Mothers in Law and Sewing

But this particular memory is about Keith's mom. When we were first together my sewing machine was a very old treadle one, and in case some of you have no idea what that is, it is a machine that only goes as fast as your foot can make it. There is no power other then your own. You use your foot to push a pedal up and down. It is not electric, it had no reverse stitch, didn't do buttons, fancy stitching or anything. I sewed all our clothes, jeans, parkas, bedding, dress shirts and even suits for Keith and the boys. I didn't know any different as it was the only thing I had ever sewn on.

One mother's day, my MIL called me to say Sears had a sale and this machine was on for only $125.00! She may as well have said it was 125,000.00! I told her there was no way Keith was going to "allow" me to spend that kind of money. Now you have to put things into perspective, our mortgage payments were $87.00 a month so paying more then a month's mortgage on a sewing machine was not going to happen.

The next time we were over visiting, Keith's mom tells him about this machine and with all the sewing I did it would really pay for itself. He said there was no way. Now you have to appreciate his mom, she never backed down from anything, when she felt she was right, you knew about it, ...so she just kept giving him more and more information. That Mother's Day I opened up this present thinking it was something that the children had made me, but to my wondrous eyes there was this what to me was a very fancy sewing machine. Not only that but it came with a $100.00 gift certificate to the fabric store. I'm not quite sure what kind of conversation went on between Keith and his mom when I wasn't there but I was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth at that point!!

That was 30 years ago, and I still use the same machine. It has been in for repairs only once about 20 years ago. It runs like a dream and this month as I put the finishing touches on 5 sets of jammies, 2 dresses, 2 quilts, 2 shirts, 2 skirts and 1 pair of pants, my heart remembers my mother in law. Bless her heart, and bless her for raising a son who knew to listen to his mom.