In a World of Vikings

Just as I was happy with my new-to-me Viking Freesia 415, I see an ad (why was I looking?) for a Viking 1100 for only $50. What? There must be something very wrong and I find out there is: the power cord and foot pedal are missing. Research shows me I can get one for $120 but still...I would have this great machine. At the time I didn't know that people sell these things off by parts because they don't work but I took the plunge. As it turned out, the seller demonstrated how he could get it to work using a stereo plug so I could see it would power up. He got his $50 and I got this:

Since I was in the neighborhood, I took it over to sewing daughter who has a handy husband and they got juice in it and it actually ran. I was ecstatic and took it home to order a power cord and foot pedal. Quite an adventure ensued when they sent the wrong cords and with much correspondence, including photos, I finally got the cords and got it up and running. Now I was sure I was in love because even thought this machine was 20 years old it was top-of-the-line at the time. Mine was missing the stitch cards, only coming with card A, but I had hopes for finding B, C, D, and others. Actually, they were on sale via eBay for a great price but I didn't have the power cord yet and feared there might be a fatal flaw and then I would have all this stuff hanging around for a dead sewing machine.

I had so much more to learn.

This solid beauty had the beloved fix button, could needle up or down, had memory storage, and just hummed along. Finally I had my dream machine for under $200. Life was good until...