This past weekend brought the annual "sucking of the leaves" ritual at the Lambert homestead/bunker here in Central NH. My wife took this shot of yours truly proudly perched upon my Dad’s Wheelhorse complete with the EZ-Rake vacuum machine in action– simultaneously mowing and sucking leaves, grass, sticks and apples. Why do I put this picture up? Because every year at this time, I phone Dad and I’ll make some crack about "wanting my money back for this old piece of crap– it took THREE PULLS TO START!" Then we’ll both laugh. Dad bought the tractor with attachments, near as we can recall, when I was between 6 and 8 years of age, thus making it somewhere in the vicinity of 35 or so years old. The main point stressed is that this rig was 100% completely made in the USA.
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Does it sometimes break? Of course. Amazingly, so far, every part I have ever needed on the tractor, including the mower deck was still available for purchase. I’m not sure about the vac portion, because it has never really broken, other than needing a few weld repairs or a new gas tank. With a simple set of tools (no metric needed!), and an accompanying grasp of basic mechanics, these old devices will probably run for another 35+ years.
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All of this came from that magic time when EVERYTHING was made in America. Back when China was nothing more than some place with a Great Wall and handy takeout…