Over this past weekend I mowed for the first time this season too.
I pulled my 25 year old Murray mower (w/ Briggs and Stratton Quantum motor) out of the garage and gave the priming bulb three pumps and she started on the first pull. The wife asks me when I'm going to get a new mower. Never. That thing runs just as good today as it did back when it was new.
I did prep it for winter, as I always do.
funny you mention that,
I always snicker a bit, every year, when I pull my old Craftsman / Briggs push mower (purchased 1986) out, fill it up, prime it on choke, pull twice, and it starts and runs all season.... I do drain that tank in the fall..
mainly because I use it for my aux tank when doing carb work....
I'm on my 4th Ryobi Multi attachment weed whacker in the last 3 years.... they just don't make equipment to last anymore...
The old Snapper is a 10 hp version, of the original Forest Gump Mower... I love that machine...
It is about the same difficulty factor to pull the float bowl on the machine as a C10 tho... blind fumblin'
Since I was a bozillionaire, and I liked doin' it so much... I mowed that grass fo' free.