The ‘Mower Man’
Of Cannon Drive
By Martha Slater

 

Larry Curtis of Rochester with part of his collection of 35 years of Lawn Boy lawnmowers. Each one has a story, he claims. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Larry Curtis is a man with a passion for lawnmowers—specifically Lawn Boy lawnmowers. He recently showed his collection of 20 of them to visitors to his home and beautifully manicured yard on Cannon Drive in Rochester.

Housed on the second floor of his carriage barn, the collection encompasses over three and a half decades of Lawn Boy technology, from a 1952 model that was the first one sold in Rochester, to a late 1980’s edition. Curtis can tell the story behind each of them.

For example, "This one was sold by Rodney Johnson to Bunny Brunson, who used it to mow the park," Curtis said, pointing to the 1952 model, which was given to him by the late Tom Simpson, Sr.

Curtis began his love affair with lawnmowers in 1957, at the age of 11, when his father was given a Lawn Boy mower (the Iron Horse model), which Larry recalled using to mow the Townshend estate ("It took just under four hours!"). He later bought another from Rodney Johnson, who was a Lawn Boy distributor.

However, he didn’t begin his serious collecting until about three or four years ago, when, he noted, "I used to go down to the landfill and see old mowers and I’d bring them home for parts."

Curtis amassed quite a horde of mowers and parts, and last summer, he pulled them all out and started working on them. They all have two-cycle engines and Curtis spent a lot of time scavenging for parts.

"I got some parts from Frank Lambert, who has an incredible inventory," Curtis explained. He has also gotten help and advice from Tom Simpson, Sr., Larry Bettis, and the folks at Guy’s Small Engine Repair in Barre.

"Without them, my lawn would have been a hayfield and these Lawn Boys would be in the landfill!" Curtis said.

When he adds a mower to his collection, Curtis spends countless hours repairing and fine-tuning it, until it runs smoothly. He enjoys a challenge and said his biggest one to date was a rust-colored 1956 model. He told in great detail how he followed clues to solve the mystery of problems with the spark plugs, coil, points, and condenser.

"Now, it runs like a top!" he noted happily.

A fountain of statistical information about one of his favorite subjects, Curtis notes, for example, that if a lawn mower is used for one hour per week for 20 weeks (the average mowing season) for 10 years, the drive shaft revolves 39,000,000 times. Over the same period, the piston will have traveled 2,500 miles and the cutting blade 37,000 miles.

Curtis also collects another machine that cleans up its surroundings—he has 13 vintage vacuum cleaners, all of them rescued from the dump, except for one that he bought at a tag sale. The majority of them are Electroluxes, including a 1943 model that was made with runners instead of wheels.

Evidence of Curtis’ creativity and artistic eye, as well as his flair for the unusual, is everywhere around the meticulously-kept grounds surrounding his home. For example, several large trees and a spot on his back porch are adorned with mobiles he constructed out of unlikely items such as CDs, pine cones, and wire lampshade frames he found in his attic.

Curtis said he inherited his mechanical ability from his father, Floyd "Gibb" Curtis, and recalled how his father explained to him that when he took things apart, he needed to pay attention to the order in which they came off, so he could reverse the process correctly when he put them back together.

That ability stood the younger Curtis in good stead in later years, when he owned and operated The Store of Rochester (now Mac’s Market).

"Having the ability to fix things saved me a lot of money," he said.

Despite the many long hours Curtis puts into working on his collection, it’s clear he means it when he says, "It’s just really great fun!"

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