THE LAWNMOWER GRAVEYARD          - 13/3/2012      <--Prev : Next-->


Oh my goodness, I just turned into First Worlder with one swoop of a dumpster !!

Yes it actually happened, I took my "almost new" lawnmower (well it was only three years old) callously, cruelly and without malice, and tossed it unceremoniously into the dump !!

Of course there was a mad scramble by the dumpster scavengers to get hold of it, but I turned my back mercilessly and let it go.

And what was wrong with it ? Burnt out? IS THAT ALL ? Such a simple problem, has the modern lawn mower repair company ever heard of REWINDING a motor ??

And where on earth was Bancroft Neil when I needed them?

Bancrofts have looked after my lawnmowers now for fifty years. They have loved them, tended them, repaired them, welded them, braised them, re-bladed them, refurbished them and rewound them.

Second to a wheel barrow, a lawn mower is good currency in Zimbabwe. If one is an enterprising gardener, he can mow the neighbour's lawn, lend out the lawn mower to the neighbour for a small fee, knowing full well that if something happens, Bancrofts will fix said lawn mower blindly and blithely !!

Ah yes these modern lawn mowers are just cheap plastic at any rate. Give me those good old ones made of metal that were hard, if not impossible to break. Heavy yes, but the lawn looked as though it had been thoroughly manicured indeed instead of having a number one crew cut !!

Zimbos just do not throw things away !! They fix them, they make a plan, nothing is ever wasted, and if a lawnmower eventually dies an ancient and venerable death, he is not tossed unceremoniously, he is kept for spares !!

Bancrofts is a lawn mower graveyard, there are probably lawnmowers there that came into the country in an ox wagon !!! There dead lawn mowers are treated with respect, not just tossed into a garbage dump !!