The gentle good will of the auctioneer

It was fifty years ago. The mid seventies. Some of the things we take for granted in today’s world, were only dreams in those days. There were cartoons on the television. At certain times. They were only on, certain channels. One of three, to be exact. The cartoons only ran once in the morning. Therefore, missing them, meant missing them.

Movie theaters were more than just a novelty, or a home project, in those days. In fact, going to see a movie was a rare special event. Those very early days of film, and movies, were unique. For starters it was unheard of for a movie to be seen anywhere but the theater, or drive-in theater. Also, it was uncommon for households to have two vehicles.

Although there were many other things happening in those days, this story isn’t about the gas shortages. Or the ongoing problems from inflation. Or the many other world issues that were happening. We were just kids in those days. We knew about things because we heard our parents, or the elders, talk about them. Therefore, our worldview was influenced by what we heard during our upbringing.

Gentle Good Will

With this in mind, those days were younger, and in more ways than just the years. There was a lot for a kid to think about. Sometimes that kid might be walking home from school. (It was a widely accepted and safe practice in those days.) Or riding a bus. Other times that kid might be lucky, and have very amazing grandparents.

In those days kids would visit their grandparents. It still happens in today’s world, but not every kid gets to visit their grandparent, while the grandparent is at work. In this scenario it is a Grandpa bus driver. He is on the last part of his rounds for the evening. He works the evening shift sometimes. As kids we don’t know why he works the evening shift, but we think riding the bus is very cool.

It was actually very cool to ride the bus. Especially later in the evening. It also coincided nicely with the local grocery store’s hours of operation. Therefore shopping with Grandma was possible before, catching the bus for the ride back to the terminal. We were the last to ride on Grandpa’s bus route for the day. Once back to the terminal, we would all ride home, in Grandpa’s car.

The Change

On the bus ride back to the terminal, Grandma would sit in the seat next to the driver. (Grandpa) They would talk about the day’s events while Grandpa drove the bus through the city to the bus terminal. That left the rest of the bus to be explored. As kids, we could cover some ground with the exploring.

Sometimes we found sticks of gum. (Common in those days.) Other times we found paperclips or other small things. But the coolest thing we found was all the spare change that dropped between the seats. Sometimes nickels and sometimes dimes, and always several pennies. There was a rare quarter or two. However, they were rare. Money went much further in those days. A penny would still buy several things.

The Gentle Good Will of the Auctioneer

Especially for children who believed hardworking people would just lose their change. Furthermore if we didn’t find it all, Grandpa would point out the seats we ‘missed’, and lo’ and behold, spare change fell into those as well. We were astounded at Grandpa’s intuitive insight. It was also the most fun possible on a bus.

Grandpa was also an auctioneer. One of the best auctioneers in the county. The real story was in those auctions. This is where the gentle good will of the auctioneer was most evident. However, that is for the next part of the story.

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