Fitty, fitty, fitty, who’s gonna give me fitty?
25 July, 2020.
The auctioneer’s sing-song change echoes across the yard, amplified over speakers, through the crowd and across the acres of freshly mowed hay. It’s the first public auction I’ve seen take place this year, and I wear my mask even though this takes place outdoors. People can’t help themselves, they crane their necks, lean forward, and get closer together as the next sale item comes up on the block. It’s a twenty foot extension ladder and as always, the auctioneer starts high at a hundred dollars and cajoles the crowd for a bid. Canny buyers wait, and eventually someone grudgingly offers ten dollars, and then the auctioneer is off and running, his words crushed together into one single supercalifragilisticexpialidocious word.
“Twennytwennytwennywho’sgonnagivemetwennyIgottennowIneedtwenny…”
He coaxes up each bid, often using humor to do so. The auctioneer has his finger pointed at a heavyset man. The bidder is unsure about going any higher and glances at his wife. “Don’t look at her!” the auctioneer cries. “She’ll just tell you no, and you know you need this! I’ve seen your garden!” The item is a hoe, and the man raises his bid and wins. He’s paid more than I would have for an implement that looks to be at least fifty years old and falling apart.
This is my favorite kind of auction, taking place in the yard surrounding an old farmhouse in the country. There are all manner of things that will be sold today: kitchen ware, furniture, tools, lawn tractors, old frames, and at least two dozen cowboy hats. Boxes of untold and unseen treasure are in neat rows, but nothing I can’t live without.
Auctions are great events for people watching. For one thing, the crowd is largely stationary. Unlike sketching people on the street, one has a bit more leisure to capture a pose. Also, attendees are often interesting characters. Exaggeration is often the best way to communicate a likeness.
Just Sketching 