Three young girls, all interested in the same thing and the direction they took in life. A sewing machine was their beginning.

Recently I was in New York City for a lovely family wedding.

My sister lives in New Jersey.  She was kind enough to meet my husband and I for a day out on the town and a bit of adventure.  We decided to take the tourist way out and hopped on a bus to look at the city in a broad view.  We have both been there several times, she for work and me for work and fun.

While in SoHo/China town we stopped in a lovely leather shop filled with hand made items.  We both fell in love with their, far too expensive for us, products.  While looking, we both migrated to a section in the store with old sewing machines.  I knew what Mary, my sister, was thinking.  She was thinking about our first sewing machine.

The clerk walked over to us and said that they were the owners collection but that they were also for sale.  We both chuckled and one of us said, "Oh we had one like that, except it was a treadle, in a cabinet."  The clerk was engaged and we told her our story......

Remember it was a small town, during the late 60's. I was in third grade, my sister was in second, and our neighbor Brenda, was in first grade. Somehow we decided that we were going to go to an auction that was about 6 or 7 blocks from our house.  The auction was on the edge of town so it was almost "in the country."  I don't quite remember how we knew what to do at an auction, but auctions were part of the fabric of a small town back then.  I am not even sure that our mother knew where we were or what we were doing.

We had very little money in our pockets.  Brenda had the most which is key to our adventure.  We looked around at the items and we saw this old treadle sewing machine.  The three of us wanted it bad.  We wanted to sew, create and make things; on our own sewing machine.  We had watched my mom make all of our clothes and we wanted to do that too.  I don't think mom was ready for the battle of teaching her two strong willed kids sewing technique.  Brenda's mom was not a sewer but Brenda wanted to be.  (Later on Brenda's mom became, and still is, quite a quilter, an AMAZING quilter!)

We pooled our money which was around a $1.00.  The auction was huge.  It was the contents of a family's chicken farm.  When they finally came to the sewing machine we bravely bid on the machine. We had no competition.  We couldn't believe our luck.  We were so excited!  The story varies as to how we got it home.  I remember the machine having wheels and wheeling it home.  My sister remembers us getting our wagon and wheeling it home.  But we did it on our own.  I remember traveling over gravel and then thinking, finally a smooth tar road.  Our mother's wanted no part of this treadle machine.  I think their irritation was really amusement with our energy and seriousness to get this wonderful new toy.  I remember trying to figure out where to put it and it was determined we would put it in Brenda's basement as she had the largest stake in the deal.

We tried it and made it work.  We never really used it a lot.  My mom soon thereafter shipped me off to her sister's home to teach me how to sew.  This avoided conflict with mother and daughter. Frankly, I have never stopped sewing.

When I look at the three of us and our personal history that sewing machine adventure was really the beginning for each of us.  We all took different paths but stuck to our original love.

My sister,Mary, has been a planner and in allocation for the retail industry for years.  She LOVES fashion and the industry and has worked for several shopping networks and is presently at Burlington, in Burlington, NJ.

Brenda has worked in the sales end of the industry with shoes and Vera Wang.  She now owns and operates "Italia Celebrations" in Italy.  A lovely wedding planning service.   https://www.facebook.com/ItaliaCelebrations/?ref=br_rs

I went the traditional route teaching Family and Consumer Sciences focusing on fashion and sewing construction.

When we finished telling the clerk our story, her response actually shocked both Mary and I.  She was thrilled and said, "Oh, I love this story.  Someone needs to do a little short story about this, I can see the little girls getting that sewing machine home.  It should be a 3 minute short story on HBO"  We smiled and thanked her, we were just three small town girls ready to sew, but what a fine memory it is for us. And look where it took us.  Oh the places you will go........!

With love from the very soon to be, back in retirement, FACS teacher,
Jane