Thoughts of Timm and Mowing in Florida (from Molly)

Timm in Winter Park ca. 1975, when he was about 11, looking like he'd just been reminded to mow the lawn.

It is cloudy and looks like it might rain this afternoon. My daughter, Mary Beth needs to mow the yard, but “it’s too hot.” So she will wait until later. Mowing in Florida in the summer always reminds me of Timm. Mom bought an electric lawnmower (think long electric cord and ‘where’s the outlet?’) when we first moved to Winter Park. We had a postage sized front yard and mostly weeds, dirt and ancient orange trees in the back. Not too much to mow. As she left for work Mom would say, “Timm, I need you to mow the lawn today.”

She would come home from work and the lawn would still be long and straggly. Then Timm would begin his litany of excuses.

“The grass was too wet this morning.”

“What about the afternoon?” Mom would ask.

“It was too hot, so I decided to wait until later,” Timm would reply. Then, being Florida, it would rain.

“It’s too wet now,” Timm would state. “I’ll mow it tomorrow.”

And so it would continue until we skipped a day of rain or Mom put her foot down. In that case the lawn would be mowed wet or Timm would sweat it out in the hot midday sun.

That lawnmower was a hassle though. It never needed gas, but it was similar to mowing with a vacuum cleaner. You constantly needed to flip the cord out of the way, making doubly sure you didn’t run over it. Everyone knows running over a vacuum cord is bad for the vacuum, running over the mower cord was bad for you. If the electricity didn’t get you, Mom might.

Either way the lawn would not get mowed for awhile. Hmm, I wonder if Timm ever thought of that excuse!