Davy Sprocket is on the Road...

[aeoliandave]

aka aeoliandave has arrived in Columbus Ohio for the weekend and mini meet at Norm Brown's on Saturday.

Blew in to town at 2 pm after taking the backroad 2 lane blacktop route south from Toledo. Headed directly to Norm`s, who is now busy making up the crockpot chili while I have checked in to the Motel Super 8 a few short blocks from Norm.

Perfectly decent budget priced $40.46 room with two beds, a microwave & fridge, free strong wireless and bonus of bonuses...a steam iron and ironing board! So Davy can iron his shirts every morning! Yippee!

 

[aeoliandave]

Like many Super8s that have not yet had the SuperDuper8 upgrade and received their new re-designed logo, this Super8 has seen better times and is a bit lax on maintenance. The lamps over the bed are so wobbly they were fallen upside down when I entered and the HVAC unit under the window has not had its filters cleaned in a few months - one of the first things I check in any motel room. The felted dust layer is as thick as a prefilter.

Good thing I travel with a vacuum...or two...or three...or four. LOL

Going on 5 pm now and I`m heading back over to Norm`s place. We are going out to dinner with some friends of his. The Australian boys have been heard from - in fact they have been in the general area a few days now. So things are lining up nicely for a fine meet & greet tomorrow. But there`s still all of tonight to get up to Lord Knows What in the Big City of Columbus.

One thing for sure, I`ll have my own Monomeet here in the motelroom cleaning the filters and giving the carpet the once over before bedtime. Not that the carpet needs it but just for fun, ya know...Whee!

Dave

 

[shag]

Did you check inside the box springs for any dead prostitutes?

 

[aeoliandave]

Let the thrifting begin...

Sorry, started without you. On my way to Pete`s on Friday there`s a left turn in the tiny burglet of Ailsa Craig that takes you down to the 402 straight one hour shot to Sarnia and the Bluewater Bridge to Port Huron. I felt the wagon`s hatch wasn`t sealing right because of a wind whoosh noise and went throughh the intersection to pull over. Yup, the hatch wasn`t fully engaged. So, when I turned and .looked around lo and behold, a Thrift store I didn`t know about. So in I went and this is what I found...

$2 for the GE hand mixer, $2.50 for the Westinghouse Stand Mixer (the large bowl was worth more than that, they seem so scarce) and this $2 unmarked Jetsons-looking kettle. Does anyone recognize it - I want to say it`s of European manufacture. Interesting compound curve oval teardrop enameled pot and decorative handle. High quality almost Bakelitesque plastic handles. This can`t have been cheap to produce with all those curves.

 

[aeoliandave]

Side profiles.

The Westinghouse, which I call The Whale, speed control is loosed from it`s connection to the governor so the mixer runs at full speed, but smoothly with no grinding noises. I have a good stand-less beater-less bowl-less one of these with an intact decal that will provide the donor parts. The decals on these are notorious for rubbing off - never go near them with a Magic Eraser - the white paint also comes off too easily under heavy scrubbing.


The body of the kettle shows no seams where a top & bottom section might be welded together. Clearly the spout was added but I would think it would be well-nigh impossible to form this complex egg shape with a small top opening in one piece of steel...

Well, I`d really like to know who made it.

 

[luxlife]

Please tell me more about Ailsa Craig

I'm a tomatophile, really I just suffer from "obsessive tomato disorder (OTD). A few years ago I grew an heirloom tomato variety called "Ailsa Craig". I can't imagine the source for the name, as the only two cities with this name I've found online are the one in Scotland and the one in Ontario. I'm assuming the connection for the name of this plant is based in Ontario, as I can't see the Scottish weather lending itself to the growing of tomatoes. What's the weather like in Ontario?

 

[aeoliandave]

Did you check inside the box springs for any dead prostitute

No, but when I was checking in a quartet of 6-7 foot tall beefy and to my eye, handsome trucker types hauling some fuelie dragters or something to or from Daytona (I gather from the conversation) came in and rented one room with double Queens......I kid you not! A room equipped like mine.

 

[aeoliandave]

Mmm, John. The area along the northern shore of Lake Erie, particularly around Leamington is famous for it`s Tomatoes and Heinz factory. Area also used to be famous for Tobacco. When I return through Ailsa Craig on Monday I`ll stop and see what I can dig up for you about the Ailsa Craig variety.

Dave

http://www.leamingtontomatofestival.com/

 

[luxlife]

Not to worry, Dave,

At least now I can confirm that this variety originated from Ontario. I just never realized the tomato was named after a town, instead of a person.

 

[aeoliandave]

What a Day, What a Day, What a Glorious Day!

As arranged I headed back over to Norm's for 9 AM Saturday. Steve and Craig, the Australian-sourced 'Streakers' had already arrived, hands were shook and background stories shared, then all at our ease we headed out over to Bethel Road Sweepers to see what was to be seen and, you know, admire touch and fondle shiny vacuum things.

Norm will correct me where I got it wrong, Bethel Road Sweepers is a vacuum shop in Columbus that opened just before Norm closed his shop.

