Something Humorous...

 I wrote this 4 years ago, making fun of a typical situation one might find in any job.  Enjoy.  I still think it is some of my best work.

January 4, 2021

MEMO

RE: Punctuation Misuse by all employees.....

This is an extremely simplified explanation as there have been way too many people misusing punctuation... I can't believe I have to explain this, What are we, in the 3rd grade?  

There should only be one point at the end of the sentence... unless you are combining it with a second sentence to create a linear thought, at which point you use 3 points (...) to combine the sentence into a multiple thought. When you are extremely annoyed.... four points should be used.... to join the sentences in order to stress your point and make everyone understand it is getting important. In the event it is an extremely important point..... or very annoying to the person writing the memo..... then 5 points must be used. You cannot use 5 points to make a linear thought... you must use 3.  At no time can 5 points be used to join two sentences..... unless I'm getting ready to yell at you. And I am yelling..... knock it off!!!!!!

Obviously you were all sleeping in english class when punctuation was discussed.... what is this world coming to??? Apparently none of you pay attention either... since I am now writing this Memo after I spent all my time on the last one!

I hope that I will not have to yell about the misuse of exclamation points next!!!!!!

 

The Patent 469199 Machine name list

 Because of the interest in my little write up about The Patent 469199 Machine (Needlebar classification National Seamstress class), I decided to collect the names I know of this machine being called.  It seems to have been a popular badge machine, a machine sold in batches with the purchaser's desired name on it.  

As I find memorabilia or names are sent to me, I'll add them here.  This is a call out to the sewing machine community, because without everyone's help this kind of information can't be collected.

Known Patent 469199 Machine names

Arlington

Burlington Hawkeye

Germania (name of many German language newspapers in USA)

New England Queen 

Pokrok Zapadu (Czech language newspaper in USA)

Seamstress

Seebote (German language newspaper in Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

Texas Advocate

Possible:  Courier Journal (an ad resembles this machine but none have showed up in person)

Serial numbers:  Both 5 digit and 6 digit numbers have shown up.  My Germania is SN 33,255.  The Pokrok Zapadu was in the 500,000s.  There is no idea of how long these machines were made, or if they were their own separate serial number list. 

Thank you to:  Marion, Robyn, Laura, Damascus Annie, John, Judy (aka dvrtiska from ISMACS)

PS -- if anyone knows what happened to Judy aka dvrtiska, I'd like to know.  She sent me the below scans from Pokrok Zapadu newspaper Nov 3, 1897.  It matched her family machine, which I helped her ID as The Patent 469199 Machine.

The Patent 469199 Machine (National Seamstress model)

The Patent 469199 Machine aka National Seamstress model

 Every once in a while a machine shows up that convinces everyone it is a New Home. I don’t know how many times I have heard “only New Home had a machine that looked like that.” As long as I live I will call the “impostor” out.

My relationship with The Patent 469199 Machine began January 9, 2009 when the late Katie Farmer sent Marion Kish (then Mikula) and me this email:

I am forwarding this e-mail from Robyn on to you.

The machine & cabinet are gorgeous (!), but White

never made a leaf tension machine to my knowledge.

Can you please let Robyn know if it is a badged New Home?

Thank you!

Katie Farmer

 

Robyn had sent Katie an email about a badged machine that looked like a New Home called the Texas Advocate that didn’t seem to fit any of the known series of New Home. (New Home referred to their machines as “series” not “model”.) Someone suggested to her it looked more like a Minnesota B, so she contacted Katie. Katie contacted us, and a long run of emails began. My first thought was it was a New Home, but when Robyn shared the serial number in the 500,000s, something seemed wrong. Then Marion popped in and said she also thought it was a New Home, but could we get more pictures. After more pictures, Marion said, “Wait a minute, it looks like a machine I have that I thought was a New Home but I’m not so sure.” Hers was called Arlington.

Marion emailed me pictures and we spent several hours on the phone discussion ad nauseum discussing this machine. Then I pulled Damascus Annie in who researched National. She was (and probably still is) an absolute whiz with National. She had been convinced that these machines were New Home, but after I was done with my method of sewing machine identification, she was convinced it could more likely be a National.

This machine would show up in many incarnations: Texas Advocate, Arlington, Pokrok Zapadu (Czech newspaper in USA), New England Queen in a Morley Bros treadle stand (Standish, MI), Germania (name of multiple German newspapers in USA), Burlington Hawkeye, Seebote, and Seamstress, just to name a few that I have run across.

