By Steve Gardiner

My grandfathers woodworking shop was a museum of aged tools. Their work-glazed handles hung neatly from nails on the wall or lay one beside the other in homemade wooden boxes. They were more than instruments of his trade. They were his pride.

As a young boy， I watched him work in the shop. He built cabinets， doors， shelves， whatever was needed to improve someones home. And when he was finished， he cleaned up and returned each tool to its place.

In a corner of the shop was an ancient push mower2. Every Saturday he would take it out and silently mow the parts of the yard that had not been taken over by my grandmothers vegetable garden. I would walk with him， watching the blades spin and the grass clippings fly in every direction.3

A little over a year ago， I moved to a different town. In the final days before moving， we held the requisite garage sale to lighten our load， selling furniture， clothing， the barbecue， and a well-used power mower.4

We moved into our new home. Since it was late summer and the grass was growing quickly， the mower was one of the first things that needed to be replaced.

I walked around the new house. It sits on a hill that is just steep enough to enjoy a street-level front door and a sunlit basement in the rear5. The previous owners had built three nice-looking terraces6 on each side. As I looked at them， however， I saw a problem. At each terrace， I would have to shut off the mower， carry it up the steps， restart it， mow the narrow strips of grass， and repeat the process for each terrace on either side of the house.

Then I remembered a newspaper article on push-reel lawn mowers7. They are making a comeback， partly for nostalgia and partly for ecology. I recalled following my grandfather around the yard and realized that a push mower was the answer. Sometimes a step backward is a step forward.

I went to the local hardware stores8 and looked at the power mowers. They had several models， but they also had three models of push mowers. I pushed one up and down the aisle a few times， then checked the price—about half that of the power mowers.

It took only one mowing to convince me I had done the right thing. When I moved， the blades turned. When I stopped， they stopped. No pulling on a cord， no blaring two-stroke combustion engine noise， no blue cloud of hazy smoke， no forearm-rattling vibration， no announcement to the neighborhood that I was mowing today.9 And no need to fill up（or even keep） the red gas cans in the garage.

I walked quietly behind the whirling blades. It was calm， peaceful， more of an outdoor activity than a chore. I enjoyed mowing the lawn and I finished much more quickly than if I had stopped and started a power mower.

Back in the garage， I twisted a rubber-coated hook into a stud10 in the wall. With one hand， I lifted the push mower onto the hook， tucking11 it neatly out of the way. Its shiny chrome12 handles looked so new， so untouched. I glanced across the garage and saw my tools hanging on nails above the workbench I had built a few days before. It was a meager13 collection compared with my grandfathers.

On the other hand， I dont make my living with those tools the way he did. Mine are for odd projects and home maintenance. They， like the push mower， look different from my grandfathers. Their plastic and metal handles will never take on the golden tone of wood-handled tools that have spent hours in a craftsmans hands.14

My workshop will never have the complexity or character that his did. But when I mow the lawn， Ill take the pushreel mower down. Ill walk quietly behind it， leaning slightly forward the way my grandfather did， and watch the blades whirl and clippings fly. The push mower solved my problem， but it also gives me a connection to the past， to my youth， and to my grandfather.

1. whir： 嗡嗡地響，呼呼地響。

2. push mower： 手推式剪草機，與后文的power mower（動力剪草機）相比是較為老式的一種剪草機。

3. blade： 刀片；spin： 旋轉(zhuǎn)；clipping： 剪下的碎片。

4. 搬家前的最后幾日，我們在車庫舉辦了必不可少的舊貨出售活動以減輕負載，賣的東西包括家具、衣物、烤肉架以及一個用舊了的動力剪草機。

5. in the rear： 在后方，在背后。

6. terrace： 梯田，階地。

7. push-reel lawn mower： 推動卷筒式剪草機。

8. hardware store： 五金店。

9. 沒有繩索需要拉扯，沒有二沖程內(nèi)燃機的刺耳噪音，沒有藍色的朦朧煙霧，沒有令前臂格格作響的劇烈振動，沒有向鄰居宣告“我今天除草”的那種擾鄰響動。blare： 發(fā)出刺耳的響聲； combustion： 燃燒；hazy：朦朧的，煙霧彌漫的。

10. stud： 墻上的嵌釘。

11. tuck： 收藏，把……塞進狹窄的空間。

12. chrome： 鉻，鉻合金。

13. meager： 不足的，貧乏的。

14. 它們塑料和金屬材料的把手永遠不會像那些在工匠手里用久的木質(zhì)把手工具一樣呈現(xiàn)出金黃的色調(diào)。