Long before the days of the power mower, and still longer before the zero turns came on the market, the reel-type, human powered mower got the nod for cutting grass.

The mowers of those days were not sufficiently wide enough to show where you had been behind you, but they were the best around.

This gave my father-in-law something to do, make a machine to sharpen the mower blades. He eventually put a motor on one of his push mowers as he did on the contraption that sharpened the reel mower blades.

Big lawn area

Back in the very early 1940s, when we were living at the Old Exeter Road acreage, there was plenty of grass to mow, frequently taking two or three days atop other chores.

So, an idea struck me that the calves that were grazing in the pasture were eating grass, so why not out in the yard.

To Riddle’s shop

So it was off to the Charley Riddle’s shop on the north side of the square to pick his brain. After explaining what I wanted to do, Riddle came up with what would be a dog choke collar today that was large enough for a calves neck attaching a loop at one end for a rope.

Riddle took to these projects, especially from young people with special interest, sometimes putting a new heal or sole customer in the process.

The idea was to tie a calf to one of the many trees in the yard on a reasonably long rope and let the animal graze down the grass at their level.

The trick of the chore was to change the tiedown periodically to lessen

the number of high spots that needed mowing at a later date.

Then there was always the problem of the now mowing machine becoming wrapped around the tree, often requiring removal of the collar to start all over rather than in the same spot and select another tree.

There were problems

There were problems with this invention of mine, the droppings from the calf had to be removed from the yard, which sometimes was a project by its lonesome. Then there were areas in the yard where the angle of the slope was more than the “grass mower” wanted to stand upon. This patch required a steel rod to be used for the rope.

About the time the system became perfected, my dad took a job in Springfield and there was no more yard to mow.

Bigger yard and mower

Later in life a much larger area needed grass cut, about every week and part each two weeks. This required something different in the lawn mower department, so I went to Arkansas where no sales tax was required from Missouri residents hauling their purchases out of the state.

I got a deal in Berryville before learning Lynn Dilbeck worked for a similar dealer in Monett. Thinking about giving this friend a shot at the deal, he checked in on same equipment, at same price, and his boss met the sales tax deduction — so we bought in Barry County.

This equipment was a zero turn, 54-inch cut and just right for the three-hour job to cut the whole of the yard.

A good point

This equipment put me in the yard, alone for the full time of mowing and permitted a lot of thinking, which might be news to some.

Anyway, ideas for stories and especially editorials came during the time on this machine. Now don’t blame the machine, it was just doing it’s intended job of keeping the grass down.

Just a reminder

In case you are not a calendar watcher, it is 38 days until Christmas. Yes, this year of 2022 is just about a thing if the past. Where has the time gone?

Hopefully the Pandemic thing will be a thing of the past, along with anything else you would just as soon overlook.

Next week, we will finish the last day of November and be ready to break out into December.

Speaking of which, I heard Christmas music from some source the other day and they set me to thinking, why is there a shortage of music for Thanksgiving? Perhaps Christmas is the highest ranking and most important if the two observances and events,

The tragedy

Roaring River Spring took its first tragedy in diver exploration recently which serves as a reminder for all of us that any such looking into the unknown has always had an element of danger attached to the effort.

This young man, from Virginia, was one of those interested in learning about the unknown.

His memory will long be with those involved in the process of this discovery effort. It would be perfect to have an appropriate marker in his memory around the area of the spring.

Bob Mitchell is the former editor and publisher of the Cassville Democrat. He is a 2017 inductee to both the Missouri Press Association Hall of Fame and Missouri Southern State University’s Regional Media Hall of Fame.