Kid and Teen Collectors

[delaneymeegan]

A lot of good points about certain organizations using our hobbies to fill their time slot and agenda.

It's important to remember that on a scale the size of television, it isn't personal.

Always go into a media event having a goal in mind. It's just like this Donald trump cartoon. He had a goal for using the media to accomplish a set goal. Frankly I think he's done good.

I'm wondering how one would control the interview ahead of time so that one would know the questions that would be asked. Also, as far as editing. Controlling what will be edited out.

The television media can be good, in that it can bring attention to a subject matter and that can affect change. Sometimes, it affects change in a good way for society, at the expense of a person or individual that is currently there to serve that very cause.

Think of people who were outed in the 80s for having Aids. Rock Hudson for example, I'm sure he didn't want his reputation tainted, but it served a greater good, for the benefit of society, and by recognizing gay people as real.

I think the creepiest thing in this thread is that the producers want to talk with children. ?

 

[super-sweeper]

Haha, that is creepy! But I'm sure they have ulterior motives. Maybe TV viewers think it's more interesting to see a child's "unusual" infatuation rather than that of an adult? 

 

[dysonman1]

That's exactly correct. Adults with unusual collections are everywhere. Children with unusual collections are not. Plus, child collectors tend to think they 'know it all' and are very vocal about their viewpoint - even if it is incorrect. They sometimes come off as somewhat 'touched' in a way. This is exactly the angle that producers are looking to exploit.

I know all about child vacuum collectors. Remember they come to the Vacuum Cleaner Museum all the time. We have one 12 year old collector who has his birthday party for the past two years in the 1950's room of the Museum. There is hardly a week go by where I don't meet some parent who tells me his 4 or 5 year old little boy (always a boy) is in love (their words) with vacuums. The parents indulge them with a trip to the Vacuum Cleaner Museum.

A good number of the kids have something that makes them 'not quite right'. Some cannot stand the sound of the machines, but simply want to push them across the floor. Others have a VERY short attention span - to the point that they lose interest in a particular machine they are trying out - within moments of turning it on. The parents are usually very happy though, that their child got to go somewhere there are LOTS of cleaners, and someone who will take the time to talk vacuums with their kid.

My favorites are the ones who are actually in awe of the machines, who listen to me explain them, who are excited to turn them on, and want to learn about them. I always send them home with owners manuals, bags, parts, etc. Many times I've given them one of the duplicate cleaners upstairs in the Mezzanine.

All in all, I have tons of thank you cards from the parents and the children, because in some way, they get to see that collecting vacuums can be a fun and interesting hobby, it's not 'stupid' or 'weird', and if their child really continues to love vacs, they are encouraged to send their child to engineering school so they can change vacuums for the better in their adult life.

 

[delaneymeegan]

WHAT ?



Ah,
What?

There is an actual museum of vacuums (I can understand this) where parents bring their children as if it were a playground (This I'm puzzled and enlightened, and a whole group of emotions) What?

When we say these kids are collecting vacs, are we talking about current models, or mid last century, increasingly rare models, or century old and obscure materials?

I'm just.... WHAT?
Like this is a right of passage. lol.

And why vacuums? Why not garbage disposals, typewriters, adding machines, washing machines, old furnaces, lawnmowers from the 1960s?
I saw an alarm clock from 1980 in an antique store recently. Why not that?
What?

 

[super-sweeper]

Yep, there's the famous vacuum cleaner museum in St.James! Not a playground, but the kids can have fun too if they're careful 

 


I'm certain there's people that collect those sorts of things, or all of them...I'm one of them! 

 

[cb123]

...Am so terribly sorry to hear that Supersweep! If you ever need help with your mania, please call me at 867- 5309!


 

 

[delaneymeegan]

Even though I've collected vacs since I was a teen, 30 years ago, I never really thought that was a big deal because the B-I-G deal was collecting washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, which literally take up a large amount of floor space.

So I'm recently intrigued with the Vac collectors. I'm finding out about the Vac Museum, I've seen vids on YT and to find out there are kids as young as 7 with considerably large collections. WOW !

It's like cool, but ... disappointing, and .... worrisome, and interesting, and....




Did we ever establish what area code 867-5309 is in?
I'm guessing L.A. so 213, 818, 661, or 747?
I want to call Tommy and find out if Jenny ported her number to a Smartphone.

In like 1982, they played this song all the time and my bitchy little cousin ~Jeanie~(weanie) and I agreed we hated it.



http://https//youtu.be/6WTdTwcmxyo

 

[cb123]

Well, me and my sweet cousin (Sunny Dee) both agreed we loved that song over and over and over again!...And I do mean over again!

