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International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society

The purpose of the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society is to foster the collecting of, and research into, sewing machines.

Graham's True Stories
Number 17, The Holdup

Maggie, my SO, and I always leave a little extra time at airport security when we are on a sewing-machine-buying trip. I don't know why but a Willcox and Gibbs and a Betsy Ross in the carry-on baggage always seems to look like a loaded Ouzi with a spare magazine, once viewed through an x-ray machine.

Like I say, we're used to emptying the bags, answering a couple of questions, listening to the "I wouldn't want to run up a set of drapes on one of those" jokes and hearing how the security guard's grandmother had a machine that was at least 200 years old.

Therefore, we were both a little surprised when leaving Edinburgh a year back not to send the usual alarm bells ringing. I must have looked a little shocked for the guard asked: "Is anything the matter, sir"  

"Well, no," I replied, "I guess I was expecting you to check the bag." A big grin came over the guard's face - he'd been waiting for this for years.  

 "Why should I stop you sir? You can't hold up a plane with an 1886 Moldacot sewing machine can you?"

He explained his wife was a collector; he did the restoration work, and was currently halfway through a major overhaul of a Moldacot.

I guess he tells the story at every chance he gets and Maggie can't resist revealing how she signed up ISMACS member 375 in an airport check-in lounge.


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