At Old Town Antiques

Old Town Antiques is a store in Eureka. I usually find great prism like pieces of crystal salvaged from light fixtures of the Victorian era there. On this day, I saw this lovely old Treadle. Go on, click on the picture and you'll see a bigger one, get detail.

It was a delightful moment, almost like running into an old friend. If I had more room, I'd have invited it home with me. After all, I don't have a coffin top treadle yet. Yes, I try to convince myself at times that I'm all done collecting sewing machines, but shhhhhh, somehow I think it's not over yet.

There is still something about a sewing machine. I look at this machine and I see a thousand machines. I see my aunt's machine, the one who made costumes in Hollywood. I see my other aunt's machine, which was a lot smaller, which she used to make dolls and toys for the "rez". She and my mother got me into helping as soon as I could sew without piercing my fingers. All I can say is that I was lucky mom's machine had a knee control, because my legs were too short to reach the floor at that time. I think of my grandmother's treadle...

A legacy of love. A love of legacy.