Saturday, October 13, 2007

SERENDIPITY

We went out of state to visit my Aunts, Uncle, and cousin. One aunt and uncle are the brother and sister of my mother. They live in the small town they grew up in, although my uncle lived near Philadelphia until he retired, and then he moved back to his boyhood home. When driving through town, a yarn winder in an antique store window caught my eye.
We planned on going home on Saturday afternoon, and my family said they were taking us to lunch and we would go to the antique store. I'm not much of a traveler, and I was anxious to go home. I said, "We don't have to go to the antique store, I don't really want to buy anything, and I don't know if the yarn winder would fit in my car anyway. But since the antique store turned out to be next to the restaurant, I decided I would at least look at it through the window. They wanted more for it than I wanted to spend, and I would have passed the shop up completely if my aunt hadn't said " do you want to go in and see your grandmother's sewing machine?" She said that she and my cousin saw it in there. It had been sold after my grandmother died 30 or so years ago. So it has been somewhere in town all this time. The antique store was within walking distance of where my grandparents lived. My aunt identified it, and said that my grandmother taught my cousin how to sew on it and it was my cousin who put the scratch on the table that flips out. I always wondered what had happened to it. I probably never asked for it because although it was a treadle, my grandmother had rigged up some sort of motor on it. I never thought that it could have been removed. And I was also in my twenties, and never thought that I might want it later in life. It is a Brunswick vibrating shuttle machine.Made by Montgomery Ward. Odd in the fact that the restaurant next door was the town's Mongomery Ward store a long time ago.

Well, I have it now. It had been marked down three times to $75.00. I may never get it to work again, and it has a shuttle bobbin that I have no idea how to use, But my favorite grandparent, the woman who had the patience, and took the time to teach her young granddaughter how to stitch that first churn dash block, must have known I was ready to have her machine, so she pushed me in the door of that antique store. What a great day.

9 comments:

Dorothy said...

Great day, GREAT story! I'll bet your handy husband could get it working again, if that's what you wanted. You have a true treasure. I can't imagine a better person for it to belong to.

carrie said...

How lovely. I am sure it can be made to work again - try the needlebar forums for help and advice or treadleon

I have a singer treadle withg a motor - I've never used the motor, I think it's probably dangerous! But treadling is nice....

Sheri said...

Hi Terri
How great!
I wish I had the treadle my mother taught me on.
And I really believe your grandmother did push you in the store knowing you would want it.
Sheri

indigocarole said...

Teri, thank you for a lovely story. I learned to sew on my mother's treadle and used the lid as a rocking cradle for my doll. I've always regretted trading it in, for my first electric sewing machine in the 70's, but as we moved a lot in those days, keeping it wasn't an option. You brought back some good memories.
Carole
UK

Anonymous said...

How cool is that! Very nice!

Rian said...

Yay! I just love stories with happy endings!

Elaine Adair said...

I can hardly see what I'm typing - just a little tear-y eyed here at your lovely story. What a wonderful connection you have.

Suze said...

How cool is that?!!

Great story...love the happy ending! You probably can get it to work again...those old machines were made to take alot of abuse...

Christine Thresh said...

I believe you did get pushed in the door of that store.
There is a very helpful website called Treadleon. Try to find it. I am sure they know about the bullet bobbins and all the other important things to get your machine humming.
I have a treadle machine, but it is not a family one. It is my backup machine in case the power goes out for a long, long time.