re: #9 A Cranky One
All right, I have something to say about that, and the color of the vacuum cleaner reminded me of it. For their first Christmas together as a married couple, my father bought my mother a Husqvarna (now Viking) sewing machine. Which apparently cost $300 in 1959. It was top of the line. My mother LOVED it. She sewed everything she could on it, curtains, clothing, whatever. It looked like this:
That thing is a TANK, all metal. It’s now mine, but it was living over at my mother’s house because she thought she might sew again with it and I just never took it back. I will grab it back tomorrow.