This is the insanely unmissable green Bethel Road Sweepers van with a Eureka bolted to the cab roof.

 

[aeoliandave]

Ed Regan's vacuum bio.

 

[aeoliandave]

Ed Regan himself explaining the pros and cons of one of the new OptiPower Panasonics.

 

[aeoliandave]

The spectacular top-of-the-line Simplicity. That's half the Streakers Brian looking on. More on this not so simple as it looks at first glance Simplicity later...

I love these Eureka spiral coil display stands.

 

[aeoliandave]

The spectacular top-of-the-line Simplicity. That's half the Streakers Brian looking on. More on this not so simple as it looks at first glance Simplicity later...

I love these Eureka spiral coil display stands.

 

[aeoliandave]

Oops. doublepost.

On another Eureka display stand, the new Hoover bagged - I forget the model. But it is a very cool upright and very light in weight. Fabric&foam stiffened bag unzips and peels down in front to access the dustbag and filters.

 

[normvac]

All most right DAVE !

My shop was within a a mile or so of Ed's Bethel Road Sweepers. He opened in 1989 or 90. I had closed my
shop in 1987.
It is still to my credit that Ed, dose see older vacuums
in for repair. That I had worked on Way back then. As they
still have my shop sticker on them.
I could not be more pleased to have someone get the business
of the great customer base that I had ! As I know that Ed
does a honest and honorable service to those customers
Thanks Ed.
Norm

 

[aeoliandave]

Steve looks deep into the heart of the Perfect hose.

 

[aeoliandave]

Closer look at the future infamous Perfect - a virtually identical Chinese clone of a past & famous if not renowned Electrolux.

 

[aeoliandave]

Over in the Royal corner, a cut-a-way version. Inquisitive minds need to know.

 

[aeoliandave]

Simplicities take on the dual mode Electrolux dusting brush/upholstery nozzle. They put natural bristle brushes on the fold-y bits.

 

[aeoliandave]

But wait, there's more!

with one leg down it forms a 90 degree angle for...brushing off things with 90 degree outside corners. Or adjusts for any greater angle for that matter.

Streakers Steve and Brian. Steve on the left is the born in Oz one; Ohio born & raised Brian has lived in Australia for 14 (?) years and is quite proficient at the accent.

 

[aeoliandave]

But wait, there's even more! Folded up the brush becomes a ventian blind slat brush. So clever, so obvious, so Simplicity did it!

 

[aeoliandave]

The real showstopper.

This being the Top of The Line it has what has to be a very expensive reflective metalflake automotive paint that changes color as you walk around. Deep red becomes a becoming green. You gotta see iot to appreciate it. Actually it kinda reminded me of my Grade 8 graduation suit I picked out myself decades ago. Remember those suits, anyone?

Anyway, the Simplicity looks way much better than my suit did.

A number of cars at last years Detroit North American International Auto Show had dual color shifting paint jobs like this. Subtle and utterly transfixingly gorgeous. I don't know what the paint chemistry is but I'm gonna find out, you betcha.

 

[aeoliandave]

Time to head back to Norm's for the noon start of the Mini Meet.

Ed had graciously agreed to be the shipping destination for the Lewyt 55 I won from the NC57 Collection, a select few of which Crevicetool Rick and Terry put up on Ebay. The box was a bit larger than we asssumed and before I could insist otherwise, Steve bundled himself and it into the back seat with Brian and off we went.

To be continued...Almost 1 AM, Davy yawning. Sunday morning I am heading over to Springfield Ohio an hour west to tour an up until today unknown to me Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie house built in 1908-09 for the Wescott Family.
The gents were discussing the Springfield House when I arrived and I assumed they meant the Dana House in Springfield Illinois. The more I eavesdropped the more I understood I was wrong. Thanks Norm!
However long that and the Museum Shop takes me - I do tend to dawdle around Wright's magnificence - will decide if I make a direct run to Sarnia or stay over another night in the Toledo area. Oh wait, I must go shopping at J C Penny before leaving the USA. I suspect I will find it advantageous to stay another night at a Motel Super8. I do have all of Toledo's and Detroit's Thrift Stores programmed into the Garmin...

Dave

 

[kirbyultimateg]

Hi Guys.
I am sorry that I wasn't able to make it to Columbus today. I had a migraine headache. How was the mini-meet at Norm Brown's today?
Rob Gwisdala

 

[westingman123]

OMG

That Westy mixer is da BOMB! You've started me on a new quest.

 

[aeoliandave]

And we're back.

The four of us scurried back to Norms to await the noon arrival of the teaming hoards no doubt converging on Columbus...

Beautiful warming up sunny not-a-cloud-in-the-sky day it turned out to be.

First order of business - unboxing the Lewyt outdoors on the stoop so not to scatter static charged styromfoam packing all over Norm's home.

 

[aeoliandave]

Careful. Some of those paper wads contain important objects...

 

[aeoliandave]

Dumpster diving.

Oh the joy of clambering through 10" of loose styrofoam peanuts and feeling solid mystery objects! Better get a closer look...