Welcome Andy,
I am just a member here like everybody else. I think it is great you want to participate and hope you find a lot of interesting discussions on vintage machinery to like.
May I make a suggestion, ask a favor? Let your parents know you are interested in this site and our machines. We do have some pretty strong discussion here at times...and the "Super" forum isn't named the sandbox because of the cats...but more because of our frequent childishness. Imperial and Deluxe are watched over by folks who try hard to keep things on topic. Some tend to get very crabby if they think you are off-topic and go crying to the web-master. If you were off-topic, get back on or take the thread to Deluxe. If you weren't off-topic, just ignore them.
But if your folks know what's going on, then I do think it is nobody's business but yours what you are interested in.
Me, I prefer washers to vacuums, but I remember the old dial-a-matics. They had an interesting filtering system which probably could have even made it to HEPA standards without too much effort, just better materials. The belt drive was not as stable as it could have been, I think Hoover designed them for a more expensive synthetic rubber and ended up cutting corners. But you probably know more about it than I do.
Enjoy the forum!