Sending a Kirby to Church!

[human]

I attend a very small church, which is perpetually strapped for cash, but we make up for it with an abundance of enthusiasm, energy, and a willingness to step up. We meet in a converted one-story ranch house, where what had been a two-car garage now serves as a combined worship space and fellowship hall. We serve a free community dinner in there every Tuesday evening, so keeping the commercial grade carpet clean is a perpetual challenge. With money as tight as it is, the cost of having them professionally cleaned is not always feasible, so there has been discussion of buying a rug shampooer and doing it ourselves. To that end, I have found myself moved to donate one of my 16 Kirbys, plus a shampoo system. The church can be responsible for consumables--shampoo, bags, and belts, and I'll do maintenance on it as needed. My plan is to bring the machine to church and we'll give the carpet a cleaning to see if it's going to meet our needs. If it does, I'll donate it. If it doesn't, I'll take it back home and the church can pursue other options. The machine I'm thinking of giving them is a Gsix I got to use as a parts donor a little more than a year ago. A few months after I stripped it for needed parts to fix up a G4, I realized I had almost everything I needed on hand to put it to rights, except an outer bag. I sourced a used one for a G4 rather cheaply online, and now it's good to go, but I honestly, don't need that many Kirbys, so it's better that one of them is put to a better use.

 

[panasonicvac]

When my grandparents were janitors at their local church, they used to have a Kirby. It was either a Classic 1-CR or a 1-CB Omega from what I was told. My grandmother loved it so much that she bought the same one for herself. When the church upgraded to more modern and better machines, my grandmother took the other Kirby home with her as they were going to get rid of it if memory serves correctly. When my parents got married and moved into their first home, my grandparents gave one of their Kirbys to them. My best guess was the one used from the church. Just shortly after moving into the home they live in now, they gave the Kirby back to them. Then a Kirby salesman came to their home and basically "forced" them into trading their two brown Kirbys for a G4 80th Anniversary which they had until they later passed away and I ended up claiming it. I often wondered what would've happened had my parents not given up on the Kirby. A few years later my parents bought their first cabin and had to buy a new vacuum which was a Sharp, they could've brought that Kirby up there instead. Perhaps my grandparents would've still paid the same price of trading in their other Kirby for the same G4. Either way, I would've still likely never saw either Kirby. Because in 1996 after our cabin was remodeled before I was born, one of our outlets got wired in wrong. If the Kirby got fried instead of the Sharp, we would've forced the electrician to exchange that Kirby for something more modern like another G4 (maybe a G5) or still get the same Panasonic like we did in the first place. Unless if there was a small chance that brown Kirby would've gotten repaired or factory rebuilt instead. But we would've likely still left either machine behind just like the Panasonic when we sold the cabin instead of bringing it home or moved it to our second cabin when we actually ended up needing it. That's another long story.

 

[paul]

Edgar,

I admire your generosity to your church, which by the way sounds like a good fellowship. It's small size triggered a thought of my favorite ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW episode in which he sings "Church in the Wildwood". Hopefully the GSix Shampoo System will work well for its needs. Keep us posted. Btw, my congregation is almost the opposite of yours size-wise but has friendly leadership and laity; I have no clue what we have for floor care equipment, but I'm on the lookout.


Alex,

I liked hearing about your Kirby church and home stories involving your grands and parents. Too bad for you that your parents eventually gave the brown Kirby back to your grands, and that the Kirby salesman ended up with it.

My brother had inherited our family's Kirby and used it until something malfunctioned (I wasn't in to floor care equipment at the time, and it all happened without my knowing anyway). My parents took it to have it repaired but returned with a different one thinking they were doing him a favor by getting him a newer plastic model. He's not into floor care cleaners but was disappointed for sentimental reasons; by that time though the Kirby was toast. I'm happy for you that you at least you have the G4.