I was about 12 years old when I went to see my friend Andy who was of the same age as I and lived nearby, a little bit more uphills. We went to school together, but it was during summer vacation. When I came to his place, he was riding around on a small lawn tractor on the family property.
I saw him the first time doing this. The small tractor made a huge amount of noise and smoke, and Andy first didn't notice me and I watched him how he was playfully riding around the trees and climbing up some small slopes. Suddenly, the small tractor got stuck in a sligthly slippery spot, there was a bump in the terrain and the rear wheels of the Yard-Man Tractor started spinning. Andy tried to move his tractor forward by revving very hard and as there was a big tree just next to where he was, the rear wheels layd bare some roots of the tree badly hurting them. But Andy didn't care but continued to give full throttle and making rhythmic movements with his pelvis to "help" the little tractor.
I was stunned to see this, and realized how he was firmly sitting on the tractor's seat which I thought must have been really comfortable because it was wide and had thick and soft padding. I realized how much this soft seat was vibrating because of the spinning. Andy was wearing some tight jogging shorts and I saw how his butt was wobbling while the rear wheels of the tractor were spinning and desperately searching for some grip. Finally, after endless minutes, he let the tractor roll back a little bit and then full throttle he managed to overcome the obstacle, and after some meters he realized that I was there behind him.
I looked at the deep scars the spinning wheels did to the terrain and the bare roots of the big tree that were polished blank by the spinning tractor wheels. I was really stunned and something happened to me which was difficult to cope with at my age. Why did he let his tractor spin for such a long time? Why was I completely struck by this?
He also was one of the first boys who had a moped, 50ccm 2-stroke, when I still had a bicycle. We often went to the woods to play around and he enjoyed spinning his moped and I was left watching. Difficult to spin the wheel of my biycyle... I really envied him for having a moped!
