My Story...
My parents Jack and Mary-Lou came from opposite sides of the tracks - Dad was a Canadian National Railroad labourer's son and Mom came from the best part of town, a Doctor's Daughter. From when I can remember about 6-7 years of age, visits to both sets of Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles introduced me to several vacuum appliances fascinating to me, the budding Tinker-tot.
On the paternal side, Gramma Kerr used a Bissel-type manual Carpet Sweeper, broom and dustpan daily and would run her Electrolux 'Loaf' on full-tilt Cleaning Day in her small house and later the tiny one bedroom 2nd floor-of-a-house efficiency apartment with Grampa. Don't know if it was a model 30x or 50x but I do remember the lovely silver-ish Alligator hide pattern...and it was so quiet!
Grandmother Sheafe, on the other hand, always had a fully tricked out Filter Queen and she used all the accessories (when she didn't have the cleaning girl/maid Mary using it) As she aged she always had a Filter Queen to the day she died at 89. It wasn't as quiet but it too had a soothing powerful sound. Grandmother Scheafe was an early widow (in a very grand 4 story Victorian Mansionhouse downtown across from the City Park. Grandfather had left her a wealthy owner of many properties in London Ontario. She had 3 sons and 3 daughters and my Mom was the youngest by 9 years. Grandmother turned the 2nd and third floors into self-contained 3 bedroom apartments sometime in the early 1950s (the size of most one story houses). W lived on the second floor, with Uncle Harry and Aunt Bernice and their two kids Craig and Liz on the 3rd. We all moved from there when I was 7-8 years old, into actual houses Gram owned throughout the city and thus our middle class lives continued. Before I was born I just don't know what Grandmother had and my Mom doesn't recall, since when she was growing up there were servants/staff to do all that.
As I recall, Mom and Aunt Bern would lug Grandmother's Filter Queen up the stairs for their cleaning days. There was no more house staff other than Grandmother's Mary (who's last name actually was Martin...Mary Martin) who lived with her as a Lady's Companion long after Grandmother moved and until her death. We brought the Filter Queen with us when we moved to Cathcart Street in South London. Uncle Harry had started a big successful Furniture Store so he & Aunt Bern moved out to the new schmantzy ranch house suburbs in Byron Village beside Springbank Park and they bought a GE Swiveltop.
My Dad's brother Uncle Wynne was a wavy haired handsome go-getter who married stunning statuesque red-headed vivacious Carol. Wynne worked for GM Chevrolet and always drove the flashiest models. They had twin daughters and a son and lived the very modern Cocktail Life. Aunt Carol always reminded me of Laura Petrie with red hair, in her pedal pusher capri pants or stunning fashion dresses tooling around town in the various Chevy Impalas - always a two car family. She had a Hoover Constellation and boy oh boy, I loved that vacuum. I thought Aunt carol was the most beautiful woman in the world...until I fell in love with my grade 2 teacher, Miss Sims. That adoration was replaced by my grade 6&7 teacher MR Reaume. But I digress...
Meanwhile back home, Dad bought Mom a new vacuum cleaner - the green Electrolux 89 with all the bells and whistles and this is the one I remember best.
I wrote about this very vacuum last Christmastime, I think, when after all these years it turned out my brother had it after Dad used it in his workshop and kept it going with his own creative parts transplants. Now I have it, along with examples of every vacuum I can recall relatives using as I grew up.
Oh, I wanted them ALL!!
Today both my sister Nancy and brother Jim have one vacuum for their homes and both are new Electroluxs - Renaissance-style. Not sure what Mom is using now in her 3 bedroom high-rise apartment - I must check that out this holidaytime.
Mam's ZB89 with Dad's hybrid modifications:
