Itchy-Switchy
Dec. 16th, 2022 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michaelboyThe home where I grew was built on a lot carved from my grandparent's small farm.
By the time I was born, the farm was subdivided into empty lots and the farm consisted simply of a garden, a small barn which you can see on the left in this 1960ish photo and the Gravely Walk-Behind Tractor.
One of the best memories of my dad was when he would mow the lots with the Gravely. We would head up to the barn together. In the barn, I remember the smell of oil and gasoline mixed with the barn's rotting plank wood. It was a good smell.
The Gravely was a heavy iron Model 120 L - made in the early to mid 50's and it sparked my mechanical interests: the round cylindrical gas-tank, the glass fuel-sediment bowl, the leather strap used to start it, an oil-pressure system with gauge, a real Wico magneto, wooden shift knobs, thick shiny enamel, and a heavy cast-iron body.
It was such a mechanical tough-guy - born in a foundry - raised in a machine shop in Dunbar, West Virginia. The red-colored wonder had a large cutter-bar mounted on the front which gave it personality.
I remember my sister's and I would follow my dad in the field as he mowed -- the lumbering engine serenaded by a wonderful chattering of the cutter-bar. Onomatopoeically, we would harmonize.
In a round, my sister's would sing:
ITCHY-SWITCHY-ITCHY-SWITCHY (cutter-bar sopranos) while I mastered the CLUNKLY-CLUNKLY (engine backup vocals).
I still remember the old fishing hat he wore while mowing and I am luckier for it than you might imagine.
By the time I was born, the farm was subdivided into empty lots and the farm consisted simply of a garden, a small barn which you can see on the left in this 1960ish photo and the Gravely Walk-Behind Tractor.
One of the best memories of my dad was when he would mow the lots with the Gravely. We would head up to the barn together. In the barn, I remember the smell of oil and gasoline mixed with the barn's rotting plank wood. It was a good smell.
The Gravely was a heavy iron Model 120 L - made in the early to mid 50's and it sparked my mechanical interests: the round cylindrical gas-tank, the glass fuel-sediment bowl, the leather strap used to start it, an oil-pressure system with gauge, a real Wico magneto, wooden shift knobs, thick shiny enamel, and a heavy cast-iron body.
It was such a mechanical tough-guy - born in a foundry - raised in a machine shop in Dunbar, West Virginia. The red-colored wonder had a large cutter-bar mounted on the front which gave it personality.
I remember my sister's and I would follow my dad in the field as he mowed -- the lumbering engine serenaded by a wonderful chattering of the cutter-bar. Onomatopoeically, we would harmonize.
In a round, my sister's would sing:
ITCHY-SWITCHY-ITCHY-SWITCHY (cutter-bar sopranos) while I mastered the CLUNKLY-CLUNKLY (engine backup vocals).
I still remember the old fishing hat he wore while mowing and I am luckier for it than you might imagine.
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Date: 2022-12-16 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-17 03:17 am (UTC)