Many more emails, a few years later on November 22, 2013 I was told “a lot of collectors decided that this machine cannot be a National.” This after I found the patent for the machine, patent 469,199 awarded to Willis S Brown, with witnesses David Patton and B. Eldredge. If you do not know who these men were, let me explain. Willis S. Brown was Superintendent of National SMCo; David Patton was secretary of National SMCo; and Barnabas Eldredge was none other than the president and interesting personage of National SMCo.

(More about these men here: https://books.google.com/books?id=YBcVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA31&dq=national+sewing+machine&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLtIX159iLAxXXRzABHWs2O_YQ6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=national%20sewing%20machine&f=false

 At that point, in a moment of frustration, and yes, anger, I began referring to these machines as “The Patent 469199 Machine.”

 I was given one of these machines on October 28, 2012. Mine is a Germania. It sews like a champ and is a machine I quite enjoy. They seem to be good little machines, even if they do try to look way too much like a New Home.

Following is my guide to differentiation between a real New Home and the “impostor” National machine. For this I used a 1923 New Home A and my Germania.  I used the New Home A because that seems to be the machine The Patent 469199 Machine is most commonly confused with.  (I used to have an 1895 New Home that I gave to a really nice ISMACS member, but the 1923 does a really good job showing how similar these machines are.)

Exhibit A -- Two identical machines that... aren't.

The Impostor Germania is on the left, the New Home is on the right.  (Hey, I've seen people miss the name on the arm before!)  First differences, look at the top tension bar.  New Home has a different lever on theirs.  The bobbin winder is in a similar but different place, but I'll talk about those differences later.

Note the tension bars top view.  I marked the differences and think they are pretty self explanatory. 

The Patent 469199 Machine has a bend upward in it which doesn't show up in this picture; New Home is flat, flat, flat (like the world!  just kidding.)

Handwheel comparison:

Look at the center of the wheel with the clutch knob and the design in the wheel.  The Germania has the clutch in the middle like a Singer; New Home As have the little knob offset from the center.

Rear view -- yup identical... oh wait -- look at that lever for the presser foot, the screw above it, and the knob for the pressure foot tension.  I think this picture proves that National was up to no good with this machine.    

Now for the real fun, in case you thought I was wrong....  The New Home has a machine latch to hold it in the bed; The Patent 469199 Machine does not.  That alone is hardly proof, so by number:

1 -- The New Home has a rounded spring, a rounded plate with 1 screw to support the flat bar; The Patent 469199 Machine has a square plate with 2 screws, no spring, and the corresponding bar is round.

2- -- The stitch length bar.  Besides the fact the end of the New Home stitch length bar end is rounded and The Patent 469199 Machine is squared, New Home used a squared support piece with a screw compared to the rounded connector of The Patent 469199 Machine.  

3 -- If I have to explain this.... I have no words.  This is the definitive point of difference between the New Home and The Patent 469199 Machine

4 --- Sorry, it was late at night on another busy night so I mislabeled #4 as 5.  But I will point out that there are so many other little differences -- have fun finding them.

5 -- Note the difference in the pivot for the arms.  Oh, and on The Patent 469199 Machine note the diamond shape by the shuttle carrier.

And if for some reason you aren't convinced at this point.... The New Home has cast into it New Home SMCO Orange Mass.

Next up, the faceplates.  Pretty self explanatory, I think.  The arrows point to the difference in needlebars -- New Home is flat, The Patent 469199 Machine is round.  The thread take up levers are in two different places.  The needle clamps are totally different.  And if you aren't sure, the New Home (right) is slightly smaller than The Patent 469199 Machine.  This picture does a good job of showing the size difference.

Now for the bobbin winders.  I was going to mark this one up, but it's so hard to.  Note the arm difference behind the thread guide; New Home is flat, The Patent 469199 Machine is curved.  The thread guide arm is different, though I will concede that The Patent 469199 Machine winder highly resembles the old style New Home arm winder.  However, note the case around the cam wheel on The Patent 469199 Machine, and the lack of one on the New Home.  

Once final glaring difference:  the serial numbers.  New Home did not put their serial numbers under the slide plate until Free became involved.  Let me repeat that: New Home *did not* put their serial numbers under the slide plate until Free got involved.  (New Home serial numbers are a topic for another day, and a topic that gets my goat as well.)  National was well-known for putting their serial numbers under the plate.  Another later point of difference is the release button for the shuttle, but not all New Home As have that.   This one happens to.

