Convention 2014.............Did it really happen?

gottahaveahoove · Jun 17, 2014

Silly Boy!!!!!! Harley, may I call you Harley?

WE were all given a Kirby T shirt, and were asked to wear them at The Kirby Factory.And, so I did. I also wore the pin, AND my HOOVER 'hoodie'. You all know about me AND hoover HOODS, LOL. If you can't serve food in one, WEAR one! I surprised many by 'being a good sport".. Thanks, Barb.

vinvac · Jun 17, 2014

And John you were a good sport! Even if I did try to hide the Hoover logo while we were touring the plant!

Those who did not attend missed a great event. Every year they get better!

gottahaveahoove · Jun 17, 2014

Yes, Morgan.....

and, watch those hands, Mister. {Actually, maybe I kinda liked it}. shhhhhhhhh

beko1987 · Jun 17, 2014

Brilliant photos!

portable · Jun 17, 2014

<span style="font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">John - You look good in the Kirby shirt. But I promise not to tell anyone......J</span>

caligula · Jun 17, 2014

Mr. Lucia, Sir.

You would have been so proud of the people who attended the convention in Cleveland. Right now I'm home writing thank you email and purring like a kitten, or like my Caligula (remember him?) Kirby did us proud as did Cleveland Wood Products, and Filter Queen. And look at what graced the entrance of the meeting room

I hope your dad had a happy birthday. Thanks for helping me start all this back in 82, it's been awesome.
Bob Alex Taber.

gottahaveahoove · Jun 17, 2014

John!!

"Don't ask.... don't tell".

ohiovac · Jun 18, 2014

Thanks so much steve for taking the photos! It was a great weekend met many new collectors and were welcomed into the factories. So glad it was so close to my home. I enjoyed having every one over to see my collection. Here are a few pics I took and some I got from Steve's.

air-waycharlie · Jun 18, 2014

After............

reading all the comments about 100th anniversaries of whatever company and the bitchy tones, I recall why I don't want anymore involvement with vacuum cleaner collecting. Who the hell cares?

These are machines THAT PICK UP DIRT from the floor. My God, you would think we were talking about curing Cancer or something that is really important. Not a f______ appliance.

Life has so many wonderful things to offer besides the dissection of vacuums, their history, the company histories, the wording in an owner's manual, etc.

paulg · Jun 18, 2014

Why Charlie

Must you insist on raining on other people's parades?
Your comment is sufficiently crude for me to make this leap and comment.
If you don't enjoy collecting vacuum cleaners, go elsewhere, but leave us to enjoy our craft.

sonnyndad · Jun 18, 2014

That comment WAS rather asinine...

kloveland · Jun 18, 2014

The convention was fantastic it was one of the best ones. Touring CWP, Kirby and Filter Queen was a great experience and all three companies treated us very nicely! It was so nice of CWP to give us all free brush rolls, scrub brushes and the apron. It was a real treat to eat in the Kirby café. Thanks to Steve Brazil for taking such excellent pictures. For those of you who haven’t seen the pictures on Facebook I invite you to do so. Steve took around three hundred pictures and Facebook is really the best site to display those. It was great to see everyone. I consider the VCCC to be my extended family, because we always have such a fantastic time at the conventions.

I’m looking forward to St. Louis next year! Can’t wait!

ralph123 · Jun 18, 2014

Post# 285192 , Reply# 26, Picture 8 query

so how well did the triple Kirby set-up work?

Post# 285192 , Reply# 26, Picture 8

So was all of the testing done on low pile commercial carpeting?

jscarlato · Jun 19, 2014

Being a brand new member of the VCCC, this convention was a real treat to meet so many friendly folks who share a common interest in quality-made vacs, be them from yesteryear or this year. It was a great opportunity to be able to visit the CWP and Filter Queen plants, but the pinnacle of the day was to be able to visit the Kirby plant and enjoy a great lunch in their cafeteria. Thanks to all for posting your photos, with my special thanks going out to Steve for all the photos on Facebook.

jscarlato · Jun 19, 2014

Oh . . .

Mea culpa . . . In my above post, I forgot to thank Luke Gebhart for inviting us to his home to hehold his extensive collection. The weather was gorgeous, the pizza lunch was tasty, and seeing how well his collection is displayed all made for an enjoyable field trip.

vinvac · Jun 19, 2014

Reading all of these threads brings a tear to my eyes.

It was just a week ago at this time Barb, Michael and I were meeting with the hotel staff to get our room ready for the weekend.

As always, it was so much fun, very well organized, lots to see and do, but best part of all was getting together with my vacuum family!

caligula · Jun 19, 2014

Hi jscarlato.

As the founder of this club let me officially welcome you.

You picked the best time to join, as you got to see this crazy group in action, be part of the meetings, contests and elections, not to mention three factory tours in one day (which I think is a record for the club, but don't quote me.) You also got to meet collectors, some of whom have been with the club since day one.

Since you must have dozens of questions about the club, and vacuum cleaner history in general, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Thanks for helping make my weekend truly awesome.
Alex Taber.

caligula · Jun 19, 2014

Hi jscarlato.

As you're new to all this, you may not have seen pictures of the original club museum, which began as a spare bedroom in my home, located in Naperville, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago.) It was not my first display however, the first recorded one was in my mom's home in Chesterton, Indiana (Indiana Dunes national park) which was club headquarters from 1982-1985.

While I never took credit for it, the real start of the club was in August 1980 as I was a personal guest of Stacy Krammes at the Hoover Historical Center. It was during that trip that I lay the groundwork for the V.C.C.C., and from there, a lot of behind the scenes action was starting to take place. So when I bought the house in Naperville, exactly two months after hosting the first club meeting, I loaned my personal collection to the club, and made it the first official vacuum cleaner museum.

The room first held a few machines, but grew continually till the early 1990's when it overtook the room, and got a building of it's own. Now it was not only the display room, but served as meeting room, and data center for the club.

The location was perfect for us as there was a motel a block away, and numerous restaurants. There was even a Dunkin Donuts on my corner so we could start the meetings with coffee and donuts.

Designing a display room is easy. Hang peg board to display small things like attachments, wands, cords, and hang bags. I line the floor, and ceiling with hoses, and place attachment boxes behind the uprights, with instruction books for all to see. Tank and canister machines go on shelving though the Electrolux's get a place of their own, as do hand-vacs.

I 've been fortunate to have my own home, thus was free to display my collection, but now, I'm like a lot of members who's other half isn't into any of this, so the next display which in development will not be on our property.

Here's s brief look at the evolution of the V.C.C.C. display and club museum, as well as a few of my non-electric one and two person operated machines that date from 1890-1915.

Alex Taber.