ADRIAN, Mich. - One hundred years ago this year, a department store janitor named Murray Spangler took a tin soap box, a fan, a pillow case and a broom handle and invented what he called the "suction sweeper." The vacuum cleaner was born. And soon, every kid wanted one. Well … not every kid. To most 12-year-olds, vacuuming is about as appealing as algebra. But to Kyle Krichbaum of Adrian, Mich., it's pure joy. "Some people like baseball better than football," Kyle says. In fact, he tells CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman in this week's Assignment America that he likes vacuums better than "everything." Kyle's mom, MaryLynn, says the fire's been burning since before he could say "Hoover." "When Kyle was a baby in his little baby seat and I'd be vacuuming, he would just be mesmerized by the vacuum and he would just; he'd follow it everywhere," she says. Kyle got his first vacuum at age 1, dressed up as a Dirt Devil for Halloween at 2, and, as a former teacher recalls, was vacuuming during school recess at age 6. "It's not that he didn't like recess. He just preferred to stay inside vacuuming," he says. "He would go down and, actually, one day vacuum one side of the room, the next day vacuum the other side. [He'd] also vacuum the principal's office — anywhere he could vacuum." Today, Kyle has 165 vacuums. He uses almost all of them, vacuuming his own house up to five times a day. Full Story MagazineLane.com
