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In the late 1950’s when I was only about 9 or 10, my father went to Lowe’s Hardware in North Wilkesboro, NC and bought a riding lawn mower. Yes, this is what has evolved into Lowe’s Home Centers but then there was only one. The mower served our family to mow a lawn that was huge, about 1 1/2 acres until the early 1970’s. My father died in 1969 and shortly before his death he traded for a Farmall Cub tractor. In the early 1970’s my mother bought a 60” mowing deck for the Cub and sold the Root. It has long been forgotten by my mother (now 92) who she even sold it to. I grew up on this lawn mower and did many wheel stands with it while mowing every week. It did a good job and the only part I remember replacing was the reverse wheel. The unit was belt drive forward and had a fiber wheel that move into the pulley groove for reverse. After I started collecting tractors I thought how cool it would be to find a Root like I grew up on and restore it to show. I finally found one in Michigan. It has not began its restoration but should make a nice unit. The brand name on the one I found is UNICO instead of Root but the manufacture tag is there identifying it. The pictures below show the original Root and the Unico I have to restore. The only difference is the aluminum wings on the rear fenders with the Root logo on them.
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