Gay, but sloppy houskeeper
Not all gays keep a clean house. I am gay, love old household appliances, and do not keep a tidy house. I do two or three loads of laundry once a week in a new Whirlpool front loader (sweet! - high speed spin, huge capacity, and it has a window) and dry them very quickly on 'delicate' heat in a 20 year old Whirlpool dryer. I own five vacuum cleaners, including a 1955 Hoover Celebrity, a 25 year old Kenmore canister with power head and three uprights that are of recent vinage; I also own a recent vintage Hoover uprght "steam" cleaner. The carpet gets vacuumed maybe once a month and the steam cleaner stays in the closet. The house is a mess but it is not really dirty, I keep the bathrooms and kitchen clean. My house is definately like a Queer Eye "BEFORE" house.
I have always had a fascination with washing machines; the styling, the mechanical parts, the moving water, the spin cycle, and a lighted control panel was a definate plus. I always loved watching a washing machine while it was running (even if I had to find a way to override the lid safety switch). I remember my mom using a wringer washer and I was mesmerised by it. Mom later got a mid-1950's Norge automatic that had a sliding timer! I remember that my dad had to replace the sliding contacts insider the timer fairly often. Dad taught me how to repair many things, including appliances. One thing that really made my year was when mom and dad bought a 40" range that had pushbutton burner controls which were internally lit and changed colors depending upon which button was pushed. I remember moving to a new house and finding an old Hoover art deco upright with cloth bag, the motor was rated to work on anything from 32 volts to 120 volts, AC or DC, and it worked great.
In my early 20's I worked part time as a TV repairman at a small town family owned TV and appliance store - that was heaven. The store started out by selling water heaters and Zenith radios in the 1930's. I really do miss having stores like that. Appliances and TVs were not just dropped off and maybe hooked up. A repairman installed the appliance or TV, set it up properly (including leveling), and the buyer was shown how to use and maintain it. If it were a washing machine, the repairman could also tell the buyer what detergents worked best and which ones to avoid. If it was a TV the repairman adjusted it and set the local channels. There were cases where a repairman went back later to show the buyer how to use the appliance a second time -- at no extra cost.
While working at the TV-Appliance store, I was comfortable cooking using a microwave oven and many customers were buying their first microwave. One of things I did was teach microwave cooking classes in the store. I thought it odd that a 20 something guy who could only cook using a microwave oven was teaching a cooking class to ladies who had been cooking for many years. At Thanksgiving time I demonstrated how to cook a turkey in a microwave; shoppers would not believe that the turkey had browned in a standard microwave. I also taught customers how to sort clothes for washing and how to load dishwashers (which I also love).
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