By Victor C Kirk
I know this article will get me into trouble, but here it goes. There appears to be a love affair with riding lawn mowers in Monroe. Never have I seen so many especially moving across such small lawns. They are everywhere and everyone who has them has a truck and a trailer filled with other lawn gadgets, i.e., at least two weed eaters, long and short clippers, grass/weed blowers for the hand and as a backpack, and gas cans, just to name a few.
I grew up using a push lawn mower. Nothing fancy, just one requirement, a Briggs and Stratton engine. In my teen years they were considered the best. We hoped to one day own a “Lawn Boy” but knew they were way out of reach for kids in the “inner city”. We could use the one at the home on the North side of town we journeyed to mow the lawn, but it stayed there waiting on our next visit in two weeks. My neighbor, we called him Uncle Louie, worked for Lee Edwards Volkswagen and on Saturdays he told my mom to “get them boys up they comming with me” and collected me and my brother taking us first to the dealership then to the homes of Lee Edwards and Mr. Frazier. Our first task at the dealership was to wash the new Volkswagens that had arrived. We were told they were shipped to the states in containers and had been wrapped in a plastic substance that required us to use kerosine to get it off. Yep, we washed them off with kerosine and lived. No one was allowed to smoke in the area where we were, thank God. After about two hours or so, we washed up and prepared to be taken to the northside homes of the executives/owners of Lee Edwards Volkswagen. Never thought of a riding lawn mower but in retrospect, man wouldn’t one just one have shortened the time it took to get those lawns mowed.
But getting back to the number of riding mowers in use here in Monroe. Everyone I have seen with a riding mower seems to have a 360-mower allowing them to turn quickly in circles and head in the opposite direction to mow another strip of grass. They appear to only have one gear and speed – fast. So, without delay they move quickly up and down a lawn and in no time, they are finished and gone. No fanfare, no fuss, just up and leave. With a push mower, you have the time to look back at your work and maybe gloat – work well done and sweat to prove it. You look forward to getting home with a backache and sore arms wishing for the tub of hot water and a rub down with alcohol. We didn’t have bengay cream at that time so a warm bath and rubbing alcohol was it.
I have a push mower or as the dealer called it, a “walk behind mower” – oh so fancy. When I broke it, and yes, I am confessing to have broken it, I had to take it back to the dealer with my head down. No one “breaks” a “walk behind mower – but I did. In a rush to mow the back yard near the Oak tree roots, I ran across a root, the mower dipped down for a moment then BANG! I chipped the top of a root bending the blade and cracking the crank shaft. That was it, the prognosis was either a new mower or take this one home for junk parts. They didn’t even want to allow me to leave the mower with them – “take it with you – we don’t need it”. Just that quick, a $300 mower bought last year was done for, junk, prepared to be abandoned even by the dealer who sold it to you. I bet this doesn’t happen to owners of riding mowers.
Now when I see the owners of the riding mowers, I wave at them. A “hello” of respect from the owner of a “walk behind” mower, driven by desperation to start again pulling the string of the crankshaft hoping it will start without delay. My excuse is I need the exercise, and I do. Was just told I am now weighing 176 pounds on a very narrow body frame. Must be the gut I have acquired during the COVID shutdown. But my respect for the owners of the riding lawn mowers is driven more so by the cash they earn in such a short time. My wife calculated just the “side” income one earns just from mowing a few properties: her house, a rental property, her mom’s home, and my home. Just enough to pay a car note, buy groceries, pay a water or utility bill, just enough to seek out commercial properties and large lots.
Is a 360 mower in the plans for a soon to be 72-year-old? Not sure but working on your own dismisses the need to “learn how to play with others” whose interest in your personal welfare is dubious at best. Make the money if your health is good or you want a reason to keep your distance from the inevitable – ageing. The phrase “keep moving” ensures that you will age gracefully – 360 mower or not.
