Auction!

Another annual Jackson County, West Virginia event: The Ravenswood FFA Farm and Equipment Auction. It's an event not to be missed if you are into farming, antiques, curiosities, and people-watching.

We had some specific things to be on the lookout for: chains for son Aaron's Massey Ferguson tractor (we got Derek's chains at last year's auction), metal nesting boxes for my chickens (mine I've had for 35 years, and they're in bad shape), a finish mower for our MF tractor, and then whatever oddities and necessities attracted us.

The day dawned rainy, not good for an outdoor auction, but if you go to these events you know to prepare for whatever comes--that is, if you're a diehard fan like those who showed up Saturday. We wore old shoes, wore layers, and carried hats andumbrellas. Good thing, because when the rain cleared off it got sunny and unseasonably warm.

First up was to locate what we were interested in. We'd driven out the evening before and made notes of what we wanted to bid on--there were three finish mowers in doubtful condition, several sets of tractor chains, nesting boxes (yes!), chicken waterers, and then the other things that I am drawn to without fail--old farm tools and equipment like horsedrawn plows and mowers, a bicycle grinder, a grain cradle, wagon wheels, shoes lasts, a wooden hay rake, antique hand tools, old kitchen tools and glassware. Then useful stuff like a shredder/grinder, lime spreader, utility trailers, and on and on and on.

We spent the entire day there, because the tractor chains, of course, were the next to last lot of the day. In the meantime we bid and lost on many items--the mowers (too high for their condition), the utility trailers (too high for the repairs needed), the wood hay rake (I quit listening when the bidding reached $50), the shredder/grinder (a good one, but more than I wanted to spend), the bicycle grinder (a really unique and old item, but beyond my pocketbook) and many others.

What we ended up with filled the back of the truck--the nest boxes, waterers, lime spreader, old dishes, shoe last, grain cradle, metal gas cans, backpack garden sprayer, garden rakes, masonry ruler, antique sled, 2 trash cans in new condition, and the tractor chains. Those chains were worth the wait, worth over $100 but we got them for $20. The buy of the day, certainly.

It was fun to watch people, too. The teenagers from the FFA worked hard and got good and dirty. Many of them had mud up to their knees. Adults didn't fair much better--Jackson County is renowned for its mud and we experienced some of its finest yesterday. Trucks got stuck and were pushed out or pulled out. Little kids ran back and forth through puddles to ensure they were mud-covered by the end of the day. But no one seemed to mind--here mud is a sure sign of spring, and good deep mud means good deep soil that grows fine crops.

Another thought struck me as I watched bidding on a box of miscellaneous tools and hardware--how often has this stuff been at this auction? I could just see it being carted home to be put in the buyer's barn, then a couple years later out it comes again, to be sold to someone else! And a further thought--how many of us had boxes and bins of exactly the same stuff at home, and yet here we were rummaging through these, wondering what certain things were used for, remembering a time we used a wrench like that one, thinking about whether or not we needed another box of wood screws. Such packrats we can be!

Some memories of the day:

• The sea of blue--jeans were like a uniform in this crowd, jeans and overalls, denim jackets and shirts on bodies of every age, size and sex.
• The old men, gathered in groups here and there, commenting on prices and items, joking with me as I carried the grain cradle to the truck ("Let's see you use that thing!" Yeah right. Those days are past for me.).
• The very young auctioneer, who when faced with an odd piece of antique gearing, simply said "We got us here some....airplane parts..." That got our attention! I still have no idea what the thing was used for, but it was intriguing and someone bought it.
• The man who bought the portable adult potty chair--plenty of kidding about that!--he just grinned, took off its pink cloth slipcover, and used it as a seat for the rest of the auction.
• The boy who bought the set of golf clubs, and the one who bought the feed pans. Serious and adult in their bidding, it was obvious to the rest of us that those who bid against them stopped so that the boys got what they wanted.
• The old man who bid against me on the hen nests. He wanted them as badly as I did, and hung right in there. It made me feel bad in a way, but for the past two years I've been outbid on these things and this year I was determined to get them--my hens need them too! I hope his chickens make out alright without them.

We were tired by the end of the day, and hungry. Muddy as we were, we decided to stop for dinner in town at our favorite Mexican reataurant (heck it's the ONLY Mexican restaurant in town!). Another nice thing about living in a rural area is that it's okay to "come as you are" at most businesses, and while I would not ordinarily trot in there like we were last night, we just didn't care. We called a good friend who came and joined us, and after a good dinner and good conversation, we felt human again. Then finally home to unload the day's buying, and finding places for all of it.

I think there is something special about using an old tool that's belonged to someone else, carrying on a tradition in a new place, honoring the work of those before us, perhaps. Or perhaps it's because each item has a story to go with it that makes it more appealing to me. I will think about the hands that held the garden rake when I use it, and about the woman who used the glass pouring bowl in her kitchen. That's why I like auctions--it's a day full of stories from the past lives of people who lived and farmed before us.