Brunswick Sewing Machine (And Always Drive Prepared!)

Today I found this vibrating shuttle sewing machine from the '10s or '20s (the line continued till, perhaps, the '50s) for a low price; and I will likely fix it up, re-do the cabinet, and see what I can get out of it.

It looks like the owners had it in a window, as the back is faded but the front looks shiny still. Someone at some point painted over the veneer, and that is peeling and just over all looks bad.

In the mean-time, when I went to leave work this morning, my car refused to start. After two tries on the ignition, I pulled the knob for the lights and saw that they did not come on. The store I work at also sells automotive items, including batteries. I could hardly have broken down at a better place, thank God.

I went inside for a battery, tried removing my old one but found one bolt to be too difficult for the thumb wrench I keep in my car (I do come prepared for most things, but now I need to add a socket-wrench set to my trunk). I went back in and got help to get it off, and we got the battery in so I could drive away.

I went to a few thrift stores and one antique store with things going fine in my car. Upon leaving one, though, my car again refused to start. So I was sitting there a bit unhappy and popped my hood again, pounded down the terminals (in the hope that the Positive end was loose like it looked) and tried again. I was able to get my lights on, but that was it.

As I'm struggling with my car, the Lord just happened to have a former mechanic stop at the store and offer me some help. He told me that my terminals, especially the positive one, had "Dead Lead" and had too corroded of a bolt and lead to be of much use, so we went inside looking for sand paper.

Finding no sand paper to sand the inside of the connection, I asked if I could use my screw-driver to gouge it out. He thought it might work, so I thanked him and went back to my car. I pulled out my screw-driver (again, I am usually pretty prepared for minor things as every driver should be) and got to work at getting the "Dead Lead" and rust off the terminal, lead, and bolt.

Several minutes later with the temp still climbing and having tried a dozen failed starts, it miraculously starts up. The man had directed me to go to an auto parts store just down the road, so I made it there.

I went in and brought out a guy who kept spitting and smoking and bouncing around, in which he then instructed me to take it across the street to the tire place or to Walmart to have the terminals replaced, because liability issues means he cannot do it.

I ended up at Walmart (I've now been there three times in more years than that) and was able to get in and out in just over an hour and a half, in which I ate lunch and bought a few items. I was so happy to see such a low bill about $30 for the inspection, labour, replacement parts, and corrosion treatment. It beat the $374 I just had to spend last week for four new tires as mine were so bad that I was all but sliding out of my lane one rainy drive at only 45 MPH.

I made it home by 5:30, having left home at 10 to pick up something at work. I was then greeted by my neighbour who decided to talk to me for 2 hours. That I was not quite prepared for, as my backpack and bucket of supplies I might need in case of engine troubles or emergency did not have something for that in it.

In the end, moral of the story is that God took care of me, and that I was smart enough to keep tools and engine supplies in my car just in case something went wrong away from home.

It was only last week that I was 65 miles away from home. Had this occurred then, I would not have been a happy camper.