Going, going, gone

My haul from an auction a few years back. All of this for $11.

We have a closing date for our NY house!

In celebration, we went to an auction.

My mom introduced me to the world of bargains available from estate auctions. We followed a father-son team of auctioneers. They had their set patter and their set jokes. From them I learned the term "by the each"--selling two or more items at once but you pay two or more times the money. And when they couldn't figure out what something was, they fell back on "It's a nice one!

We've now attended a few outside auctions in Indiana and felt right at home with the same type of jargon, the same lame jokes, the same crappy sound systems.

But there is one big difference.

At every country auction in New York, there was a large tent set up with chairs. The auctioneer sold from the front and his crew toted in the goodies. You sat, more or less in comfort, chatted with your neighbors, scarfed down the goodies offered for sale.

Here we found no tent and no chairs. The items for sale are laid out on large flatbed trailers and the audience follows the auctioneer around the lot. This means you STAND FOR HOURS!

I'm out of shape and not used to standing for that long. I guess that means I'll have to start a training regime for the spring auction season.

BTW--the celebration auction we attended? I did buy three enamel roasting pans, a tea kettle, and a few other miscellaneous kitchen bits and spent a whopping $2.00. That's my idea of stimulating the economy.