The stuff of legends

Post by Rob......

I took delivery today of the rebuilt 'Coolum Victa' from the maestro Adam from Kambah Lawn Mower Centre.  This old lady is vintage 1956 and has links back to the era of the FJ Holden and the 1956 T-Bird and Pontiac; a time when things were built to last.  I think they started to make them after the Second World War and she originally had rubber covered steel wheels (I still have them). 

She has her own poem written for her and ranks with the important pieces of hardware in a man's (or womans') life like old shovels and tools you inherit from your dad, old guitars, a TR and beautiful things given as gifts that encapsulate an expression of true feeling (the things that are a wrench to part with).  

I am told that she is a collectible.     

 Note the hand fashioned handle on the pull chord, a link back to her previous owner (Stan) and her previous life keeping down the buffalo grass at Coolum Beach.
 

Adam has completely rebuilt her internals as they were a bit tired when I took her to him. In fact she had no puff at all. This is a young man who knows a thing or two about the zen of lawn mowers.

 

I wrote this poem for her about 15 plus years ago when she took a little holiday after I had her doing some hard work over the road on our hill.  I am much older and more respectful now. 

The Coolum Victa

The Coolum Victa has died

Josh said that its’ bearings are fried

This is the diagnosis of our son

He is a Mechanical Top Gun.

It came to me from Stan

And he was the man

Who could make that Coolum Victa sing

And I kept it alive

But it could not survive in my care forever.

It was the pride of my fleet

But it could not meet

The heavy demands

Of a Kenyon tart's* garden

They're pretty hard  'n

Every Victa today

Must pay its’ own way.

It goes now into Victa Heaven

Where it can mow the grass

For Kenyon's First Eleven

Or perhaps prepare the lawn

For SRV** to give a concert on.

I will never forget her

Our family history will not let her

Fade away

So RIP Coolum Victa

You are laid to rest today.

Epilogue

She didn’t die,

Apparently she just had a little holiday.

* term of great admiration and affection
** Stevie Ray Vaughan