Then and Now

Yesterday I was doing yard work……..Yes I finally managed to find motivation to do something other than sit on my ass over a weekend..Anyway I cleaned out the garden in back, trimmed the vines, painted the new door frame and mowed the lawn. Well at least what little lawn there is. While doing the last of these chores the power drive on the lawn mower quit working and I had to actually push the mower. Well that really set me to working hard. As the catcher got fuller it became harder and harder to push and I had to take frequent breaks to guzzle some water down and to catch my breath. On one of by breaks I sat and looked at the lawn mower and remembered the old push mower we had growing up, before gas mowers were popular or affordable, and well before self propelled mowers. You know…….the ones on 2 wheels and a cylinder, that ya had to keep up a good speed with and that you often had to go over the same spot twice. I couldn’t help but think how pitiful I was for cursing the mower for being broken……my dad would go out and mow a lawn that was at least 5 times the size of mine and it was on a hillsdie in Connecticut. (A hillside that in the winter we would park the cars down on the road because if the driveway iced over the cars would be in the road by morning.) I remember that it only took one summer of that old push mower for dad to give in and get a gas, but still he had to push…… ….
I often think how upset we get, when our toys and tools of modern technology break. I will remind myself of the way it used to be done and be thankful that I get to do things the easier way 98% of the time.