Prompt picture for Sepia Saturday 591:
"... an unknown lady, striding purposely into the future.
Little does she
realise that there is a lawn roller coming up behind her,
ready to
flatten all her dreams! Such is life."
(A. Burnett)
The lawn roller here made me go in search of a photo of my paternal grandfather with his lawn mower. I started looking for it in my inherited albums - but ended up finding it in one of my own childhood albums. And it turned out I'm in the photo too! It was taken in 1961, sixty years ago. I'm 6 years old here, and grandpa 57. He grew bald early, and I do remember him in that beret at lot, in casual contexts. I also remember him walking that lawn mower a lot - they had a huge garden!
Alas, a few years after this photo was taken, grandpa got Parkinson's disease, and died at age 65. I think grandma had help from a neighbour with the lawn for number of years. After she moved to a care home, we kept the house as summer cottage, and my parents went back and forth on summer weekends, tending two big gardens (1½ hr drive apart). Thinking back now, they must have spent an awful lot of time lawn mowing! And they too always used manual push mowers back in my childhood. After dad retired (at age 60), they had en extension built to my grandparents' old house and moved to live there permanently, though. They also got an electric lawn mower for that garden - but still one they walked behind rather than rode on.
For my own part, I became allergic to grass pollen from my early teens onward - and never having lived in a house with a garden of my own in my adult life, I doubt there are any more photos of me with a lawn mower to be found! (Such is life.)
Great photo of you and your granddad...I know how allergies to grass pollen feel! I used to get weekly shots for allergies...and finally stopped. I enjoyed hearing about the gardens in your family, and how they were tended.
ReplyDeleteThanks Barbara. It's a rare one, come to think of it. Grandpa was usually the one holding the camera!! I suppose my dad must have taken this one.
DeleteThat's a sweet photo and perfect for this weekend. I have a similar photo of my mother and my grandfather posed with and his push mower, which I still have! It was likely purchased in 1936 when they bought their home and I can remember using it on their small front yard. Unfortunately my garden lawns are too lumpy with molehills and craters to use it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike. I was probably never much help around the garden, except for eating red currants and gooseberries straight from the bushes :)
DeleteThe mower in the photos made a very distinctive sound - very different fro more modern mowers.
ReplyDeleteI remember, Graham! :)
Deletewe had a mower like yours, daddy did not get Parkinsons until he was in his mid 80's and lived to 93 with it.
ReplyDeleteSandra, I have some memories of grandpa's advancing illness but not a lot. I remember it began with tremor. Later on he also got dementia which was mentally harder to deal with.
DeleteThat is a sweet photo. I remember my grandfather using a push mower and me "helping." I've often thought I'd like to go back to a push mower. Surely there have been some improvements? So quiet. No gas or electricity. But a bit hard to push in my yard, I think.
ReplyDeleteKathy, my parents used to look at it as good exercise, I think. Nowadays, people have robot lawn-mowers and then take the car to the gym... ;)
DeleteI can see in that photo how fond you were of your grandfather. In the days before the noise of the modern lawnmowers let you know neighbours were mowing their lawn, I remember the much more pleasant sound of the blades of those old push mowers.
ReplyDeletePauline, my dad used to hate the sound of motor mowers. When the manual mowers finally got too heavy for them to handle, they found a compromise in electric ones. Back in those days, those had the disadvantage of needing long cords, though!
DeleteWe had a very similar, if not exactly the same, model of lawn mower at home when I was a kid. Our patch of grass was very small (we were living in a terraced house then) but we loved to play on it, and our cats came visiting, too, when we had our rabbits and guinea pigs in their outdoor enclosures ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe mower's blades were painted yellow, and the rest was red - or was it the other way round? Anyway, I know exactly the sound it made, and when I was big enough to push it myself, sometimes I did the mowing.
Seems like lawn mowers evoke childhood memories for most of us, Meike! ;)
DeleteSuch a lovely photo of you with your grandfather. I well remember those push mowers from my youth, although my dad was keen to get a gas-powered one as soon as they came on the market. The red one he bought had to be activated by rapidly pulling a cord to start it up, something that often frustrated him when he had to pull it over and over. Funny how the simple act of lawn mowing can hold such memories.
ReplyDeleteThanks Molly. Yes, evidently lawn mowing seems to "strike a c[h]ord" with a lot of people... - Pun intended! ;)
DeleteYou can tell from the happy photograph with your grandfather how close and you were together. Lovely to look back on on such memories.
ReplyDelete