"...the rrrest of the story."
Okay, here's the story of how this Haley's Comet landed in my back yard, so to speak.
I say that almost literally -- looking back over my 35+ years as a collector, nearly all the really incredibly rare or special machines have just come out of nowhere, without warning, and usually at little or no cost -- sometimes my not even having to cover the cost of shipping.
True to form, I got the following email a couple of weeks ago from a lady who apparently found my web site (she never did say how she found me).
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Hello, I have a Haley's Comet vacuum that came with the house I bought a few years ago. It still works but has had a pretty long and hard life. Interested?
Laurie S.
Brunswick, Maine
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I replied with interest, of course, asking her to send me some photos which she did. See below.
Seeing the photos of the machine but almost falling on the floor when I saw the attachment stand that I did not even know existed, I wrote:
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Hello, sure I'd love to have it. Let me know your asking price, and if I feel it's reasonable, I have PayPal and we can easily make payment arrangements that way if you wish.
Thx.
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She wrote back with a VERY reasonable asking price, and, assuming I'd accept it, said:
It's a deal. I'll stick it back in the shed and await your payment.
Laurie
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I PayPal'd the money for the machine and gave her my UPS account to bill me for the shipping.
Why, you might ask, would I be so trusting of a total stranger? I don't know ... I just get a good vibe from people sometimes and instinctively know when I can trust them and when I can't. (I have been "guided" to steer away from a few of these "too good to be true" offers over the years.)
In all these years, going by my gut feeling, I have only been burned once (and boy, was that ever a bad burn, as those who were around when it happened know all to well). But in that case, the person was such a smooth-talking swindler that he fully and completely conned me. Every other time, the arrangements have gone smoothly and in most cases the machine was even nicer than I expected.
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But then a couple days later I got an email that kinda scared me, because it sounded like Laurie was unraveling a bit. She wrote:
Are you ready for a story?
I went to the UPS Store on Maine St, with the beast and a box of the parts. The blond at the counter put a form in front of and I filled it out for two parcels. When I asked where to put the account number, she said "Oh that's not the form. It's this one." and hands me another.
"But this one is for 2nd day. I want to send this ground."
"We can't do that."
"You can't ship ground on an account?"
"Well we could, but we need another form, the brown colored one."
"Can I have that form?"
"We don't have any, No one around here does."
"When will you get them?"
"Don't know"
"If I go to Portland do they have them there?" About twenty miles, but it's near my job.
"They might. And sometimes there are some at the drop off box at the mill complex."
So I head out for the mill complex down the street where there was a UPS truck parked. I hailed the driver who said the trucks weren't stocked with shipping forms.
"Did you see any inside at the drop box?"
"No, but you can get them over at the UPS Store."
"No you can't. Apparently there are none in this area."
He rolled his eyes. "Well let me check. This is a new truck and you never know."
He disappears into the back of the truck and soon I hear "I have 2nd Day and International forms."
"Is California International?" I ask.
"Not yet" he says "but a few more earthquakes and maybe it will be,"
Then I hear "Eureka!" And he comes out with two brown forms in hand.
I thanked him grandly and went back to the store where I wrote all the addresses twice again and I figured that was it.
"That'll be $45.19 for the packing."
"Can't you put the packing on the account?"
"No. We're independent and only affiliated with UPS so we can use the name."
"What if I go to the depot in Portland?"
"They won't pack there, you have to have it already boxed."
So out comes the credit card and needless to say he's on his way.
Thank you for listening.
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That seemed such a bizarre tale, and written out with such detail, and with her hinting for extra money to cover the packing cost because the 3rd party said they could not bill my UPS account for the packing cost got me worrying a bit. So I just lay low for a few days waiting to see what happened.
Then, thankfully, wonderfully, I got a call from the secretary at my church telling me "There are two huge boxes down here for you."
I went down there and sure enough, there was the Haley's Comet.
BIGGGGGGGGGG sigh of very happy relief.
When I got home, I emailed Laurie to let her know it arrived safe and sound, and did send her the balance owed on the packing costs.
"And, now," as Paul Harvey used to say, "you know ... the rrrest of the story."
(Cue young person to ask: "Who is Paul Harvey?" Oy vey...)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
THEN, here is what I know about the Haley's Comet. It was designed by a man named Dan Wolf who was one of the original partners of Interstate Engineering Corporation, the company who manufactured the Compact and Revelation vacuum cleaners. He was a national sales manager for about ten years. He invented the Haley's Comet vacuum while selling Compacts, and left IEC in the late 1960's.
The Haley's Comet was intended as a commercial version of the Compact, hence its girth and durable construction. The motor housing is made of magnesium which makes it fairly light weight for its size. Had it been made of aluminum or steel it would have weighed a ton!
Now, how or why the machine ended up with such strange construction and design aesthetics is still a mystery.
Along my life-path I met the son of Dan Wolf, Jack, who told me what you just read above about how the machine came to be.
Then a couple years ago I got an email from a lady named Mary Ellen Little who works for a company called Interstate Electronics, which was a a sister company to the now-defunct Interstate Engineering Corporation.
Interstate Electronics was incorporated by Interstate Aircraft (parent company to both I.E. and I.E.C.) in 1956. Interstate Electronics rented space from Interstate Engineering in the beginning and did share some history with them.
Ms. Little is an employee of Interstate Electronics Company and is the editor of the company newsletter.
Oh, a final note -- the "Haley's Comet Jingle" inside the lid was written by Dan Wolf's daughter who, if I recall correctly, was about 12 years old at the time. Hmmm. Maybe she designed the strange rug tool as well, hahaha!
