In-cabinet Kenmore 1803 Cam-ster

I finally got it some floor space and set it up and got a somewhat-clear (for me!) photo ... so here she is ... the largest piece of loot brought home from Indiana (although not the heaviest - that is another post).  This little beauty is from Dad's wife, not Mom ... Mom would have never given this up as she had one back in the 1970s that she loved and had stolen out of her car.  A pic for the visually inclined ... then a typical wall-of-text to tell the story:

In-cabinet Kenmore 1803 with most of its accessories

Isn't she pretty?  Dad's wife found her at a garage sale over a year ago, minus cams and a few accessories, told it didn't work anymore, but the manual and most of the feet came with her in the cabinet which is in beautiful condition.  Now, for the part that will make most of us eat our spleen with envy ... she got it for only ten dollars!  Afterwards, she took it in for a service and tune-up, after which the "Kenny" worked again.  So, price at garage sale plus $40 for servicing ... still only $50 in this beauty ... and when she told me about it last year when I was up there I am sure I turned a sickly bile green because somehow I never seem to hit the right garage sales to find something like this.

When I mentioned to Mom someone I knew had a 1803 but not the cams ... Mom spent a total of 4 minutes digging up the box of cams for it.  So last June when I took the cams over, I told Dad and his wife that if it didn't get used in a year's time I would claim the machine.  And so it came home with me this year, after about 54 weeks of serving as a pretty end table because it folds up so neatly into the perfect size for that.

The handwriting on the front of the manual includes the date "1973" so that means this lovely machine is as old as I am.  Mom was in Kentucky and southern Indiana that year ... but it is possible that Mom had the original owner of this machine in one of her sewing classes at Sears a few years later if she kept coming to classes.

I've had to promise Mom I will read the manual before attempting to sew on this old cam-ster, so that will need to wait until the rest of the loot is unpacked and put away.  If it runs as good as it looks, Mom says I will absolutely love its stitching.  She loved hers up until she got the then-new 1914 to replace hers (which she still uses regularly).  Oh, the official model number handwritten on the front of the manual says 158.18032 ... which Mom informs me means it was manufactured by Brother .... which keeps up my "Band of Brothers" motif in machines.