kirbytradition7
Well-known member
Hi! I'm Francis Smith, a new user! My favourite vacuum is the Kirby Tradition. I dream of getting one; here's why:
I grew up in a large family (10 kids), in a 2-story home (that used to be a funeral home) in Garrett, IN, from 1979-2008.
In 1979, when I was 4, our family bought a shiny new Kirby Tradition. One of my siblings answered the doorbell--and before Mom knew what hit her, they let the visitor in. He was a Kirby salesman! He proceeded to pour some powder on our parlour floor, put together his Tradition vacuum, and start sucking away whilst talking up the virtues of this vacuum. (This is how Mom has told it to me.)
Somehow Mom was convinced to buy the Tradition. I have no memory of what wheeling and dealing went on, or what convinced her to buy it.
The beautiful Tradition was our main vacuum from then through 1998. We used it to vacuum the downstairs and upstairs.
It came with the cardboard attachment box, and we had some kind of multi-pocket bag hanging on the laundry room door to hold all the tools. It was yellow, so I don't think it came with the vacuum.
Mom did most of the vacuuming, until I hit junior high, then I started taking over a good part of the job. The Kirby had a loud roar, like a jet engine, I remember. Its performance, by the time I started using it (in the early 1990s), was somewhat spotty. It was showing its age, after so much use on both floors of our large ex-funeral home, with all of us kids living there! I remember it started eating belts a lot; I quickly became an expert at replacing Kirby Tradition belts! It sometimes would just not pick anything up, and would need to be serviced often. It would roar like a jet engine, but not pick much up. It was getting old!
The worst thing about my Tradition was my allergies to dust. The Tradition was built in an era before any real awareness of dust allergies, so there was no HEPA filtration or anything. Whenever I used it, I would start having eye irritation, sneezing, and everything else. I started using surgical masks.
Finally, in 1998, our faithful Tradition just gave up the ghost. We took it into our local vac shop (in Auburn, IN), and traded it in on a new Sharp upright with HEPA filtration (which was a great help for me). The vac shop owner put our Tradition (and all the attachments, too) in his own collection of vintage vacuums in his shop!
To this day, I wonder if our Trad is still sitting there in that shop in Auburn, IN!
Recently, I have been seeing old Trads popping up on the Internet, then I just found your wonderful website!
My dream is to someday (hopefully soon) acquire a Kirby Tradition in good working (and looking) condition, for my historical archive! The hunt begins for my dream Kirby!
I grew up in a large family (10 kids), in a 2-story home (that used to be a funeral home) in Garrett, IN, from 1979-2008.
In 1979, when I was 4, our family bought a shiny new Kirby Tradition. One of my siblings answered the doorbell--and before Mom knew what hit her, they let the visitor in. He was a Kirby salesman! He proceeded to pour some powder on our parlour floor, put together his Tradition vacuum, and start sucking away whilst talking up the virtues of this vacuum. (This is how Mom has told it to me.)
Somehow Mom was convinced to buy the Tradition. I have no memory of what wheeling and dealing went on, or what convinced her to buy it.
The beautiful Tradition was our main vacuum from then through 1998. We used it to vacuum the downstairs and upstairs.
It came with the cardboard attachment box, and we had some kind of multi-pocket bag hanging on the laundry room door to hold all the tools. It was yellow, so I don't think it came with the vacuum.
Mom did most of the vacuuming, until I hit junior high, then I started taking over a good part of the job. The Kirby had a loud roar, like a jet engine, I remember. Its performance, by the time I started using it (in the early 1990s), was somewhat spotty. It was showing its age, after so much use on both floors of our large ex-funeral home, with all of us kids living there! I remember it started eating belts a lot; I quickly became an expert at replacing Kirby Tradition belts! It sometimes would just not pick anything up, and would need to be serviced often. It would roar like a jet engine, but not pick much up. It was getting old!
The worst thing about my Tradition was my allergies to dust. The Tradition was built in an era before any real awareness of dust allergies, so there was no HEPA filtration or anything. Whenever I used it, I would start having eye irritation, sneezing, and everything else. I started using surgical masks.
Finally, in 1998, our faithful Tradition just gave up the ghost. We took it into our local vac shop (in Auburn, IN), and traded it in on a new Sharp upright with HEPA filtration (which was a great help for me). The vac shop owner put our Tradition (and all the attachments, too) in his own collection of vintage vacuums in his shop!
To this day, I wonder if our Trad is still sitting there in that shop in Auburn, IN!
Recently, I have been seeing old Trads popping up on the Internet, then I just found your wonderful website!
My dream is to someday (hopefully soon) acquire a Kirby Tradition in good working (and looking) condition, for my historical archive! The hunt begins for my dream Kirby!
She told me it had been repossessed and then sold to her. It had a metal fan in it but did not have the headlight locking pin. Her wpeed selector switch was broken and stayed on High speed all the time which resulted in it's intimely death in the late 80s/early 90s. RIP
