Lois, thanks very much and knowing how great these 1960s and '70s Kenmores are and especially one as good as the 158.1756, I just can't believe people give these away. It just blows my mind. But it's good news, too, because they're there for the taking. I would bet you could find another same or similar machine very, very inexpensively. And it's strange that we not only have the same Kenmore in common but this is the very first sewing machine I ever purchased:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]479044[/ATTACH]
I bought the White (pictured in the above post) shortly after. The Janome is a good machine but the sewing experience isn't the same. I like that I can put stitch sequences and exact stitch characteristics into main memory and I can recall exact stitch settings rather than use a lever to guess, the auto-thread cutting is great, needle threader, up/down, stop, and reverse buttons right above the needle bar, etc. But it's as if the soul has been engineered out of the sewing process. I don't have much experience on modern machines (and not much more on vintage) but feeling the weight of a vintage machine's parts interacting with the thread and cloth is a tactile sensation I just don't get from the Janome. And they don't sound at all alike. It's strangely artificial and 'distant', where the motor whirrs rather than hums. Were I presented with 2 lines of zig-zag stitches in the same size on the same cloth with the same thread, one stitched with a vintage Kenmore and one with the Janome, would I be able to tell the difference? Does it matter? It does if I'm doing the sewing.
Great to hear from another Kenmore fan!