Four Weddings and a Funeral, and a Hoover vacuum cleaner…sweeper

Way back in April 1994, my sister Shawn came up to spend the weekend, and we made plans to see Four Weddings and a Funeral at the Waterworks Cinema.  Shawn used to come up a lot of weekends then, before she met Jim and got married.  We’d go to the movies, she’d take me grocery shopping, I’d make us dinner.

My Hoover Preferred Vacuum Cleaner, minus it’s separate cleaning hose but still in fine working order

Anyway, I remember the events around this particular movie as I asked Shawn if we could go to the Appliance Store before or after the show, as I needed a new vacuum cleaner. 

That was 30 years ago this month, and that’s what you’re looking at here, the sweeper I got and still use.

I have used it regularly in every apartment I’ve lived in since then, usually 1-2 times a week.  It’s never given me a bit of trouble.  I accidentally tore the separate cleaning hose back around 2005, but you can still buy the Hoover “A” bags that fit behind that plastic shell on the front.  The light at the bottom flickers off & on, but what can you expect after 30 years?

I was telling my friend Sarah in #411 my little story about the sweeper and this movie, and she said “I never heard of it.  I mostly watch romantic comedies.”

So do you own any old appliances you still use, that you’re surprised still work?  This past January I boasted on here about my Rival hand mixer that my Grandma was going to toss in 1984 because it rattled so loudly.  I took it off her hands and used it until this past February, when I made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and discovered my dough had sharp white plastic fragments in the cookie dough. 

Out went the dough—and my grandma’s 50 year old hand mixer.

Anyway, the reason I’m sharing my sweeper here is because last night I watched a (very funny, very peculiar) documentary series on MAX called “HOW TO with John Wilson” where every episode starts out on one topic but winds up completely different by the end.  In last night’s show “How to Watch Sports”, he shows us how to clean your apartment before you invite your friends over for the big game. 

But his vacuum was broken, so he takes it to an appliance repair shop in Brooklyn.

The owner of the shop moans it’s a Dyson, and John asks if that’s a problem.  The shop owner (these are real people) says “Hell yeah it’s a problem!  Dyson cleaners are crap, they’re the most overrated things out there!”   He tells John he should get a Shark or a Bissell or a vintage Hoover, and the next thing you know John is at the annual Vacuum Land Convention in Scranton, Pa.  

There are people there from all over the country who collect vintage vacuum cleaners.  One man confesses he’s been in love with them since he was a kid, and his dad gifted him with a rainbow of Hoover uprights over the years.  What the—!!

Here’s one more thing.  I never throw out a manual until I toss the appliance first, so here’s my Hoover manual. 

I wonder if I can still mail in the registration card?  It says to send in by Dec 31 1994 if I want a chance at winning a carpet shampooer.  I guess that ship has sailed. 

And here’s the spare agitator belt that came with the vacuum.  I’ve never needed to replace my Hoover’s belt, I’m still using the original.