Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

I observed a moment of silence Saturday morning at the county recycling center.

I dispatched my old wheelbarrow to the recycle dumpster after one of the wooden handles snapped off at the end of a project earlier in the fall.

This one had a black metal tub and two wooden handles and a pneumatic tire that served me well for probably close to 15 years.

It came in a box in separate pieces and I had to bolt everything to the frame, including the tub and the small, black rubber tire.

The only real issue I had with this unit happened when the frame would get loose and allow the wheel to wiggle out of the brackets that held it to the front of the handles.

The I’d have to grab my wrench and tighten up all the nuts and bolts before rolling on.

Some preventative maintenance might have been advised!

I hauled a lot of gravel, mulch, wood chips and dirt in that unit.

It served me well as a homeowner who likes to “piddle” around the yard.

I’m just glad the handle held out until the end of the last project.

“WheelBARREL” is a common misspelling for “wheelBARROW”.

I’ve always had single-wheeled models because I find them easier to handle and maneuver when loaded.

“Barrow” is an old word for a carrying frame and the Chinese are credited with the first “wheelbarrows” more than 2,000 years ago.

There are plastic/polyethylene tub models which are lighter and won’t rust.

I had one before my last wheelbarrow but it didn’t feel as stable as my metal ones, especially when moving gravel or soil.

On occasion, you’ll see folks remove the tub from a wheelbarrow and bury one side of it as a backdrop for a flower bed.

Not me.

If it can no longer “haul”, I’m “hauling it” to the landfill.

The first wheelbarrow I remember was an old one my Dad had handed down to him by his father.

It had a metal wheel probably not even 2 inches wide which was a real treat trying to push when it was loaded and the soil you were rolling over was soft.

I like the pneumatic tires because they roll smoother over rough terrain.

But if that tire is not properly inflated, it can be a tough push.

Time to break out the bicycle tire pump although I have a small battery-powered unit that works pretty well.

Wheelbarrows use leverage (a fulcrum) to make lifting and moving heavy items easier.

Wheelbarrows are tied to the ancient Greek mathematician and physicist Archimedes.

“Old Archie” didn’t invent the lever and fulcrum but he provided scientific understanding of why and how it works.

He laid the groundwork for simple, labor-saving machines.

Takes me back to my high school days and physics class.

(I am still looking for a direct connection in my life to the trigonometry class I took in high school).

I recently had to relocate my compost container and the work was made much for challenging without a wheelbarrow to use.

I had my four-wheeled trailer and buckets I could employ but the task would have been easier with a small, load-bearing vehicle with one wheel on the front and a tub straddling two handles to use.

Physics in action!

So, I need to get a new wheelbarrow.

A new single-wheel hand-pushed cart can get pretty costly but I just need one with a metal bed and a design that won’t allow the wheel to fall off like my old one started to do.

Needs an inflatable rubber tire, too.

Outside of some wood chips or mulch, a little compost or dirt and maybe some pea gravel, I don’t envision any heavy-duty hauling projects.

I just need something I can load up and push around and it won’t mind being parked behind my backyard barn, sort of out of the way.

Now this talk about Archimedes made me remember the Eagles “Long Run” album from 1979.

It included, “The Greeks Don’t Want no Freaks”.

In their earlier days, the Eagles played at a few frat parties and that’s where this one came from.

“Bu the Greeks don’t want no freaks.

No the Greeks don’t want no freaks.

So put a big smile on those rosy cheeks

Cause the Greeks don’t want no freaks”.

I’m pretty sure the Eagles weren’t singing about Archimedes and his pals.