I don't know enough to let my mind wander while I'm working on them. I'm focused on the machine.
Rodney

I'm not thinking so much as trying to follow the teeny tiny singer diagrams on my tablet so I have less chance of screwing something up...or in wrong...or not at all. The more I do the better it will be but for now I'm just learning from the service manuals.

If Wilbur is over I'm thinking about how I'm going to not have a disaster...

I always say to myself how privileged and lucky I am to have this wonderful machine in front of me and I will just stare and wonder on the technology - that 100 years after it was manufactured it's still intact, clean, not a dent on the body, cabinets in good condition, and parts are in good working condition. And they never make this kind of machine anymore. And I wish i could buy all the machines that I want to keep and use.

I think about who owned the machine and look for clues. Did you ever see the movie "The Red Violin"? That's what I mean - who originally owned it and how many hands did it pass through until it ended up with me.

Wow great answers! I guess I think ALL those things! Sometimes I get a little emotional knowing how old a machine is and that someone probably sewed clothes for their children or things for their home on it.

The machine i just got-the 301 LBOW had newspaper clippings in the accessory box. One was a simple clip a Hint from Heloise about putting foil on your ironing board, but the others documented a family tragedy. There was an accident with 3 teen boys and one was killed. In another article a bartender admitted to selling them liquor and in the third One boy's family was suing another (I assume the driver of the vehicle). Apparently Gramma had saved the clippings to document the family history but had secreted them away with her sewing machine.

Please let this be the fix that will make my mach workxo"/#&?

I always tend to wonder where the machine has been, what it has "seen" and the times it "lived" through. I tend to do that with all my antiques though.

I am in another frame of mind here--when I am sitting at my machine (any of them), I start to wonder what the next person to own this machine will be thinking; and sometimes get a little down because NONE of my kids love my talent and phobias about sewing machines. I start to wonder what I might have done differently those long years ago when sewing was an absolute passion with me---it just didn't rub off on my kids. I think all it did was take my time with them away from them, and they didn't even have Smartphones. Am I in a funk this morning????

Funny that I never even consider the previous owners.... I think about the inventor, engineer, and craftsman that made it and I try to do them proud...

This thought process backfired once when on a crappy made machine, found myself not caring much either...