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Log inDeere John: It's Been A Good Ride
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Deere John: It's Been A Good Ride
by Outspoken on Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:55 pm
Deere John: It's Been A Good Ride
Lawn Behemoths Are Going Out to Pasture
By Joel Garreau
Washington Post Staff Writer
The riding lawn mower has long been a barometer of the American dream, been a symbol of having arrived in the suburban middle class. It says, "I have so much lawn to mow, I need to sit down."
It says, I've made it, I've escaped that funky old rowhouse neighborhood with the asbestos siding and yards like dirt-scabs. My land, my spread, not enough to plow, but way too much to mow the old-fashioned way. It says, I'm Jefferson's dream of the yeoman farmer. It says, I'm rich enough to not only raise a worthless crop, but to pay money for the privilege. It says, I'm a boy with a boy's rightful toys; a real American man.
Or that's what it said back when city dwellers would gather around the riding mowers at the old Hechinger north of Capitol Hill, and dream the dream.
Now it's saying something else. It may be a measure of the forces lined up against us. The riding mower seems to be on the wrong end of every headline. If economic news -- from gas prices to shrinking nest eggs -- is like the magnifying glass focused by an 8-year-old to fry a bug with sunlight, riding mowers are the bug.
The news: The riding mower industry "is deeply troubled by the decline in housing starts," says Kris Kiser, spokesman for the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute in Alexandria. "New home construction is a good barometer for us. But you add foreclosures, decline in housing starts and the decline in housing sales, and you have the trifecta."
Three generations have run Smith Equipment in Warrenton, Va., 50 miles west of Washington. Bryant Smith, its director, has watched Fauquier County's center of gravity shift from genuine dairy, cattle and horse farmers to affluent people who like to think they have purchased agrarian virtue along with the views of the Blue Ridge foothills from their non-trivial acreage. Over the years, with this change has come a shift in Smith Equipment's business. Hay balers and corn-tilling equipment have increasingly given way to zero-turn commercial-style riding mowers that can cost $6,000 to $11,000.
"There were a lot of people using up home equity to buy Lexuses and $8,000 lawn mowers," he says. His sales of these mowers are down by a third.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071802886.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Lawn Behemoths Are Going Out to Pasture
By Joel Garreau
Washington Post Staff Writer
The riding lawn mower has long been a barometer of the American dream, been a symbol of having arrived in the suburban middle class. It says, "I have so much lawn to mow, I need to sit down."
It says, I've made it, I've escaped that funky old rowhouse neighborhood with the asbestos siding and yards like dirt-scabs. My land, my spread, not enough to plow, but way too much to mow the old-fashioned way. It says, I'm Jefferson's dream of the yeoman farmer. It says, I'm rich enough to not only raise a worthless crop, but to pay money for the privilege. It says, I'm a boy with a boy's rightful toys; a real American man.
Or that's what it said back when city dwellers would gather around the riding mowers at the old Hechinger north of Capitol Hill, and dream the dream.
Now it's saying something else. It may be a measure of the forces lined up against us. The riding mower seems to be on the wrong end of every headline. If economic news -- from gas prices to shrinking nest eggs -- is like the magnifying glass focused by an 8-year-old to fry a bug with sunlight, riding mowers are the bug.
The news: The riding mower industry "is deeply troubled by the decline in housing starts," says Kris Kiser, spokesman for the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute in Alexandria. "New home construction is a good barometer for us. But you add foreclosures, decline in housing starts and the decline in housing sales, and you have the trifecta."
Three generations have run Smith Equipment in Warrenton, Va., 50 miles west of Washington. Bryant Smith, its director, has watched Fauquier County's center of gravity shift from genuine dairy, cattle and horse farmers to affluent people who like to think they have purchased agrarian virtue along with the views of the Blue Ridge foothills from their non-trivial acreage. Over the years, with this change has come a shift in Smith Equipment's business. Hay balers and corn-tilling equipment have increasingly given way to zero-turn commercial-style riding mowers that can cost $6,000 to $11,000.
"There were a lot of people using up home equity to buy Lexuses and $8,000 lawn mowers," he says. His sales of these mowers are down by a third.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071802886.html?wpisrc=newsletter
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
