‘THE TWIN’ FOUND AT LAST!
This story actually starts 56 years ago, when I was 8 years old. My parents took us kids to many antique shops all over the East Coast. At a shop in Lafayette, New Jersey, I happened across a 1952 Jacobsen Lawn Queen reel-type mower half-buried in weeds behind the shop. It seemed to be all there, albeit sun-faded and a bit rusty. I went inside and asked the owner if it was for sale. He seemed to not know it was out back, so he asked me to show him. He thought about it for a minute and said, “five bucks and it’s yours.” “Sold,” was my reply, and I nearly ripped my pants trying to get my hard-earned mowing money out of my pocket.
My dad was not too happy with my purchase — it nearly didn’t fit in the trunk of his Peugeot 403! When I got home, I cleaned the mower off, mixed some gas and oil for the fuel, filled it up and gave the recoil starter a pull. To my surprise, the Jacobsen 2-cycle engine started right up and purred like a kitten. For a few years I had been using a REO Royale reel-type mower to cut grass for spending money. The reel and bed knife were well worn, and the mower was not doing a great job. I decided to give the Jacobsen Lawn Queen a try on my next job, and I was hooked. It was a lot lighter, seemed to be
