Hi super-sweeper
Yes it's Alex, but I'm not a Dr., I'm a retired nurse.
The problems we have today is that companies like Electrolux are gone, or renamed. The movers and shakers of the vacuum cleaner industry were starting to die off when John Lucia and I were kids, what's out there now is a ghost of what it once was. Both John and I were blessed to have been born in the early 1950's, and soaked up information like a sponge, but we were too young for people to take us seriously, they though it was a passing interest. It was not! Ad to the fact that we were on opposite sides of the country, John in California, and me in Connecticut. Also we both thought we were the only kids on the planet into vacuum cleaners. We didn't even know about each other till 1981 when Stacy Krammes at Hoover, put us in touch with each other. And in the early years,were swapping notes like crazy. The rest as they say is history.
When I went to see the Hoover Historical Center in August of 1980, it was merely as an enthusiast, with no idea of forming a club, but as I look back, this was indeed my laying the groundwork of the V.C.C.C. though it took John and I going there in 82 to solidify it.
For the first 12 years of the V.C.C.C., I was the writer, editor and publisher. What most people don't know was that I also paid every dime of our expenses! Also, there were no dues until it got so big that I needed help with postage and what not. And let me also set the record straight, neither John Lucia or I wanted officers in the club!
As I said in the last post, I had acquired the history of a few companies, but not enough for a book. All I had were notes like 'The Man who revolutionized the American home' by Lowell Thomas, 'Fabulous Dustpan by Frank G. Hoover, and a few notes on the history of Electrolux. The problem here is, if those facts are incorrect then I pass on wrong information.
There are many things about the V.C.C.C. that people don't know, and the key people are no longer with us to tell the truth. But the main reason John and I started this, was to teach. We wanted to pass on our knowledge, and serve as a sounding board, as well as resource center for the collectors out there.
And that's exactly what Vacuum Land is today.
