This one I cannot just keep to myself.

I received this email the other day and I think I read it fifteen times in a row. I love it and wanted to pass it on, with permission, nuff said. Dear Dave and Sharon, I have a story to tell you about my Singer 221. I married my husband in September, 1959 in Cleveland when I was 18 and he was 22. By January, 1960 he had been transferred to Baltimore, MD. We were poor as church mice so having children wasn't something we could do right away. We decided that we should have our first child by our second anniversary. BUT, I told him I couldn't have a baby until I had a sewing machine! Another young wife in our apartment building was making slipcovers for her sofa out of naugahyde. Remember that heavy, heavy fabric-backed fake leather stuff? She was using her mother's Featherweight to do it. I wanted a Featherweight. My husband was in Naval Reserves and in talking to a fellow sailor on his once-a-month duty weekend, he found that sailor's day job was working in a Singer store (yes, there were such things in 1960). When he jokingly told the man about my ultimatum, the man said, when we were ready to buy, call him and he'd take a brand new machine out of the box and put it in the display window. He'd then be able to give us a 5% discount. When my husband got home from that weekend he told me what his fellow sailor had said. I could hardly wait until we saved enough money to go down to the store and take MY Featherweight home. It wasn't long before I was sewing my maternity clothes, then all the toddler clothes and my wardrobe on my trusty Featherweight. Over the years I've maintained my Featherweight carefully, even when I had other machines for my quilting. When I went to classes where I knew I would only be doing straight stitching, my 221 always was my go-to machine. It sews a much better stitch than my other machines. I love it! Thanks for being there and carrying on the love affair with the Singer 221s. I'm glad you understand my passion for my machine. Denise of Leesburg, FL