Tis the season! Again we dedicated a Saturday to our Amish district's benefit school auction. I enjoyed this year's better than any I've been to yet. I think it was because I knew so many people.
They sell just about everything at these auctions furniture, quilts, live stock, pets, wood, implements, etc. There are other things that you don't have to bid for, but can buy on the spot like baked goods, food, knick-knacks, produce etc. and sometimes they even have a raffle for a gorgeous piece of furniture or dazzling quilt.
To be honest, I love watching auctions, but bidding or even sitting beside someone who's bidding stresses me out!
Quilts! Glorious Quilts!
I have never seen finer quilts than the ones I've seen on the auction racks. They are masterpieces in high resolution and full color. If you want to finger through them you have to wear plastic gloves so you don't get them oily. My favorite this year was lot-number-19: a mariner's compass in brown shades. This is what a Mariner's Compass quilt looks like. It was absolutely stunning, but it went for over $500 so it was out of the question for me (I don't even have a room of my own to put it in anyway :)
Mm-Mm! Good Amish cooked food too: waffle cakes, soft pretzels, hot dogs, sausage burgers, barbeque chicken, noodles, three flavors of ice cream and four choices of pie. I had a sausage burger with lots of ketchup (I know, not the healthiest [but it was SO good] :) and pecan pie--my favorite--with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream plopped right on top. Wow-Wee! This probably shouldn't be become an everyday thing.
My brother and sister posed for this funny picture. The main auction tent is very large with a stage and one main auctioneer with a microphone and two or three spotters who watch for bidders. The auctioneer speaks so fast that he sounds like a banjo
It's fun to watch what's happening up front, but it's also fun to watch the people all around you on the benches. You can pick out the people who come from the big cities because they are bidding up a storm planning to resell everything they pick up at stores of their own. There are also the cute couples with a wife who's eager to spend and a husband who's along to keep her from spending.
It's a fun annual event that we look forward too. I think they'll just keep getting better and better because I'm just going to get to know more and more people and that's what makes it fun!
