XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: holliday@acm.org   
      
   On 6/5/2020 10:10 AM, Bill O'Meally wrote:   
   > On 2020-06-05 13:45:46 +0000, Stan Brown said:   
   >   
   >> On Thu, 4 Jun 2020 19:53:49 -0400, Bill O'Meally wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> And you can bet he used a (non-motorized) push mower!  Can you imagine   
   >>> his dismay in his suburban existence at the noise of lawn equipment and   
   >>> their 'infernal combustion engines'? :-)   
   >>   
   >> i had to buy a new lawn mower recently, and not a battery-powered one   
   >> from Home Depot. It's just as powerful as a gasoline-powered one, but   
   >> among its many advantages is that it's a LOT less noisy.   
   >   
   > 'Not' a battery powered one?  You mean a *manual* push mower?  I got one   
   > once and did not find it to work very well, and it took lots of effort   
   > even when I was 20 years younger!  Tolkien was just a couple years   
   > younger than me now when he wrote those letters.  Could have just been a   
   > poor quality model.   
      
   I had a manual push mower once.  I worked well for a short while,   
   then pieces began to fall off.  I was unable to find a good quality   
   replacement.  This was before Internet - I could probably find   
   many choices today.  But at that time I switched to electric -   
   corded, as battery mowers were in their infancy then.  It has   
   run well for more than 20 years, and I learned to manage the   
   cord well enough to like using the thing.  When it eventually   
   breaks down I will likely switch to a battery mower.   
      
   Actually, I have an old scythe, which I mowed grass with a few times   
   to find out what it was like.  I would need to practice with it   
   more than I did to become skilled with it.  I wonder if   
   Tolkien handled one of those when he was in the country?   
      
   --   
   Glenn Holliday holliday@acm.org   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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