When I was a little girl, my family lived for several years in my grandparents' house in Elizabeth, New Jersey. My grandmother Yetta, a naturalized American citizen originally from Riga, Latvia, was a highly skilled seamstress. I have very clear memories of learning to sew at her Singer treadle machine, with my patient Granny at my side. After she died, the machine went to various relatives, but I never forgot it, and more or less kept track of it over the years.
Fast forward to this year, when my cousin Andy sold his house in upstate NY and prepared to move to Florida, and asked if I wanted the old machine, which he had inherited from his mother, one of Yetta's four daughters. Of course I wanted it! Today Andy & Molli came for lunch on their way south, and dropped off the Singer. Dropping it off is an understatement. It required two strong men to carry it from the trailer into the house. I was thrilled to see it again. My late aunt had refinished the cabinet and had been using it as an end table, but the machine itself had not been touched since my grandmother's time. Some of her old sewing notions are still in the drawers.
The machine will need cleaning and oiling, and the belt will have to be replaced, but otherwise I'm hopeful that I will be able to get it back into working condition. The manual is missing; my initial research puts the date of manufacture at 1909, and I think it's a Model 27, manufactured in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There are some wonderful resources out there for tracking these things down. What fun! The old gal has come home.