Farm Sales

In March there was usually more conversation between my mother and father. March was traditionally farm sale month. I often wondered why so I asked my mother. She told me that March was a month when not much was happening on the farm. It was too early for farmers to get in the field, and too early for the animals to have little ones. That was not always the case, but for the most part the animals had their little ones in April.
The farmers that were moving or going out of the farming business had the attention of the farmers that lived in the surrounding areas. A farm sale was kind of like people that observe a fatal car accident, they say, “oh how terrible,” but think “oh, I am sure glad that wasn’t me.”
Someone that was “selling out” had a lot of work to do. The first thing they had to do was to contact an honest auctioneer; plan the date of the sale, and decide on how to advertise it. The flyers were usually put on bulletin boards in restaurants and feed stores and other places where farmers frequented. The farmers needed to post their sales in the newspapers. The ads cost them money, but in the end it was worth it. The ads in the newspaper brought farmers from all over the area to the sale. The weather was a gamble. The farmer prayed for good weather so a lot of people would show up for the sale.
Auctions now days have lunch trailers, so the bidders can buy drinks and sandwiches. When I was growing up, the wife of the farmer fixed the food. Usually the women in the area always helped her. I can remember mom fixing great big blue porcelain pots of coffee. Yes, we had a farm sale.
I think my parents had mixed emotions about giving up the farm. It was not making any money, in fact, it was losing money, but the farm had been in my mother’s family for a great many years.
One of the interesting things that sell on a farm auction, is a bucket of junk. The farmers, go through their machine sheds, and garages and throw junk into a bucket and the auctioneer gets all kinds of bids on it. To me, just a kid, it looked like a bunch of rusty bolts and bits and pieces of things, but they really sold very well. People do that now and they still sell very well. I think it’s because the “bucket” holds a mystery. The unknown always entices people and they will readily spend a dollar or two just to find out what is in the bucket. Sometimes, the bucket is worth a dollar. I am almost sixty five years old, and eventually in the spring a conversation I am involved in turns to the subject of an auction someone has been to. Almost always, someone tells me about the great deal they got on a bucket of junk they bought for a dollar.