It was 1952 when my Dad bought our first power mower. It had a two-cycle motor, and it had an eight-teen-inch blade. They did not have two-cycle oil back then; we just mixed 30-weight car oil with the gasoline and hoped you got the mix close enough to allow it to start and not ruin the motor. We used an empty paint thinner gallon can for gasoline to mow. The can had a small hole in the opposite corner of the top to allow the gas to pour out of the opening. There was a rope you wrapped around the piece on the top of the motor that you yanked to start. There were no self-propelled or any other features, basic mower.
I was barely able to push it at first, especially when mowing the ditch. After a few times of watching me mow, my Dad told me that was my job. I then started mowing neighbor’s yards for $1 and that provided spending money. A couple of neighbors paid me $1 extra to weed their flower beds, but that was more work and took longer to complete, so I did not offer that service. I spent many summer days, barefoot, with no shirt, and cutoff jeans mowing yards.
It was that two-cycle engine that I first learned how to work on gasoline engines. The oil mixture would foul the spark plug if there was too much oil mixed in the gasoline, so I had to learn how to remove the plug and clean and reset the spark gap. I learned how to remove the blade and sharpen it when it got dull. I learned how to take off the carburetor and clean it when it was too oily. I was happy when Dad agreed that it was time to get a new lawn mower, and he bought a mower with a four-cycle motor.
It was my early experience with working on lawnmowers that got me interested in working on cars and believing I could fix anything. Using my hands to take things apart and then remembering how things need to go back together. For me, confidence is developed by doing something that requires me to go beyond my known ability. To stretch my knowledge or skills and keep growing.
That is one lesson I have tried to pass on to those younger. Set goals that require you to reach beyond what you know you can do and set higher goals when you reach your goals. Never be afraid to try something new. I retired at sixty-six with forty-six years of experience in IT having worked with mainframe computers, personal computers, and networked computers. I was seventy-one when I taught myself how to develop my first website. Just get up each morning and try to learn something new. If you get a chance, share something of value with another person.
