WHERE THE GRASS IS ALWAYS NEATER 
“I used to walk to school everyday and I used to pass by the home of the richest man in the area and he had a square block that was magnificently trimmed at all times and in the back of my mind subconsciously I considered a lawn like that as ‘success.’ So when I bought me a big house here in Houston the weeds were growing all around my trees and everything and i couldn’t get anybody to do it. Finally I found somebody that’d do it and he reached down into the grass and he got bit by a snake and I spent the rest of my day trying to save his life rather than get my yard done.” — dance instructor George Ballas, inventor of the Weed Eater, who passed away over the weekend at age 85. Ballas came up with the idea for his transformative product after watching spinning bristles clean his Cadillac at a car wash near Houston International (now Hobby) Airport. Until he sold the company to Emerson Electric, the company’s worldwide headquarters stood at 10515 Harwin. The company got a major boost from commercials shown during David Frost’s interviews with former president Richard Nixon in 1977. [Business Makers; obituary] Photo of Ballas’s West Houston lawn: Corky and Shirley Ballas
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don’t tell that to Daniel Taibo! :) He may have to sue Billy Blanks next.
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I like to let you know that George Ballas did not invent the Weedeater.I DANIEL TAIBO was the inventor.It all started in the summer of 1967 when I was cutting the grass in my front yard.I lived at 7718 ERATH ST.in Houston,Texas 77072 and as I was cutting the lawn I dreamed up the famous invention of the Weed Eater and the Lawn Wacker or lawn mower with plastic cords.The Gutierez family lived right behind us on the other street in the corner and they brought a couple friend of theirs over to visit us, they were George Ballas and his Mexican-American wife Maria Luisa we had never met them before.Me and Ballas sat next to each other and we started talking and I told him about the weed eater invention and how it worked I had dreamed up a couple of weeks before.I had even called a patent lawyer in 1967 about developing the invention but the cost was to great we were just a working family.I was 14 years old when I created the famous invention of the Weedeater.Think of all the money and the huge industry I generated an I never have gotten a single penny or recognition.GEORGE BALLAS IS A FAKE! He might be a good businessman. DANIEL TAIBO 6926 Misty Morning Trace,Richmond,Texas 77407 Cell.832-640-2290
Woo hoo … do I smell a “whack-off” in the making?
I’d be pissed, too, if my 14-year-old awesomeness was ripped off by some self-promoter!
Too bad young Mr. Taibo didn’t have some grown-up help to get his product to market.
You should have whacked him
Lesson learned: NEVER share a money-making idea with ANYONE until you have a patent, maybe not even then.