"GET IN MAH BELLAY!"
Posted on 05/17/2007 8:20:47 PM PDT by blam
74-year-old vacuum cleaner still going strong
Last Updated: 2:05am BST 18/05/2007
When Henry and May Waller decided to buy a vacuum cleaner in 1933, they wanted something that was going to last.
So they spent £9 - or two weeks' wages for Henry Waller - on a brand-new Goblin model, which they bought from a door-to-door salesman at their home in Norwich.
But the investment paid off because their son, Stanley, is still using the vacuum cleaner 74 years later.
He and his wife Sylvia, both 82, store it in their home - and it is still in full working order.
Mr Waller, who still lives in Norwich, said: "It still works well but it is too cumbersome to use most of the time. We've got one of those modern ones instead, which works better. We had the box too.
"It was £8 to buy and £9 with the box, so we got the one with the box. It cost my father two weeks' wages, so it was an expensive one."
Mr Waller's parents - Henry, a maker of casks and barrels at the Stuart and Pattinson factory in Norwich, and May, a housewife - made the purchase as Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and the first King Kong was released at the cinema.
Stanley, a Second World War war veteran, added: "It has lasted very well. They built things to last in those days and people didn't just throw them away when they broke - they fixed them.
"I have all of the attachments for cleaning curtains, although the box got woodworm and fell to bits years ago.
Mr Waller, who has four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, remembers his mother using the vacuum cleaner until long after the war, in which he fought as a pilot.
The vacuum cleaner has never had to be fixed or altered since it was bought. However, Mr Waller did fit a modern 13-amp plug so that he could plug it into the mains at home.
He said: "Things were very different then. Our house had an outside toilet and we didn't have running water or any of the mod cons."
But Mr Waller does not want to keep the venerable cleaner for ever. He is keen for a local museum in Gressenhall, Norfolk, to display the piece.
"I would like to pass it on to somewhere so that people can see it and where it may be of use. It's no good to me here."
But Nature ABHORS a vacuum!
How old is Ted Kennedy?
He still sucks!
Wow. That really sucks!
/stupid vacuum cleaner humor
I have a 10-year-old computer still going strong!
“Mr & Mrs Waller should qualify for (ahem) lots of carbon credits.”
Al Gore invented this vacuum cleaner.
I have an old memorex power strip keeping my computers running strong. I think the thing is at least 15 years old. It’s gone through 4 computers, 3 printers, and countless christmas lights too.
My parents had a toaster that lasted for ~45 years. One of those Sunbeam auto lowering and raising things.
My grandmother still uses her Electrolux vac from the 1950s. It’s a canister type that rolls along the floor. It’s looks like a little Buick. Actually that’s not quite true — it looks like a 1930’s Art Deco steam locomotive with the modernistic streamlined fairings, but with lots of 50s style chrome trim pieces. Anyway, it’s a nifty looking thing. And all metal, no plastic.
That’s nothing. Cheryl Crow has a square of TP that’s lasted for two weeks!
I’ve been using the same clipboard at my job for 21 years.
I have a Kitchen Aid mixer that is 30 years old. And a 58-year-old husband, although the mixer is in better shape.
"GET IN MAH BELLAY!"
A refrigerator that once belonged to my grandparents (one died in ‘52, the other in ‘54) is still running.
We’ve got a 1964 General Motors refrigerator, that’s still going strong.
lol. I have a book that’s from 1913, and I went to go sell it. It’s in perfect condidion except for the spine, and so they would’ve give me like .25 cents for it. Without the spine difference it runs 3-400 dollars. It’s oh so sad!
We are addicted to the feeling of buying something new, no matter how cheap and stupid the product.
Instead of buying something solid, people tend to buy plastic-frame vacuums every 3 years... with nylon impellers, flimsy attachments, and awkward bagging systems.
Investing in quality isn’t even possible sometimes - they just don’t sell it in stores.
The up-side is that cheap does the job, usually. We just don’t need the extra “edge” of expensive products. It’s not worth it.
With the proper hydraulic system, it could be real popular in Los Angeles.
I'm still using a 53 year old Frigidaire refrigerator. I did replace the door gasket about 20 years ago.
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