Show and Tell Friday...

When I was 14 years old, my mama and papa drove around for miles and miles to every sewing store we could find, in search for my first sewing machine. I didn't just want any machine, but I wanted a 1957 Singer slant-o-matic 401a. The day was nearing an end, and we were losing hope that we would find such a machine. Well, hidden in a row of dingy little buildings was a sewing shop, I declared that there we would find my sewing machine. And there we found it. In a little sew and vac shop in a town once called Bostonia. Mama was so excited for me, and papa was so proud of me bargaining the price down with the shop owner, that they even got me a burgundy hard covered sewing case. The machine was in wonderful condition, and all the accessories and even the manual were still intact. We rushed home with my new treasure, and then I had to hurry off to a birthday party. I will never forget coming home to find my mama behind that old sewing machine, scrubbing away. There were probably 200 dirty q-tips beside her, she cleaned every groove, knob, and crevice of that machine. It was a sentimental journey for her. In her youth she too had a singer slant-o-matic machine. She had the 500 model known as the Rocketeer. Many a night I put my mama to sleep with the hum of that sewing machine, as I would stitch into the wee hours of morning. 11 years has passed since finding that treasure. Mama and I still have our old Singers, but since then we had another adventure at another sewing shop, where as we are now the owners of some lovely Bernina machines. Mama and I may be decades apart, but we are two peas in the same pod.