At The Auction

Last Saturday was a cold windy day here in SE Kansas. Fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities were put on hold as I tagged along with my wife to an auction in "Beautiful Mulberry". Mulberry is a small town of a hundred or so homes. At one time during the coal mining days here is this region it was a boom town and apparently had a large thriving downtown . The evidence is the many sidewalks and empty lots. All that remains is a few scattered red brick buildings that now function as city hall and post office.
This was an estate auction, a life time of possessions of a woman whose family most likely had moved on or just didn't want what was for sale here. My wife seeks out chairs and boxes that she paints for the gallery where she sell her art. My job is to load the truck. She calls it "recycling" and over the years almost all of our homes have been furnished this way. For instance last summer a pile of old walnut door moldings she bought for a dollar became a head board for our bed, as well as other projects around the house.
Auctions are really social events in small towns, folks of all ages browse and drink coffee, gossip, joke with the auctioneer and every once in a while buy something.