Posted on 05/17/2007 8:20:47 PM PDT by blam
74-year-old vacuum cleaner still going strong
Last Updated: 2:05am BST 18/05/2007
When Henry and May Waller decided to buy a vacuum cleaner in 1933, they wanted something that was going to last.
So they spent £9 - or two weeks' wages for Henry Waller - on a brand-new Goblin model, which they bought from a door-to-door salesman at their home in Norwich.
But the investment paid off because their son, Stanley, is still using the vacuum cleaner 74 years later.
He and his wife Sylvia, both 82, store it in their home - and it is still in full working order.
Mr Waller, who still lives in Norwich, said: "It still works well but it is too cumbersome to use most of the time. We've got one of those modern ones instead, which works better. We had the box too.
"It was £8 to buy and £9 with the box, so we got the one with the box. It cost my father two weeks' wages, so it was an expensive one."
Mr Waller's parents - Henry, a maker of casks and barrels at the Stuart and Pattinson factory in Norwich, and May, a housewife - made the purchase as Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and the first King Kong was released at the cinema.
Stanley, a Second World War war veteran, added: "It has lasted very well. They built things to last in those days and people didn't just throw them away when they broke - they fixed them.
"I have all of the attachments for cleaning curtains, although the box got woodworm and fell to bits years ago.
Mr Waller, who has four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, remembers his mother using the vacuum cleaner until long after the war, in which he fought as a pilot.
The vacuum cleaner has never had to be fixed or altered since it was bought. However, Mr Waller did fit a modern 13-amp plug so that he could plug it into the mains at home.
He said: "Things were very different then. Our house had an outside toilet and we didn't have running water or any of the mod cons."
But Mr Waller does not want to keep the venerable cleaner for ever. He is keen for a local museum in Gressenhall, Norfolk, to display the piece.
"I would like to pass it on to somewhere so that people can see it and where it may be of use. It's no good to me here."
We’ve got a 1964 General Motors refrigerator, that’s still going strong.
That’s nothing! I have an axe that has been in my family for 15 generations!
The wooden handle was replaced about 7 times and the metal head about 5 times.
And the main genetic difference between homo sapiens and dogs is fear of vacuum cleaners.
My mom had one of those.
I seem to remember you could use the exhaust to inflate things like beach balls and those inflatable swimming pools.
I also remember her shaking out the dust bag onto newspapers and then reusing the bag.
It reminded me of an art deco jet engine on wheels.
I have a bicycle I bought almost 4 years ago, and the tires still have a vacuum in them.
My mom used a Kirby upright (similar to Electrolux in that they were sold by traveling salesmen) for about thirty years. I think she may still have it, but I’m not sure it’s in working order. That thing was a total beast. I think the only plastic on the entire thing was the handle...everything else was solid metal. It weighed a ton!
}:-)4
I had a 1950 firestone refreg in my cabin that was working fine when I finally hauled it to the dump last summer.
Hard to part with the ol girl. Thing had never been serviced in any way—just kept on keepin on.
My uncle had a 1920’s era fridge (it had the motor on top of the unit, and a foot pedal underneath as a second way to open it) that my grandfather bought used and handed down to him. It never mechanically broke down, was quiet, but was the antithesis of energy efficiency. He sold it (for a few hundred bucks!) maybe 4 years ago when the door handle snapped off. Can’t build them like that today - you would break thousands of government regulations, LOL.
I used to have an old Kirby upright that was left by the previous owners of the house we bought. It came with a case of attachments. I used that beast for a long time until I bot a new Kenmore, the first in a long line of Kenmores which have to be replaced every two years or so. Just got me another Kenmore last February.
Excellent.
I have some 7,000 year old wood.
I have some 7,000 year old wood.
Shouldn’t you have called your doctor after 4 hours?
I have a 25-year-old ATT computer that still works very well. Though what I would use it for, I don't know.
You are terrible.
Thank you!
:-D
>With the proper hydraulic system, it could be real popular in Los Angeles.<
ROFL!
They could’ve gotten a different model then, but Hoovers were out of favor in 1933.
My Kitchen Aid mixer is about 40 years old. It belonged to my great aunt and now it is mine. She’s still going strong!
My mom has the toaster she got as a wedding present 46 years ago from my grandparents. When my grandmother passed away two years ago, she still had the one she got even earlier.
I never had a toaster that lasted more than 5 years. The one I have now looks like my mother’s, but it doesn’t have automatic descent and the central heat unit doesn’t work so I have to flip the toast.
Mrs VS
We’ve got a 1964 General Motors refrigerator, that’s still going strong.
Didn't you get the memo? You're supposed to leave that in an abandoned lot where kids can climb into it.
That's not so bad, you can't get a republican congresscritter with a spine for any price.
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