My Favorite “Job”

Today was my garden club’s annual Christmas Auction. It is not a big time auction like Sotheby’s or Christies. Members each bring things, mostly home made, like cakes worthy of the Christmas dinner table or wreaths festooned with ribbons and berries. The point of the auction is to raise money we then turn around and give away and to have fun and do what we all do best, eat lunch and visit with each other.
Somehow I have gotten on the schedule that the auction is held at my house every other year, but this year was my “off year” so Christy Barnes held it at her lovely home. Being the hostess of the Christmas auction is a lot of work since you have to feed about 70 people, so I was extra thankful for Christy this year.
My real job at the auction every year is to be the auctioneer. When I first was invited to join the Hope Valley Garden Club my very first meeting was the Christmas auction. It was at Anne Bradford’s house and Pat Joklik was auctioneer. The HVGC has a broad range of ages in the women in membership and since I was one of the younger ones back then I got to sit on the stairs as the items were being auctioned off in the living room. As Pat would wrangle $20 or $25 for a pound cake from the ladies in attendance, I sat amazed that anyone would pay that much for a cake they could bake for $3.
In the next couple of years, as the membership got younger, Pat asked me to be her assistant auctioneer so I could help her with the names of newer members. Then one year after many decades of her being the auctioneer she announced she was retiring and leaving the job in my Pat trained hands.
So for about the last ten years I have had the pleasure of being the auctioneer. This year was easy. The items to be auctioned off were all fabulous. The worst thing that can happen is for someone to bring some old item from their basement and no one wants to bid on it. This is not a white elephant sale. I have to come up with some witty banter about each item, especially if it is a dud because the crowd will bid on funny, but not on crappy. Of course I can’t say anything that offends the donor, which means sometimes I really have to hold back. This year I probably only said two or three off color remarks which is fairly good for me.
Some years ago we started letting members invite guests to the auction. It makes my job a little harder since I don’t always know the whole crowd, but the guests bid much higher for things than the members usually do so we have greatly increased the amount of money we raise. No one could every get a caramel cake for $25 now, you really have to fork over closer to a $100.
I could never do this job without the help of the runner elves who bring me the items so we can keep the pace up. Thanks to Kathi Eason and Connie Kearny for being the elves. Kathi is also a good model and is seen in the picture with me modeling the mother daughter aprons, made by Stephanie Perun. Of course, I am playing the mother in this scenario.
I was told by the treasurer, Missy Mcleod that we raised just under $5,000 which was a record amount. Thanks to all in attendance who bid on and bid up items. It is all I good fun when good friends bid against each other. Sadly, I did not win any of the items I bid on, but I did make sure the winners paid a pretty penny for them. Being just the auctioneer and not the hostess makes this the most fun day ever. I hope I get to keep this job for a few more years.