Oh so great the stories are. I'm not sure that I have much of an interesting one, but here goes. My mom and I were like oil and water. If she said "up" I said "down". So as a little one I would get hints as to what I would like and wouldn't like to do by the things she fussed about. There was a box, one of those waxed boxes that packed meats are shipped in. In it was a lot of small pieces of fabric. Well, in about 1957, she was counting bubbles in a magazine and sent in the contest of how many to win a vacuum cleaner. A great deal of time later, she'd nearly forgotten about it but a man knocked on our door. We were living in a coal camp and were used to bums knocking for a hand out. She had just lost her dad and told 'whoever it is, go away." And a male voice piped up, "Even if you are a winner in a contest, you still want me to go away." So, he told her she had won her chance to BUY a vacuum cleaner. She got the magazine and looked it up and all of the item had been the part she mailed away. SO, she said, no it said, to WIN. Well, she'd just bought a new electrolux vacuum and didn't need one and told him so. And he asked if she would be interested in a new Electric sewing machine. She said maybe or maybe not. He sat and showed her his book and talked and talked. I was playing jacks on the floor when she jumped up and said, what would you give me for this. Her darling old Singer treadle machine. He and she made a bargain, but her sewing machine had to be shipped. Two weeks later, we got a card in the mail to go to Cottonhill Train Station and pick it up. It was protable, pink and all sorts of attachments. A tool box, and instruction book. Oh goodness, she was the cock of the walk. No one else in the Coal Camp had one. So, to practice she dragged that old box out and pieced those little pieces together. She told me it was instructional, not that she was wasting her time on it. One day, it was as big as her bed and she took a think cotton blanket and sewed it to it and wrapped the blanket around it and mitered the corners. It was a delight. Many a warm night was enjoyed by that rag quilt. She didn't have to tie it, because she taught herself the art of 'freewill'sewing. She was a bit religious. I already have two sewing machines so just a couple weeks ago, I gave "Pinky" to a lovely lady I met on freecycle looking for an old one. I was moving it to feed the bird, moving it to use the dryer and moving it twice a day. It weighed a ton. The lady is delighted and so am I. Just before I married in 1968, my intended bought me a machine for Christmas.....and piecing bits and making children's clothes and wedding garments since. oh I love to sew. God is Good!.....Ruth