A Singer Genie. My sister gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday. It is still my only sewing machine. My sister had sewn most of her clothing and some of mine all my life til then and taught me to sew the summer I was fourteen. (my sister is nearly 13 years my senior so very motherly to me for all my childhood)
My mother's first sewing machine (a singer treadle) is still at the old homestead (owned by my sister so still in the family). It was purchased with money sent home by mother's brother from his CCC money when he was working on public works out west during The Great Depression, I'm guessing early to mid 1930's. My grandmother used it after Mama married and moved away from home. I remember standing at Grandma's side at that treadle while she made a vest for my cousin for her birthday one summer when I got to stay for the whole summer instead of just two weeks. I was eight.
My mother and I moved back to the old homestead in 1976 and she resumed using it, if only for special projects. All it needed was a new belt for the pulley system. I still have a skirt she sewed for me in the late 70's...I did the gathering of the ruffle and hand hemmed it but she did everything else on the treadle. If I remember the ruffle correctly it started out nine feet long....I'm sure glad my sister taught me right!!
Thanks for the memory!