The state of the lawn-mowing service industry has grown so competitive in Lawrence, it’s hustle all day every day all summer or go bust.

“Hello,” the young man introduced himself to my wife after a ring of the doorbell. “We’re AMR Mowing. Would you like us to mow your lawn?”

Her response: “I sure would. The men who live here are too lazy to do it.”

The three boys who make up AMR Mowing solicit door-to-door, the front man steering the rider mower, which is attached to a flat-bed wagon carrying the push mower. The last car on the train is the little red wagon transporting the gas can and weed-eater.

“What does AMR stand for?” I asked. “Is it the first initial of all your names?”

The salesman of the bunch put his right hand on his chest and said, “Sir, I am Andrew Morton Riggs. I’m the owner.”

Andrew is 12, his workhorse brother, Tom, is 13, and their co-worker, Paul Jesse, is 10.

“He founded the company, so he gets to have it named after him,” Tom said, pointing to his kid brother.

Tom was digging grass out of the mower, trying to fix it.

“Your grass is so long it broke down,” Tom said.

Horrified, Andrew jumped in to make sure the client wasn’t offended.

“Which is a good thing,” said Andrew, who 49 years from now likely will be inducted into the 50th class of the Lawrence Business Hall of Fame. “Your grass is so thick and beautiful, sir. You really do have such beautiful grass.”

Dylan Perry and Connor Schmidt, two seniors in high school, jumped into that competitive pool of entrepreneurial geniuses mowing lawns this past summer, and it went swimmingly for them. In no time, the business partners were mowing eight lawns on a regular basis.

They made an instant hit of “Dylan & Connor Lawn Care,” — Perry supplied the mower and weed-eater, so his name was listed first –because they’re winners. Only one of them can win Friday night. Former teammates at Southwest Junior High, where Perry used to throw passes to Schmidt, the boys will be on opposite sidelines in the city rivalry game at Lawrence High.

Perry is a speedy dual-threat QB for Free State. Schmidt is a hybrid defensive end/linebacker who will try to bring down Perry.

Since they’re business partners, Schmidt will make sure he doesn’t tackle him in such a way as to hamper his mowing ability, right?

“Anything goes Friday night,” said Schmidt, who handled the edging. “I won’t be concerned that he’s my business partner. It makes you play all the harder because you want to beat him.”

Agreed Perry, who did most of the mowing: “I always look forward to playing against people I know. It makes things a lot more competitive.”