Vintage Snapshot: Lawn Mowing Service in a Different Time
– Posted on July 3, 2019
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Back when every job required formal attire.
An ATCO mower had one here recently, that model, kick start and fast, Now its alive and well its back with its owner.
C C effect – I’ve just logged on after mowing the lawn!
The sidecar is a neat rig, but the ramp is poorly designed. He has to lift the mower 6″ to reach the ramp…. might as well lift another 6″ to reach the platform as long as he’s lifting anyway.
I wonder if the ramp is supposed to be up against the curb? (If you aren’t posing for a photographer.)
I’m curious what the date and place of the photo was. I don’t know motorcycles well enough to date it very accurately from that. Whenever it was, it certainly was a different time. Can’t imagine a landscaping company using a motorcycle today. Or having their employees show up in a cap and tie.
The bike is British, and I’m rough guessing a BSA from the tank and knee pads.
And once I’m done with breakfast and the morning news, it’s out to mow the lawn. Baseball game and fireworks tonight.
The lawnmower is British too, an ATCO. With that assumed the PK prefix registration would be Guildford in Surrey, probably 1930s to circa 1950. The two letter plus (up to) four numbers system was gradually superceded by three letters plus three numbers from 1932, but only when the previous system ran out of options. Guildford had a large batch of prefixes (PA to PL, excluding PI) so it probably took them quite a while to exhaust them.
More likely a service tech returning a mower after a service.
I’ll go with that!
Good point. While the dustcoat would work I can’t imagine anyone, even on a great estate, mowing a lawn in a cap and tie.
An era when everything was less complicated. No safety devices (excepted common sense) & no electronics. Pictured below is me on our first riding lawn mower learning how to operate it. I was 4 years & 8 months at that time. That would be my job for many years to come.
Lol! Reminds me of when I was about 12 or so and we lived on a dead-end street which never got plowed in the winter. My father’s solution was to tie a 2×6 to the back bumper of his 1958 Plymouth, dragging on the road. My job was to stand on the 2×6 and hold on to the bumper while he drove back and forth on the street every hour or so to keep the snow banks in check.
I can see the local Child Protective Service officers falling over in a dead faint as they read this!
But somehow, I’m here….60 years later.