I was “almost 17," as all young people say, when I got married in 1947. I went to my first farm auction with Wayne in the fall of 1948. I wanted a set of dishes so badly that was included in auction. I asked Wayne to bid on them for me. He told me that I should do it myself as I needed to learn how. I was only 5 feet 3 inches tall and there were so many tall men who crowded in front of me that I could not even see the wagon where the dishes sat. I could barely see the auctioneer. Why men crowd around a table of women things, with no intentions of buying anything, I will never understand.


I was very timid and did not want to bid anyway. I was having trouble making the Auctioneer hear or see me. A nice tall man who was standing beside me understood my dilemma, asked if he could help make the bid for me. I was elated and told him "yes" with much relief. He started bidding and would look down at me and I would nod to him that I wanted him to bid for me again. The bidding went on and on, and the dishes were going for much higher than I had planned to pay, but I really did want those dishes.

Finally, when I was discussing with the tall man that I did not want to go any higher, the local auctioneer, George Harris, realized that the man was actually bidding for me and he had been taking my nod to the guy as a separate bid. Actually, I was bidding against myself all of this time. The auctioneer admitted he had been taking two bids for me and backed the price down a few dollars. I got my dishes!

I swore then and there, I would never bid for another thing again in my life. I was so embarrassed. I felt so stupid and was very angry with Wayne for not helping me. He made it even worse when he "belly" laughed at what had happened. Since then, I have made bids at many auctions, but I make sure I do not nod my head while talking, scratch my nose, or hand talk. There are so many ways of bidding. I found that out the hard way.