LURE OF A COUNTRY AUCTION (part 4 )

WEATHER

Auctions are rarely cancelled due to inclement weather.  You read about them in a local paper and you plan on going.  Sometimes they’ll state that incase of inclement weather the sale will be held inside a shed.  I can say that inside shed auctions are no picnic because it is usually dark and the crowd can be crammed so tightly undercover that you can’t see or hear the auctioneer or the times he is selling.  

And the weather can be hotter than Dutch love or colder than a stare from the guy you outbid.  I’ve been to sales in all kinds of weather.  We learned to take cold water for drinking and lawn chairs with umbrellas attached to them to keep off the sun on the hottest days.  And after several hours of heat many people in the crowd tended to get a little mesmerized and if you kept alert you could get lucky.  

In the drenching rain things can go your way too.  We would wear raincoats, rubber knee high boots, and try to dodge having our eyes poked out from other people’s jabby umbrellas. And in heavy rainfalls it was always a concern we’d get stuck in the farm fields that were often turned into parking lots.  After so much traffic in and out of the fields the ground would get packed down, muddy and slippery.  But sometimes an all day rainy auction was the one where you could get the best bargains.

One time I attended an auction in December where it never got above zero all day.  People were stomping their feet back and forth in place, putting smashed cardboard boxes under their feet to stand on for a little insulation, and shivering.  They’d be shivering so much but they wouldn’t dare leave the

auction, me included.  On the coldest auction day I’d end up shivering all the way home and still shivering the rest of the day.
You wouldn’t think it but sometimes on a Saturday, when the weather was the nicest and most comfortable, that might be the time to get a bargain.  Saturdays in summer are often days for weddings, parties, or just days that people need to stay home and get caught up with yard work, chores, and gardening.  Beautiful Saturdays often turned out to be great days for bargains too.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT A TRAIL IN THE WOODS

Tree branches bent and parted

With tall ferns on either side,

Grass trampled, matted down

By those who walked the trail before me.

Deer tracks pressed in the soft ground

Acorns falling here and there

With their caps lying beside them,

Leaves of red and gold on the trail.

Shady coolness, breezes blowing,

Sunlight shining up ahead

Where the trail slowly rises

Up the hill and down again.

Where it leads you only it knows

But when you come to the end

It’s for certain when you get there

You’ll long to walk that trail again.