I wanted to share with all of you some of the fun that Rick Winkler (crevicetool) and I recently had on a trip to New Britain, Ct. This was a trip that we had been wanting to take for a long time and finally just decided to do it. Rick has a strong passion for anything made by Landers, Frary and Clark or better known as Universal! The home for Universal was in New Britain. He had been in contact with the Library there and learned that they had a large collection of paper work and pictures from the company. Universal had closed up shop in 1965 and many of their records were donated to the library. We also knew that there was an Industrial Museum there. So last Saturday I flew to Atlanta and met up with Rick and we were off for New Britain. Lucky for us there are AW members and Vacuumland members that live in that same general area.
We flew into Hartford, Ct, which was fun in itself because Rick hadn't flown in many years, (I won't say just how many) but a long time.LOL We picked up a rental car and drove about 30 miles to New Britain. We got checked into our hotel and called Gary and Steve (Gadget Gary and ToggleSwitch) and Louis and Billy(LouVac). It was planned that we were to meet up with them for dinner. Gary is a waiter at a restaurant called The Silo. He had to work that night so we were able to have him as for our waiter. Rick, Steve, Louis, Billy and I had a wonderful dinner there. It was really neat the way everyone that worked there paid special attention to all of us. We had a wonderful dinner which Louis and Billy were so kind to treat us to. For some reason I didn't have my camera with me so hopefully one of the others can share some pictures. We had a great time catching up with what we had all been up to.
On Sunday morning we arrived around 10 at Gary's house. He has a beautiful home and he and Steve were fantastic hosts for the day. Gary had made some delicious cinnamon bread that was just coming out of the oven so that along with other treats made for a great Sunday morning brunch. Then we were off to some thrift stores for some shopping. It was a treat for both Rick and I to visit some new places and we all came home with a few treasures. When we got back to Gary's Louis and Billy joined us. We spent the rest of the day and evening playing with Gary's Maytag collection, his vacuums, and his other fun things. Believe me Gadget Gary has the perfect screen name!! Steve and Gary fixed us a wonderful dinner that we all enjoyed together. Talk about a spread, we really had one!! The first set of pictures will show our get together at Gary's
On Monday Rick and I were off to the library to learn as much as we could about Universal. They were in business for almost 120 years. We learned so much about the company. It was estimated at one time nearly 1 out of every 4 homes in America had at least one Universal product in it. That is very possible as they made 100's of things. They made products for the home and their success was due in part to their ability to change products with the changing times. One very interesting thing for me was to discover that Universal was the inventor of the percolator both stove top and electric. They also made major home appliances and we did learn some of that history as well. I had no idea that they made a twin tub machine much like an Easy but they did. We also learned that at one time an executive from Bendix came to work for them. They stopped making their own washers in 1941 and sold that division to a company in Ohio. Rick has the name of that he will have to fill us in on that. Universal had many factories in New Britain but sadly one one is left. We were able to stand in from of that building on Ellis Street. Interestingly too that is the one where the washers were made.
Well enough of my rambling for now, I am sure that as time goes by all of us will have more to add. At the library we made right at 400 copies of things so we still have a lot of reading and learning to do!!
We would both like to thank our fantastic hosts for such a fun weekend!!
We flew into Hartford, Ct, which was fun in itself because Rick hadn't flown in many years, (I won't say just how many) but a long time.LOL We picked up a rental car and drove about 30 miles to New Britain. We got checked into our hotel and called Gary and Steve (Gadget Gary and ToggleSwitch) and Louis and Billy(LouVac). It was planned that we were to meet up with them for dinner. Gary is a waiter at a restaurant called The Silo. He had to work that night so we were able to have him as for our waiter. Rick, Steve, Louis, Billy and I had a wonderful dinner there. It was really neat the way everyone that worked there paid special attention to all of us. We had a wonderful dinner which Louis and Billy were so kind to treat us to. For some reason I didn't have my camera with me so hopefully one of the others can share some pictures. We had a great time catching up with what we had all been up to.
On Sunday morning we arrived around 10 at Gary's house. He has a beautiful home and he and Steve were fantastic hosts for the day. Gary had made some delicious cinnamon bread that was just coming out of the oven so that along with other treats made for a great Sunday morning brunch. Then we were off to some thrift stores for some shopping. It was a treat for both Rick and I to visit some new places and we all came home with a few treasures. When we got back to Gary's Louis and Billy joined us. We spent the rest of the day and evening playing with Gary's Maytag collection, his vacuums, and his other fun things. Believe me Gadget Gary has the perfect screen name!! Steve and Gary fixed us a wonderful dinner that we all enjoyed together. Talk about a spread, we really had one!! The first set of pictures will show our get together at Gary's
On Monday Rick and I were off to the library to learn as much as we could about Universal. They were in business for almost 120 years. We learned so much about the company. It was estimated at one time nearly 1 out of every 4 homes in America had at least one Universal product in it. That is very possible as they made 100's of things. They made products for the home and their success was due in part to their ability to change products with the changing times. One very interesting thing for me was to discover that Universal was the inventor of the percolator both stove top and electric. They also made major home appliances and we did learn some of that history as well. I had no idea that they made a twin tub machine much like an Easy but they did. We also learned that at one time an executive from Bendix came to work for them. They stopped making their own washers in 1941 and sold that division to a company in Ohio. Rick has the name of that he will have to fill us in on that. Universal had many factories in New Britain but sadly one one is left. We were able to stand in from of that building on Ellis Street. Interestingly too that is the one where the washers were made.
Well enough of my rambling for now, I am sure that as time goes by all of us will have more to add. At the library we made right at 400 copies of things so we still have a lot of reading and learning to do!!
We would both like to thank our fantastic hosts for such a fun weekend!!