 

I hope this helps explain the differences between the New Home and The Patent 469199 Machine.

And yes, I still love my New Homes... but I am fond of my Germania as well, even if it does try to look like something it isn't!

Edit:  Forgot to mention... The Patent 469199 Machine has a National shuttle.  New Home shuttles don't fit.  

Injustice

 People wonder sometimes if I really mean what I say about injustice in Michigan.  Michigan is the land of injustice.  Criminals walk away free, allowed to continue with their crimes.  Today was set a precedent that it was acceptable for a police chief to ADMIT he misused the law enforcement information network (LEIN) on someone he didn't know, without a valid reason.  Before today, people were FIRED for looking their own family members up, which is also improper LEIN use.  But today a jury decided it is perfectly acceptable.

To say I'm sick is an understatement.

So let me talk about injustice in Michigan.  Here's what it looks like:

Aaron was a classmate of mine in high school.  He had an absolutely amazing ability to imitate SNL, and some of my fondest memories of high school are of sitting next to him in math class on Monday mornings as he relived the best skits.  Somehow I always ended up in math class with him and ended up sitting next to him despite assigned seats.  At the time of his death he was working on some pop art/comic/ mix of crazy.  I found it after his death, and it took me back to high school math class.  Once in a while I still go look at it at Internet Archive, just to remember his unique sense of humor...

Lots of stories later, graduation, then I remember the last time I saw him at the grocery store in Richmond, ca 1997.  Fast forward to 2006, and a mutual friend from high school (best man at my wedding), who had NO idea Aaron and I had been friends in high school, said that he'd mentioned  my name to Aaron.  By then I had a husband and two kids who kept me busy, but I finally was able to type an email to him as our mutual friend's wedding came closer.  Aaron was supposed to be best man.

The morning I wrote my email, Aaron was sitting at a traffic light, waiting for it to turn so he could turn left and go to work.  A 17 year old kid, who was on drugs and drunk, on a suspended license, drove into his car at over 70 MPH.  Aaron's car started on fire.....  Look it up.  The article is still online.

The kid who did that, whose dad was in for dealing meth at the time, got 4 years of schooling on the state dime, and got to walk away. 

I still miss my friend.

EDIT 8/16/2024:  Looking up the person responsible today, I discovered he died suddenly on July 16, 2024 at the age of 34, leaving 6 children.  Every so often I used to check and see if he was out or in jail.   I don't need to anymore.

I'm a (Sheaffer) girl...

 Anyone else remember the song Barbie Girl by Aqua?  (There I go, dating myself.)  I can't stand the song.  That's what makes it so funny it's in my head right now.

Anyone remember Sheaffer Pen Company of Fort Madison, Iowa?

I'm a Sheaffer girl... in a Sheaffer world.....

My first fountain pen was a Sheaffer No Nonsense, bought at M&R Drugs.  I still remember that day.  I was 12, it was 1987, and I still don't know why I knew what a fountain pen was or why I wanted one.  I had a choice of two -- red or green translucent, and I chose red.  I also remember there being jars of ink, but I didn't bring one home.  Wish I had, now.

That pen didn't survive the move to Richmond 4 years later.  I'm not sure why.   Neither did my two No Nonsense ballpoints, pale yellow and the Christmas one.   But by then, I had gotten a Parker Vector calligraphy set from Arbor Drugs.  Those were the days when little towns had real drug stores where all sorts of things could be purchased without needing to travel to large centers.  

In 1996, I  remember drooling over the ads for the Christmas pen Sheaffer put out.  That was way too expensive for my pocketbook at that point.  And then..... nothing.  No more pen ads.  I was in college and busy and no longer came across fountain pens anywhere.

When my grandpa died in 2012, I had a little break from the dying people in my family.  I started writing again and listening to music, and memories of the fountain pen came back to me.  For fun I started looking them up just to see if they still existed, and I found that there was a world beyond my dreams... 

Not long after I rediscovered there were still fountain pens, I found a pen that reminded me of that first red one.  But the memories of the first one haunted me... but what was it?  A lot of leg work and hours and I found something similar thanks to PenHero.  I was sure that the picture he had up wasn't quite right for what I remembered.  However, it gave me a place to start and I haunted used pens until I found it.....

