Lawnmower

Since the Idylwood house had a sizable yard, my dad bought a power mower for it. It was a self propelled reel type mower. As I write this, I realize that ‘sizable is a relative term. To a young adolescent, it looked huge. Today it looks like a pretty standard neighborhood lot.

The photo shows reel mower with a Briggs and Stratton engine. This is very similar to the mower we had. The one In the picture doesn’t show the ‘self-propelled’ feature. On our mower there was a shaft running across the top of the deck in front of the engine with a pulley at each end. Each pulley had a V-Belt running down to pulleys inside the main wheels. A separate V-belt drove the rotating blades.

It was a very nice mower and did a good job, but it was heavy. It left a very nice cut on the lawn, much cleaner than a rotary mower. Notice that most of the excellent mowers used for golf course greens are reel type.

My dad did all of the mowing at first, I was only 6 when we moved into this house. But, like most kids, I begged to mow the lawn. Be careful what you wish for. Dad began to break me in on the mower by having me stand in front of him, between him and the handlebar, and we’d mow together.

The self propelled feature was activated by raising the handlebar and deactivated by lowering it again.

By the time I was 8 or 9 I was ‘allowed’ to mow on my own. About the same time I started mowing solo, the tires on the main wheels had worn down enough that when the mower was turned at the end of a row or at a corner, the V-belt to the wheel would come off, ending the self propelled feature. Dad’s solution was to remove the V-belts and have me push the mower. It worked, but it was hard. The dang thing was heavy. It would seem to take me half a day to mow about a half an acre. I know I took a lot of breaks.

Mowing also illustrated a difference between dad and me. Dad was a meticulous preparer - I, not so much. If we ran the mower over a stick or a pinecone, the stick or pinecone would catch between the rotating blade and the fixed cutting blade stopping the reel. The remedy was to shut off the mower, remove the miscreant object and restart the mower.

Dad’s approach was to ‘police’ the yard for pinecones, gumballs and sticks before he started mowing. Then he could start the mower once, complete the task and shut it off.

I was more of a go ‘til it stopped, shut it down, clear it and restart. Looking back, I am sure my method was slower and entailed more work, but my patience did not extend to extensive preparation. This characteristic has stuck with me, most probably to my detriment. Why read the manual first?

We eventually upgraded (downgraded?) to a rotary mower that was easier to use.