I really enjoyed this post.
I recognized the cover photo before I opened it as a part for a sewing machine, although I wasn't sure exactly what it's function was either.
My Grandmother had a black singer. She had it in a sewing table where it could fold down out of site and a hinged lid would cover it. When using the machine, the opened hinged lid added table space to work on. She sewed a lot when my Mom was growing up and taught my Mom. My Mom is a good seamstress, but at nearly 90, she hasn't sewn much in years, more than just hemming and repairs. She didn't make all my clothes growing up, but she did make some dresses when I was young and some Pant Suits in my teens when those became all the rage.
I took Home Eck in school and I knew the basics of operating the machines. Although I did make a few things, I never seemed to have the patience for sticking with it. You can only imagine my Mom's face when in my teens, I produced the most beautifully colored Halter Top. LOLOLOL....that of course she didn't want me to wear out of the house. I can hem and repair and do crafts and the such, but mostly my machine just gets borrowed by sisters that don't have one. Even now I think it is at Mom's !
My Mom and Grandmother gave me my first machine when I graduated from High School and it was a good one. My Mom borrowed it when I moved halfway across the country for a while and it was better than a newer one she had by then, so I didn't ask for it back and bought another, which does fine for the things I rarely use it for.
This does bring back memories of my Grandmother and my Mother's younger life and those items which they made by hand for me.
Great post !
Thanks! A great response too, a post of its own.
That reminds me of one of my mom's faces. She was a home ec teacher in my high school, one of two. Mom was very proud of my sewing skills, and expected the other teacher to be impressed when I had to take her class (open a can of campbells, add milk and then water kind of stuff). I had superb finishing skills, but the other teacher had different technique for sewing down a facing (one thing I can't remember about sewing is the lingo - I'm old like that) which I simply could not do well, I kept reverting to the one that worked for me and the whole thing was messy, I can still see it today. My mother came home and told me she was ashamed of me. I don't remember if she used that exact word, but the look I can still clearly see after more than fifty years had "I'm ashamed" written all over it.
Our mothers were/are human. Human women.
One cool thing about writing this post is that I have learned I have very clear visual memories, especially of looks on faces, but fuzzy memories of any words that were used. I wonder how that affects my interpretation of events.
Thanks so much for your comment!