June 26, 2015 (Friday)
When I was a small child, my father mowed the lawn. He used one of those old mowers that worked like scissors with a pretty good sized tire on either side. The rolling cutters were attached to a neck about 3 feet long with handles on either side at the end, to which the person attached his hands. With a firm grip on the handles, my father began walking and pushing the mower. No motor. Just labor. Work. But it always got the job done.
When I got old enough, the job fell to me. My father’s mowing days were over for a while, as I went through my older-child and teen-age years. I mowed. I pushed. It worked well.
Later on, when I was married, we settled down in a rental house with a big yard. So we bought a mower. An up-to-date model with a motor that had a blade that even mulched 
the grass clippings. But it had to be pushed, just like the old one. It was, however, easier to push, with four small wheels.
My two older sons, first David, then Dan, took over the job when they got old enough, and did a tremendously good job for years until they grew up and moved away. After my vacation from the mower for many years, the job fell back to me.
As time went on, the mowers wore out, so I had to replace them. Finally, we got one that pushed itself. All I had to do was guide it. It actually worked out, however, to be a semi-push mower, because it didn’t have enough power to do it all. I went through several of those self-propelled mowers until I found myself getting older and huffing and puffing, occasionally feeling my heart pounding with a little pain.
It was hard to admit, but it was time to hire it done. So here they came, the mowing crew. They had great big power mowers, several of them, with a crew of guys that were in and out of the yard in no time at all, leaving it mowed, trimmed, raked, blown and cuttings hauled away. That was wonderful — great, but expensive.
I got to thinking about a power mower that can be driven around the yard like a small automobile, with steering wheel and all. So I bought one. What used to take 3 1/2 hours now took less than an hour. That was much better. But I kept getting older, and after my youngest son, Dwight, came to live with me, he took over the yard duties. I never think about it anymore. He does it all.
Sometimes I get to thinking I might like to mow one more time, but then my favorite show comes on the TV, and I reconsider. Every so often I think about our neighbor years ago in Rockport. She had a huge yard that she mowed herself into her 90’s. Eventually she had to give it up and move to a nursing home, where she lived past 100. She always had a nice looking lawn. So do I. Thank you, Dwight.