Growing up I cut the grass after I was old enough to push the mower. I used to envy the Mill Hill boys because most did not have grass to cut and their mothers ‘swept the yard’. Some had rakes and raked designs into the dirt. The dirt yards made it super to ‘play cars’ in.
Playing cars was crawling around pushing a small block of wood that in your mind was a beautiful car. We made roads and drew houses in the dirt. We had a home with a dive way, etc. Some boys were creative with ditches and bridges. You could do that if you didn’t have grass, other wise the only place to play cars was under the house.
But back to grass. I grew up thinking the smell of onions meant the grass has just been cut. I noticed we had a lot of wild onions here yesterday when I cut the grass. We have NEVER had a yard that would win an award. I have always just cut the weeds and onions.
Wild onions told me when to ‘push the yard’. They sprouted first and when they got a couple inches above the other grass and weeds, IT WAS TIME, or I was in for a rough time if I waited. I could run and push the mower if I didn’t wait too long. I learned early to use an oil can. Daddy had one of the oil cans that you thumbed the bottom of the can to make it squirt. There were many times to keep from filling the oil can, I used mama’s ‘3 in 1 oil’. She kept it for the sewing machine. It was thin oil.
Anyway yesterday, I smelled onions. And I used one like this:
Nite Ships log
PS:
All the churches dad pastored had grass at the church and parsonage. Back then it was the pastor’s job to keep the grass cut, so that was one of my ‘chores’. Did you ever push a mower?
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9 comments:
Yes. I have pushed a mower, and now I walk behind one that is self-propelled. Going forward, it is less work, but maneuvering in tight places and around trees and shrubs is more work than a regular push mower.
Now, I have a lot of storm debris to pick up before I can even think of mowing.
Yep sure have. When we first bought our house I wanted one of those old push mowers. My father-in-law said you better use mine first. I did and then I didn't want one. Then I had one that was so self propelled it almost drug me around. Finally got the right one that suited me and my job was set.
My Uncle, brother and I used to make cars and trucks using blocks of wood. Had one long block, then put a short piece for the cab. Had dirt roads all over the yards that we swept with a brush boom.
Pushed a lawn mower a lot of times. Along with picking cotton, a person can see where my back problems came from.
I bought gas for my cars through high school by cutting grass in the summer.
I was a grass-cutting fool. I still like to cut grass though I now ride :)
R
At the risk of sounding like a real dummy, I’d never heard of wild onions taking root in someone’s lawn!
(But does it count that I recall 3-in-1 oil?)
Your wooden cars and dirt villages make me smile! At the risk of sounding like a killjoy, I doubt if today’s lads (and lasses) have imaginations that prolific.
I used to like to cut the grass when we lived in Montana. It was gas powered, but there was something satisfying about seeing those rows of grass cut :) Now we live in xeriscape so no grass cutting :)
betty
I have been cutting grass for years. Did it for pay back in my younger days. Nothing like that smell when it's freshly cut. Puts you in tune with nature.
We have not cut the grass here yet this year. But it has turned very green and after a little more rain and a lot more sunshine we'll have to do the same. Once it starts there is no stopping. We'll be mowing until sometime in October. I still have one of those old fashioned mowers sitting out in the garage. The kind you push that doesn't have a motor. I keep it just in case the other one with a motor stops working. I do love the smell of fresh cut grass. But hopefully we won't smell it here till the beginning of May.
I tell myself yard work is good
exersize. I have cut grass but
the lawn mowers are hard to get
started. I remember Great Granddad
in Ga. having a yard you could sweep and that was fun. You could also
play hop-scotch good with no grass.
What good ole simple days...
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