I picked up a new vacuum cleaner the other day.

Well, it wasn't exactly new. And I'm not sure calling it a vacuum cleaner is completely accurate, because, while it looked like one of those tiny old classic vacuum cleaners, it turned out to be missing the entire motor.

What I picked up was a shell. Rather like two clam shell halves that had to be screwed back together; the whole thing had been left by a neighbor in a pile for the trash collector, and clueless me (I'm always a sucker for nostalgia) picked it up and brought it home.

Here it is, being examined by Coco, who wasn't terribly impressed (mainly because it didn't contain food).

Fortunately, the two little wheels had been left inside, along with the rubber gasket and the long screws which hold the case together, otherwise I'd have put it out in front of my place for the trash collector.

During the assembly, I began to see a REVELATION. Literally, the word seemed to appear, as if struggling to break through the blue paint and tell me something important.

I just saw the movie 1408 the other night. It's a great but scary film, and it crossed my mind that I might be suffering from hallucinations induced by Post Scary Film Stress Syndrome on the heels of excessive Grateful Dead nostalgia. When a wacky word like "REVELATION" (well, wacky for a vacuum cleaner) appears like that, struggling to be seen despite a coverup, I've got to remain skeptical.

Rather than succumb to cosmic fretting, I reached for the steel wool!

Sure enough, the word "REVELATION" was not only there, it appeared to be a commercial logo of some sort. Googling the term in the vacuum cleaner context, I soon found what I was looking for:

The Compact vacuums were originally made by the Interstate Engineering Corporation to clean Howard Hughes Corporation aircraft in the 1940's. The first Compact had two rear wheels and two front skids. It had a hose with several attachments so they could easily clean under the seats and the overhead compartments. It was very likely women employees who cleaned the aircraft because Howard Hughes' Corporation employed many of the "Rosie The Riveters" that you've probably heard about working to support WW2.

The vacuum worked so well that they decided to sell it to the public. The transition was easy because they already had all of the cast and die equipment necessary to manufacture the metal parts for the machines. The first Compact was sold to the public in 1946.

The salesmen were doing so well selling the Compact door to door that the company made a spin off called the Revelation. The Revelations were only sold in retail stores from 1949-1954. The Compacts were only sold by salesmen. Interstate invented and owned patents on both of the machines.

I'm glad I found the truth about my "revelation" though, because there's another "Vacuum Cleaner Revelation," and I'm afraid I don't have time for it. More than one Vacuum Cleaner Revelation in a day, and there'd be a sucking sound from within my cranial cavity.

I'm left wondering why someone would have gone to the trouble of painting over the word "REVELATION."

They probably used lead paint too, so I've shortened my life and lowered my IQ.

Just to make a planter.

Well, you can't say I'm not helping the environment. No seriously. If every vacuum cleaner in the world could be turned into a planter, the number of carbon footprints which would never be made would exceed the number the vacuum cleaner would have ever vacuumed up!

(No, I haven't checked the math, but give me a break; it's a REVELATION I'm dealing with!)