But first. This thing.
As promised (or threatened), I got some pictures of it. I'm almost at a loss for words, honestly, describing it. It's been there in the garage since I was a kid back in the 1970s, which is when I'm going to guess my Dad got it new (or newish), judging by, well, by it.
I just don't understand it.
Okay, I can see painting up your VW bus in rainbow hippie-colors, and gluing olive green shag carpet to the entire interior space, man, but, though it was the 70s, and though my Dad was an actual Volkswagen mechanic, he was also born in 1923 and the hippies, as far as I can tell, left no impression whatsoever on him (not, I suppose, that much of anything else did either, to be fair). So it's not like my Dad picked it for its style.
It must simply have been the cheapest one. I can almost imagine it sitting on a shelf in Sears in 1973. Almost. But then my brain kicks back in and I'm like, really? Really???
Because, really, why the fuck would anybody design a shop vac that looks like this?
Duuuude, check out the close up:
I mean it's just so damned Age of Aquarius (or at least the Dawning thereof). And I cannot in a million years fathom why my father would have chosen this particular shop vac. Unless someone he vaguely knew bought it whilst high, then the morning after was like Whoa, man. And then had to get it the Hell out of the house because it was just freakin' him out, man, and he thought, Hey that guy up the street will take it, won't he?
Tara has named it Mr. Sunshine.
The craziest thing about it? It still works.
7 comments:
That thing is awesome. I bet a "collector" would buy that on eBay.
I admit that I have seen that shop vac before. It's a twist on the plain old solid color ones. I'm sure that back in it's day, it was considered to be really cool, but now it's just tacky!
Agree with the first post. That thing is awesome. I've never seen anything like it. It may be a rare treasure in a land of garbage. Sell it, I'll bet you'll get good money for it.
-sheila
Actually we weren't planning on getting rid of it, for the simple reason that of all the crap out there, this thing actually works and is useful. It's what we used to clean up all that muriatic acid + baking soda mess the other day.
And, actually, despite all the WTFing in my post, I do rather like it. Plus we've named it. And like a stray kitten, once something's got a name, it's there to stay.
And, I suppose I should also qualify, since the word 'useful' is really fraught with problems when we're talking about hoarders, it's not just potentially useful, but immediately useful.
Unbelievable!!! My neighbor is cleaning out her moms house, when my girlfreind saw it in her throw away stack. She thought it was just too weird of a design and had to have it. It sat in the back room for a year or so untill I needed a shop vac. I was going to buy one when I came across it again, after blowin 40yrs of dust out of it, the damn thing works great. I was lookin for a hose attachment when I saw yours. We decided to name ours Mrs Sunshine, since there the only two remaining in the universe. By the way when I saw your pic I thought it was one my neighbor took along time ago. Thanks Racerx
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