Truck Mount Sale 42 Years Ago...

[Jim Pemberton]

I was going through some very old files and found the records of my first truck mount sale in 1979....just 9 days before my 20th birthday.

The "M100" was Prochem's first "small footprint" oil fired truck mount. The M20A was a wet/dry upholstery and drapery cleaning extractor.

I had been on the road for a year selling those 20A units before this sale. But I guess I was so pleased with my first truck mount sale that I kept the paper.

Its hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I was spending 2-3 days a week in motels and cleaning restaurants at midnight years before I could get a legal drink in a bar.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Pretty good price! I'll take (2)!

 

[Lee Stockwell]

A lot of money back then.

 

[Cleanworks]

I was going through some very old files and found the records of my first truck mount sale in 1979....just 9 days before my 20th birthday.

The "M100" was Prochem's first "small footprint" oil fired truck mount. The M20A was a wet/dry upholstery and drapery cleaning extractor.

I had been on the road for a year selling those 20A units before this sale. But I guess I was so pleased with my first truck mount sale that I kept the paper.

Its hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I was spending 2-3 days a week in motels and cleaning restaurants at midnight years before I could get a legal drink in a bar.

View attachment 108654

What kind of machine was it?

 

[Jim Pemberton]

Prochem and Steamway were the oil fire kings in the 70s and 80s. The 100 had a 16 HP BS engine and 3M blower. Most pretty much thought gas prices were going to sky rocket, so it was designed to go in a 1/2 ton van with a small foot print. Great heat, but significant vacuum loss over 150’. But at the time, I sold them from New Hampshire to North Carolina to Wisconsin.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

A lot of money back then.

As I was told by the “old” (35-55) year old men who I tried, with variable success, to sell them to

 

[sassyotto]

The 100A was our first Prochem machine. Kerosene tank could have been a bit bigger for us Up North people but otherwise a great machine back in the day.

 

[Desk Jockey]

The 100A was our first Prochem machine. Kerosene tank could have been a bit bigger for us Up North people but otherwise a great machine back in the day.

Those things were fire breathing dragons.

 

[Numero Uno]

The original don't touch that hose without gloves on...
Machines like that are what got us here now...
Jim just looking at paperwork in a digital age.
Makes me realize I am a dinosaur...
Grats on your big day back then.
Memories...

 

[Nomad74]

Those things were fire breathing dragons.

Did someone say "Dragon"?

 

[FB19087]

Did someone say "Dragon"?
View attachment 108661

I can't believe you tried to murder Matt and who knows how many innocent children with that thing........

 

[Desk Jockey]

Did someone say "Dragon"?
View attachment 108661

Did you sell it?

 

[Nomad74]

Did you sell it?

Yes

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Yes

So, PT Barnum was right!

 

[encapman]

That's pretty cool Jim! I saved the order note for the first Cimex we ever sold too. I have it in a frame at our office. Kinda like the dollar bill of the first sale on the wall at a local business. You should frame that too.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

That's pretty cool Jim! I saved the order note for the first Cimex we ever sold too. I have it in a frame at our office. Kinda like the dollar bill of the first sale on the wall at a local business. You should frame that too.

You changed the cleaning industry for the better when you reintroduced the Cimex to our world. Thank you for that, and all you've done since Rick.

 

[encapman]

Thank you Jim.
To quote the Grateful Dead... "What a long strange trip it's been"

P.S. What you and your dad have contributed is nothing small either! Each of us here is benefiting from the collective community of our industry.