I was productive today too.

I have frequent dreams of going back to Dad's house in Walker and finding my old Cutlass in the shed. I uncover it and gingerly take it out because the brakes are bad in my dream, but I drive slowly. I am giddy as all get out because I'm driving my old car. 

Well, it's no car, but I resurrected an old lawn mower today that has a 20 year history with me.

My father bought my first wife and me a very nice push lawnmower the summer after we got married (1997). We ended up divorced and I lost ownership of that mower for awhile. I bought a new mower, not as nice, and shortly thereafter, got my old mower back. My mother was in need of a mower and my current wife KinDee wanted to keep the new mower and give my mom the 7 year old, very nice mower. I didn't like it. I wanted to give my mother the new one and keep the one my father had given me, but I relented and gave it to my mother. 

Those of you who know my mother know that she doesn't check or change oil for the most part. She just uses stuff that is mechanical. I figured it would blow up on her after a year or two. I never asked about it. I just moved on in life.

I used that new lawnmower that I bought and wore it out. Well, I didn’t, but my kids did. They kept slamming the deck every time it would be plugged. They had the wheels on it toed out, looking like a cow taking a dump. Eventually, the handle broke and the kill switch cable snapped. That was that. The engine still ran, but it used some oil. It had a very busy life. When it broke, I put it in my “someday” pile and bought a new Husqvarna push mower.

I priced parts for the now broken mower. The handle, deck parts, and cable, were over $70. I got to thinking how similar this new mower was to the one that I had gotten from my father, and given to my mother. The differences were this: The one that I gave my mother had a straight rear axle and the engine had a throttle. You could adjust the speed of the engine. The deck on the one my father bought me was heavier and easier to work under. It didn’t plug up nearly as much.

My mother has been hiring her lawn service to be done for a few years now. I thought maybe, just maybe, she’d have that old mower there for me to rob parts off of. If nothing else, I thought I could switch engines and put the engine from mine on the one that I gave to her because surely – it couldn’t still be running, could it?

She said that she had it, but that it really was junk and that she hadn’t thrown it out yet. It was sitting outside, I think covered, but outside nonetheless. I got it home last fall and pulled on the rope to check if the engine was locked up and I heard, “Clunk, clunk, clunk.” Someone had hit a boulder, or something similar, and bent the blade all to hell. The throttle cable was busted. The kill switch cable was working, but very stiff. I didn’t even try to do anything with the mower. It would have to wait for another year.

I got outside today and felt like doing something. Sean got home from school and I instructed him to get those two mowers, the one I kept and the one that I gave away. I thought about swapping engines as I knew mine worked when I parked it and I always use Sta-bil in the gas. I thought, “What if this thing actually runs?”

I looked it over. It needed a spark plug. I sent KinDee after one and then I went to work cleaning the air filter. It was junk, so I pulled the one off of the mower that I had kept. I saw the fuel line was shot. I pulled the one off of the mower that I kept. I drained the oil. It was probably the same oil that I put in the mower many years ago. It was sludge. I took off the blade. There was the anti-seize on the bolt. I use anti-seize and had I not, I doubt that I would have gotten that blade off so easily. I sent KinDee after a new blade.

I drained the gas when I changed the fuel line. We put the new spark plug in. We checked for spark. We had spark. We put oil in and the new blade on. We put a cup or two of gas in and put some Sea Foam in the gas as well as a dash in the crank case oil.

I had Sean take it over into the lawn. I told him that I wasn’t sure how to adjust the throttle as the cable was seized. I unscrewed the cable from the holder so that we could adjust the throttle on the engine. I told Sean to put it in the middle. I had him pump the primer bulb and start pulling. He pulled and pulled and pulled and pulled. Nothing.

I told him to prime it some more and keep trying. Finally, after many tries – it popped off and ran. It smoked like hell, but it ran! I had Sean fill the gas up so that it would dilute the Sea Foam and check the oil. It needed more oil. We added more oil and let it set until we felt good that it was full. I asked Sean to adjust the mower, then mow the ditch. He did it! That old mower had life in it for the first time in years. It wasn’t quite a “Cutlass” moment, but it was sure nice to see that old push mower come back to life. It was quite a bit older, having been through quite the ordeal, but it’s running.

I will never give it away again. I will keep the one that I bought new for parts. I prefer the one my father gave me 20 years ago.




Mower that my father bought me 20 years ago.



Mower that I bought new. Now being used for parts.