Mow That Grass.

I remember when I was little and I would watch from inside the safety of our house as my dad would mow our yard. My parents, from the first time I could remember, would buy me the little picture books with trucks, cars and machines. They would then follow that up with buying me plastic push mowers. When I was about three years old I remember watching my dad mow our yard at our old house with his big red mower. He would sometimes pull up to the back porch and then my big sister, Emma, would go running out the back door with her hands over her ears, jump up onto Dad's lap, and go for a ride around the yard. One time my mom thought it would be nice to take a picture of me sitting on the mower with my dad. I still remember the loud roar and how I felt scared by the overall look of the mower.

Gunboat Smith (LOC)

Smith Street, Warwick - no's 55 to 61 Smith Street

Rutherford Smith and Romeo Peters

After probably about three minutes, which seemed like an hour to me, mom had a scrapbook-worthy picture of me sitting on Dad's lap "mowing" the yard. We still have that photo of myself. I look like I just had my fingers smashed in a door and trying not to cry. Later on when I was about thirteen, and more accustomed to noise, one of our good friends at our church was going to have to move to Virginia. Mrs. Smith asked my dad if I wouldn't mind taking care of her yard while she was away in Virginia because she was not going to sell her house and was planning on coming back to visit off and on. Dad told her it would not be a problem and that it would be a good opportunity for me to...