I do remember a brief time when my dad had part-time interest in a diner and I do remember moving to a big house on Northwestern Ave. in Lafayette, Indiana, across from the Purdue university campus. At that time my dad had a job selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door for the Regina Vacuum Cleaner company. Vacuum cleaners were a new innovation during the 30's and every housewife who could afford it, wanted one. It surely was an improvement over the old process of hanging rugs over the clothes line and beating them with a carpet beater. The wives of the university professors were good prospects because their husbands still had paying jobs.

I remember my father telling a story about one day when he was demonstrating a vacuum cleaner to a woman there in Lafayette, probably a professor's wife. He looked out her front window and he saw a man outside walking around his car and he knew he was the re-possessor from the company that held his car loan. He was 2 months behind on his loan payments. He knew he was dead in the water without his car. He said that he never in his life tried so hard to sell a vacuum cleaner. As it turned out, the lady bought the vacuum and paid for it in cash. My Dad went out of the house, walked up to the re-possessor and paid him his delinquent payments. He said to the man, "Oh I am so sorry. I have been meaning to get over to your place to pay my loan payments, but have just been so busy." Of course few people had bank accounts and many people had to pay in person. The loan officer bought his explanation and went on his way.