holy auction, batman.

This was the third auction my family has hosted in my lifetime.  The first, when I was 16 and we were moving off the farm.  The second, four years ago at my grandpa’s, selling the gas engines and gas pumps that my grandfather and dad had refinished as a hobby for so many years.  Now today, the third.  My mom was looking to downsize and now that my brother does not live here, there was a shop filled with tools and tidbits to sell.  [I had no idea how much stuff was in that shop until it was emptied.]

It was a hot sticky day but the crowds filled our yard and our driveway beginning at 8am this morning.  The gas pumps [that my grandpa has refinished since the previous auction four years ago], the gun collection that has lived in the gun closet in my mom’s bedroom for years and years, and a couple tractors on the bill, in addition to furniture, a few lawn mowers, and tobacco lathes, brought the people.  The people included lots of my dad’s family, Einstein [or a man who greatly resembled this scientist], and the amish.

It was a stressful and crazy couple of days preparing for my mom and my brother, but once the day arrived, things fell into place nicely.  The auctioneer and auction specialist ran things in an orderly fashion, and the head of the auction company only slapped my butt once.  [And I’m pretty serious about that.  Yeah, he’s like 60.]  I teared up only at one point, when Ben climbed onto the John Deere to start it for the crowds.  It was a tractor that we used each year in tobacco harvest, and that would be the last time someone in our family started it.  Sad story.  But such is life.  The tractor must continue on to make another farmer a happy tractor driver, as is every tractor’s dream.  Go, John Deere, fulfill your tractor destiny.