Sewing in 1956

Recently I found a photo of elephants in the (online) archives of the Ames Tribune. It was 1950 and the circus had come to town. Of course I couldn't resist looking at their other archive photos, and while some are truly local (widening of a street), others vividly brought back that era of the 50s, in which my childhood played out, and from which stemmed the stories that I voraciously read, set in a background of the expanding, improving life that we now look back on as The American Dream.

Here is the story of Clemens Sewing Machines, a business 22 years old when the photo was taken - the owner's 4-year-old daughter looks very comfortable with the newest model, and her cousin is itching to start sewing -

The building is gone now, but I hope there are still local sewing machine retailers with the good old-fashioned business values of Clemens, who "offers complete parts and repair service for ANY make of machine"  -

Harold Clemens and son Howard, owners of the stores, outline their policy as "Service First," and low pressure selling.  They believe that the machines speak for themselves without high pressure sales talk.  Residents can get an eye-opener anytime on the versatility of modern automatic and semi-automatic sewing.  Clemens' is always glad to give demonstrations to individuals or groups, and answer questions about any make of sewing machine.