 

[tolivac]

Collecting vacuums vs washers,dryers,fridges,and other large appliances-those are like collecting cars-you need SPACE for them and the plumbing to use them.I would love to have a HUGE basement and get lots of washers,dryers to put in it.In the South where I am the water tables are high-so basements are impossible.Old machines like those are DIFFICULT to find here-Even finding older vacuums is difficult.In my area when folks buy new machines the old ones are junked.I just remember the washers and vacuums of my past.It just wouldn't be pratical to try to own them-I would like too-but can't because of space limitations and availability to get them.So its vacuums and small appliances I focus on.Have a very small collection of washers.3.

 

[marks_here]

When I drive along the country back roads I see all those items (washer/dryers, refrigerators, deep freezers, dish washers, husks of old cars, campers/trailers . . . oh I'm sorry I didn't know that was your home, school buses) in the yards of people. It's nice they share their collections right in the open so everyone can enjoy! Not going to mention what was swinging on the front porch . . . LOL

 

[dysonman1]

As far as the kid's collections - they can be quite large. The 12 year old who has his entire family drive 4 hours so his birthday party can be in the 1950's room of the Vacuum Cleaner Museum, has about 60 machines I believe. I gave him a Kirby Omega one year, and with his birthday money he bought a brand new Simplicity Wonder canister last year.

Most of the little kids (6, 7, or 8 years old) have vacs they've been given by family members, or machines they talked their parents into buying for them (from thrift stores, etc.) One kid, 6 years old, wanted a Windsor Sensor so bad. Just so happened I had one that I sold his mom for $100 (a good price). Turns out he wanted one because he saw one at the hotel they stayed at, talked to the maid about it, and decided that would be his next machine. Some of these kids are really shy, and others are really NOT shy about what they want. MOST only know modern vacuums, almost all love Sharks and Dysons (but they don't know any better yet).

So that's what the Museum does. It exposes them to all kinds of vacs they will probably never see again. I take time to shown them the REALLY COOL machines of the past such as the Lux LX, the Rexair, the Air-Way Twin Motor upright, etc. As a former child collector myself, I see myself in "SOME" of them so I take as much time as I need with them. Some of the parents have been joys - the kind of parents we ALL would have wanted. A few times, the parents let the kid run wild - to which I put my foot down immediately. After all, we cannot call up Hoover in China and ask them for a new part for a 1926 model 700.

 

[super-sweeper]

Nice try, Calem! I've been dodging that number ever since I got it off the wall! 

 


"But they don't know better yet", love it lol! Show them the light! 

We definitely can't call Hoover for a 1926 700, but it would be fun to hear their confusion 

 


While I hope you don't, do you have any museum horror stories?

 

[floor-a-matic]

Or U can call The Time at 777-9311

 

[s31463221]

Reply #30

Super-Sweeper, a few years ago, I contacted Hoover via email regarding a Model 300 Special I had. Now, I knew good and well they wouldn't know a thing about what I was referring to, but I wanted to have a little fun anyway. The person who responded to me was very nice, but he explained that they didn't have records going back that far on the machines, but (I suppose as a consolation prize) he did email me a copy of a Model 31 Convertible manual! Oh well, got to have a little fun when you can!

I too was a kid collector, in fact my first machine was a late 70's Electrolux Super J. I absolutely wore that old vacuum out, in fact, I was using it when the motor locked up on me and it began belching out smoke all over the place! When it stopped smoking, and my nerves settled from the surprise, I ended up sitting down with some tools and completely dismantling that cleaner....I wish I could say I was able to put it back together, but I was little at that point so it didn't happen, BUT it gave me an insight into just how those things worked, and a desire to continue collecting and repairing them.

 

[caligula]

Too bad you didn't contact the Hoover Historical Center, as they would have known all about the model 300, since it was a 'special' Hoover.

This is the problem many collectors have, not knowing who to contact with a question. In fact that's how the VCCC was created. In 1980 I went to the Historical Center, and in late 81 John Lucia contacted Hoover about models 150, and 700. Hoover had no information, or so they told John, so Stacy Krammes, the director of the Historical center sent John's letter to me. The interesting thing here, was that the data I sent John came from the paperwork Stacy gave me in 1980.

That was the connection with John Lucia, and more important, I had a person to share my information with.

As I've stated several times, it was because of our sharing data that we met in the September 0f 82, and went to Hoover together. And the result of course was the birth of the VCCC.

The point is that in most cases the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Another factor is that most vacuum cleaner companies back then were not interested in history, they were interested only in the next sale. In fact, Hoover was the only company who took us seriously.