The Adventures of Carmen the Cannoli: April 2015

April 18 2015

I never heard of lawnmower pulling before arriving in SWFL. So when my friend Roger Warren asked me to come by and see one….I just had to go and see what this is all about. Back in my village we do not do such things. Lawn bowling or bocce ball yes but lawnmower pulling never crossed our minds.

So what is lawnmower pulling? Well basically you know the riding lawnmowers, they attach two together via a long strap and engage in a tug of war. So one driver tries to pull the other over the mark which amounts to a few feet. So I guess you can say it is a tug of war with riding lawnmowers. I was anxious to see what this is all about and why anybody would do this.

On the day I went it was a fundraiser for a local middle school girl who is battling Leukemia. Her name is Katelynn Rich. The Fraternal Order of Eagles organization in Lehigh Acres had a whole day event going on to raise funds for her. They had an auction, 50/50 raffle, food, games and the lawnmower pulling. Oh and a bake sale. I had to stay away from that….my girlish figure ya know!

They had tents sent up and there was a huge crowd. Even the Lehigh Acres Fire Rescue were on hand. I had heard that the fire men in SWFL are so handsome that they even pose for a calendar. Well it is true as these Lehigh Rescuers were real cuties… one was even Italian although he never heard of my village. I just had to have my picture taken with them. I also saw another friend Melissa….she was busy getting people to buy 50/50 tickets. The Eagles really did a great job….they had so many auction items that the poor auctioneer was losing his voice. It lasted for hours and raised over $5000!!!

I got to meet young Katelynn. She is a very gracious young lady and was so grateful for what everyone was doing to help her. Much like in our village the community came out to support someone in need. It was nice to see that. I miss that about my village.

So anyway….There is this group called SWFL Lawnmower Pullers who hold these lawnmower pulling contests so they were on hand and were raffling off a lawnmower for pulling. So I just had to ask them about these lawnmowers because they were of all different sizes. All the lawnmowers including the weight of the driver has to weigh in at 1,000 lbs. That is more than the total weight of everybody in my little village.

The contest involves drawing numbers to see who pulls against who. They do 2 out of 3 in a double elimination. There were 24 pullers that day. I really wanted to try my hand at it but they were all just too big for me. I did find one small enough but there was nobody else to pull against. They do have children pulling over the age of 8, under that they have a parent walk along side. I did speak with one young man of the age of 9 and asked him why he liked it so much and he said it was driving the lawnmower he liked best.

I was not sure why all the others do it…I mean…..picture it 2 1,000 pound machines each pulling in the opposite direction. That is until you see these machines begin to do wheelies, shake, rattle, and jump up and down….side to side… it is something to see. I tried to figure out what one had to do to be the winner of the tug of war…I guess it has to do with being quick on the gas??? Driving skills???

They keep pulling and pulling and pulling until they have winners in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place. So we are talking about hours of pulling and pulling and more pulling. I was very excited that my friend Roger won 1^st place that day. They also raised over $2,000 on the raffle for the lawnmower suitable for pulling that was won by Sunshine Rethurford. Overall over $9,000 was raised that day. That is a lot of money that I am sure will be put to good use.

So the lawnmower pullers can be found most Saturdays having their tug of wars with 1,000 pound machines around Lehigh Acres and other locations. You can find them on Facebook at SWFLLawnmower Pullers….if you want to check them out. You can find out more about the Fraternal Order of Eagles on Facebook at FOE3983