At our sale, Pearl Ehrhardt collected bottle caps from where they were selling soda pop and removed the inside cork and attached them to her skirt completely around it and when she would twirl around, the skirt would flair out. It’s interesting the events of youth that stick in your mind.
The auctioneer at the sale was named Dawson. I didn’t remember much about the sale, but in 1944 or 1945 we took some cows up to Norfleet’s barn and had a sale. When Dawson started the sale, he said that it was the second sale that he had for Mr. Sommerer.
Nearly everything we had was sold at the sale, so we didn’t have much to move to the 2nd Ivan place. The Ivan place was large. It had two houses on it. The one we moved into is the one Bud purchased in 1949. Ehrhardt’s owned both farms. They lived in the house (brick) on the lower farm.
Grandpa Sommerer helped Uncle Herbert Sommerer purchase the Ivan farm. When the depression hit, he was about to lose it, so Aunt Dora and Uncle Theodore moved from their Honey Creek farm down to the Ivan place to try to help Uncle Herbert Sommerer save the farm. In the process, they lost both Ivan places and the Honey Creek farm also. Aunt Tillie and Uncle Hans Eckert purchased the Honey Creek farm and later sold it back to them when they could afford to buy it back.
Lloyd Jr. says
So, what sorts of things didn’t get sold? Were beds sold? Clothing?
Were there lots of farm sales going on? I remember going to a fair number of farm sales in the 70s as a child. I imagine these were quite a bit sadder.
Julie says
I hear a reoccurring theme here. Sounds like family stuck together and helped looked out for each other. Even going so far as to buy “places” to try to keep kin from loosing it. I am proud of them!