Exactly as I remembered.  It even had a dried cartridge of Sheaffer Jet Black in it.

And then the rabbit hole appeared, as everyone knows in the sewing machine world.  At least these are smaller than sewing machines.  I am NOT trying to collect all the colors.  (I am NOT going to collect all the colors....I am not going to.... oh, that Bicentennial No Nonsense looks cool... )  Some of those have fine nibs, which I had no idea they came with.  And the blue one is the latest variant of the No Nonsense, meaning ca 2000.  That one has an italic nib.

I just recently added the two ballpoints, in memory of the Christmas ballpoint No Nonsense and the pale yellow one I wish I still had (it had the lanyard, not the clip.)

This is my whole Sheaffer family of pens.  

Top Row, L to R:  2 Sheaffer Imperial II Deluxe, Sheaffer 440, Sheaffer Stylist 444, Sheaffer Craftsman (non-working but cool), Sheaffer Vailiant Touchdown, Sheaffer Cartridge pen early 1960s.  

Bottom Row: 9 No Nonsense fountain pens, 2 No Nonsense ballpoints, and the rest are Sheaffer cartridge pens (aka unofficially "school" pens).  

 

The red and black No Nonsense pens belong to this kit:

Parker makes good pens, and I'm very fond of my Edisons .... but I keep coming back to my Sheaffers.

House drama, part 2 -- success

 My life lately seems to feel like it is one failure after another, which is anything but the truth.  Life can be like that.  One is on a beautiful road, but you only see the potholes which threaten to eat your tires.

That said, it has been long enough I can post about this success.  I'm going right to the best picture first:

Look at that!!!  I don't think it has ever looked that nice, not in the 23+ years I have lived here.  It was a process.  For anyone who comes across this and wants to know what I did, here are the gory details:

Mix peroxide and baking soda into a paste.  I wish I had learned this years ago.  It works well to take iron off of tile and tub.  You just use your hand and fingers to rub it.  No other tools necessary, and it washes off with water.  I will say, after a while you have to just walk away.  I don't know if the peroxide continues to work or if the brain holds the old memory.  When I think it doesn't look like it's working, I walk away for an hour and come back.  Peroxide and baking soda got me to this point below.  Did I mention that there was no finish left on the tub in places?

So I slept on it.  Something triggered in my memory, and I mixed up some iron out and made my own spray.  If you do that, WAIT to put in in the spray bottle until it is done foaming.  I killed a spray bottle by not waiting.  Another word of warning here: DO NOT MIX ANYTHING WITH IRON OUT.  I sprayed and walked away a few times.  

Once that was finished, then it was time for Porc-a-fix.  If one is a perfectionist, trying to match color is the difficult step.  I didn't care enough to try harder, because seriously, a 1976 bathtub is going to be hard to match.  I suppose had I really wanted to get creative, I could have picked another color and made polka dots.   Husband and I tag-teamed the patching.  He'd see a spot I missed.  I found one he missed.  I decided that since there was no finish at all around the drain I was just going to paint it like crazy.  

After the Porc-a-fix was set, then we used a tile and grout sealer (smallest bottle I could get from Home Depot) to seal it.  Bill did that part.  Two coats, and water actually *beads* now.  That has never happened in 23 years.  

It's not a new bathroom, but it sure looks better.  I hope this inspires someone.
   

Growing up in Richmond

 I have been going through my mom's things, cleaning things out because my dad can't and won't try.  While going through some of the stuff that miraculously survived my half sister and her two -- ahem! -- kids, I have found a treasure trove of high school memorabilia from my mom's times at RHS from 1962-1965.  The class prophesy, which has my mom 10 years later married to Alfred E. Newman and working like MAD on their March edition.  You know, the good stuff.  Like her pins, the GAA letter and certificate, and reading all the stuff people wrote in her yearbook.

Is this the point where I mention that only ONE of her classmates finally commented on her death on "Memories of Growing up in Richmond Michigan" facebook page?  And only after I posted through my mom's account in the thread discussing the members of 1965 who had died.

Yup.  Good Old Richmond, Michigan.  You can spend your whole life there, and generations of your family as well, and, "Who are you?"

As Emily Dickenson put it so eloquently, in what I call "The RHS poem":

I'm Nobody, who are you? 

Are you -- Nobody -- too? 

Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell! 

They'd banish us, you know.

Here's a picture of nobody.  My mom is in the last row, second from far right