleanup was a breeze because there are THREE working dishwashers in his house. Last night we had all 3 going after the wonderful dinner Fred cooked.
I have a Kenmore Limited Edition tall tub, it holds alot, but won't get everything done in one load!
 
Vintage Vacuum Heaven!

And Mrs.Bucket-A hem-Bouquet excuse me, really sets a beautiful table. Oh Terry, I cant help it( One ringy-dingy, Two ringy-dingy)!
 
Fred. it looks much better now that you've taken that nasty old exercise machine out. We had one as well taking up valuable real estate and pitched it to the nephew a few years back.
Still waiting for the after dinner and many drinks photo's
 
In the meantime here's me spending my Saturday night at Little House on the Prairie. It's gotten even more crowded in this room since I drug home that blue Eureka and FQ the other day
 
Looks like ya'll are having fun!

Wish I could be there! Fred, you have a stunning home...on a par with most 4/5-star hotels after looking at your basement! The showroom looks really good now with that "home gym" out of there! The "accent lighting" and color scheme are absolutely perfect for those beautiful vintage sweepers.

LOVE the 70's Kenmore Magicord, complete with Power-Mate...and I'm envious of that nice Hoover Celebrity and Electrolux upright! And to top it off, what collection would be complete without an Electrolux Model S and Kirby G5? :)

Or is that a Model R in the far left of the Electrolux picture?
 
Hey Guys, thanks for sharing the fun with us! Looks like you all are having a grand time. Love the Lweyt on the shelf and what model is that white Electrolux with the turquoise handle??? I've never seen this one before.
 
Oh Mr. Fnelson, I'll bet your mother's proud of you. "Snark, snark" We here at what's left of the phone company want to offer you our free 557B software upgrade for your switchboard pictured.
 
Gathering Update

These folks have been keeping me soooo busy, I haven't had a chance to follow up on some questions. It's Sunday morning and I just got back from dropping Terry off at the train station. Everyone else is sleeping.

Louis - That blue mettalic vacuum is a Lewyt Big Wheels. Lewyt in the 40s and 50s was somewhat like Oreck is today - big advertising. It's funny you should mention that machine because yesterday Charlie totally dismantled, cleaned and rebuilt it with a new cord and hose to match. I'll post pictures in the album.

Mike - The Dyson wasn't broken, but us vac folks cannot help but take machines apart and see what makes them tick. That's what the folks were doing. With a certain notable exception, Dysons are somewhat looked down upon by us vintage vac folks. I wouldn't have this one, but someone gave it to me. We don't think that they clean to well. Would definitely lose to a Hoover convertible.

Pete - Look's like you're well on your way to our level of insanity with vacuums - it only gets worse.

Robert - You must come down and join us for one of these gatherings - never a dull moment. Greg was going to join us but, unfortunately, had a serious conflict at the last moment. Oh well, next time. That blue handled Lux is a Hospital G - it has a filter cage on the front. Rather unusual.

Austin - Thanks! That one at the end is either an R or an S. I'll check and post later.

Rinso - Very close on that switchboard. It's actually a 556A manual auxilliary to a 756A Crossbar PBX switch. Don't have the 756A but thankfully, the switchboard came with 10 manual station circuits and, of course, the trunk circuits. Got the manual circuits up and running and connected to phones around the house (use on night service mostly) but couldn't get those darned trunk circuits to work. After six months of trying I figured out it was the dial. Put in a new #6 dial and all works perfectly. Stepped down AC/48V DC power supplied and I have voice, lights and ringing. What a blast to play with!!

I'll add some more photos later.
 
You guy's look like you are having a blast!
What a collection you have! I have never seen so many vacuum's in my life! Love the way you have them displayed!
Thanks for the pictures so far.
Brent
 
It was a total blast!

Austin: The Kenmore is mine, I have 2 of them, one from 1976 and one from 1977. Both Sears Best models. They are neat machines, and fun to play with...
 
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhh, it looks like you guys are having a great time - so wish I could have been there! The pictures are so fun - and all those vacs in your basement, Fred, it just looks like a room from the Smithsonian!

Small consolation for me, I found an Elux 1205 at a sale yesterday, needs a few things but in pretty nice shape overall.
 
More Photos

Jon - Charlie - He Man? - Boy those pictures must be fuzzy. They did a great job on the vacuum rooms. Here are some more. There are pictures of the Maytag wringer. We showed little Fred what washing was all about in the good old days. Charlie is trying to start a new fashion trend - The Air Way hostess outfit!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/slideshow?.dir=/5f6d&.src=ph
 
Jeff, Do the two Kenmore "Bests" have two speed pushbuttons, just wondering if they used the same buttons as on my upright Powerease. I bought the attachment set for mine originally but returned them shortly after because the suction was so poor, I bought the blue Kenmore Hand Vac for that purpose. Too bad I returned those orginal attachments and hose now.
BTW, the Sears Best were green, weren't the basic models pale blue I'm thinking. ?
 
Austin,

Remember the Hotel California? You can check out but you can never leave.............sort of like Tarantula Arms. Fred's outreach can be lethal and deadly at times. Also, remember in, "Gone With The Wind", Mammy said to Scarlett when Ashely came home from the Civil War on leave, "And there you will be waiting fo him jes like a spider!"

Are we getting the picture now? Fred weaves a web of treachery and deceit and you can become stuck in it like a victim waiting to have your life's blood sucked out!

I hope I do not need to elaborate further as Fred is sitting with a Handi Butler on a classic III Kirby with a jigsaw next to me. This may be my last post...........

Charlie
 
LOL...I have to agree that it looks like "such a lovely place"; I still can't get over how nice that showroom is! The kitchen looks very nice as well.

Being "here to stay" isn't really a bad thing, IMHO, with the A806, N2LPS, and of course all of those vacuums! ;-)
 
And the little blue Kenmore HandVac I bought because the PowerEase attachments were so lame. This little machine is a super little vacuum, very powerful, but what I like best about it is the attachments can be put directly on the machines outlet or on the wands, or on the end of the hose so you can make whatever you want out of it.. like a stick vac.. just attach the wands direct to the vacuum and put the attachmens on the other end. My head spins at the combinations LOL
 
Austin

That wringer is an E2LS. I ordered the adjustable leg for a Maytag Automatic, screwed it in the clutch mechanism and it works perfectly to override the foot pedal mechanism. Thanks to Kenny Smith for that tip. That machine is built like a Sherman tank. We demonstrated how fast laundry would be done on laundry day. One load after another through the tubs and out to the clothes line. These articles went to the Neptune dryer however.
 
Sears didn't go to blue for their vacs until 1978

I have a BOL 1976 Powermate that is the same color as Jeff's 1976 & 1977 Sears Best's. On the other hand I picked up a 1978 Sears Best last summer and it is blue, I have also seen the BOL Powermate, that I have in green, in blue for sale on Ebay. Last, but not least, I have some late 70's Good Housekeeping mags with Kenmore Powermate vac ads in them and in the 1976-77 issues the Powermates are green while in the 1978-79 issues they are blue. One last interesting note the blue Powermate nozzle in the 1978 ad has no circut breaker reset switch on top while the Powermate nozzle in the 1979 ad does....PAT COFFEY
 

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