Years a go I was given an old 99K from my great aunt. It worked fine at the time, and I was totally facinated by it, it's from 1934 and I had never seen those black machines before. I didin't sew much but I did run it and did a few small jobs with it. When I almost a decade later took it out and plugged it in, it blew up a fuse. I was told to throw it out, old electrics aren't safe, and all that (which is true enough un til it is sorted out) but I ended up taking it to a repair shop and had it rewired. I have never regretted it. It has done all kinds of repairs and smaller projects since. Periodically it is set up as a buttonholer, and it still gets used now and then. These days I mostly use a 201, it's a bit larger and it's in a table and it makes it very easy to work on it.
I have always had access to newer machines, zigzaggers and computerised, but they have not been mine.