November 10, 2007
Estate Sale - Billie Joe Crawford
By Susie Jo (Crawford) Stone
What
most folks would have considered to be a
bitter-sweet day for their family,
turned out to be a fantastic time for
the "Crawford Clan".
Something in me just has to put down in
words, a few of the happenings of the
day, because they are to sweet to be
lost in the memory bank of time.
When Dad realized the Buyout of
Picher/Cardin was really going to
happen, and happen to him, he decided to
have an auction and dispose of not only
alot of items he didn't use anymore, but
also to sell one of the greatest
mining/farming antique collections in
the area. This was a huge decision for
a man of 83 to have to make all by
himself, but he did it.
My
cousin and his wife, Jim and Cathy
Richardson called Dad a few weeks before
the auction and said they were going to
come down and help get ready for the
auction, bringing their camper to sleep
in, trailer to haul stuff on for Dad's
moving, and food to feed the entire
family for the week. The part of this
story that is moving......when Dad and
Mom were young and having a family, they
lost 2 boys and a girl, entailing lots
of hospital and funeral bills. During
this period of time, Dad's sister, "Aunt
Hazie" (Hazel Richardson) stepped up to
the need and kept Patricia and I all the
time. She didn't just keep us to be a
help but you know what, she Loved us
with an overwhelming love. She's the
first person I ever remember putting
powder on me after my bath,....what a
treat. So now, 60 some years down the
road, Dad is going through a major
change in his life, and who steps up to
the need again, Hazie's son Jim. Isn't
life strange? The same love that helped
in time of great grief, was the same
blood line of love that helped in this
time of great change. Our God is so
good!!
Through the week, Jimmie worked side by
side Dad, moving stuff out to the house
Dad is moving to, getting ready for the
auction, and best of all, being a
neighbor and knocking on the door every
morning to see if Dad was ready to get
started. And Cathy, what a jewel,
......meatloaf, chicken salad, fried
fish, roast!!!!!and the most beautiful
spirit I ever witnessed in a person. I
said one time, "Here comes little
Delphie with more food" :-).
We
laughed all week because, here would go
Dad with a trailer load, and Jimmie
right behind him with a trailer load,
headed out to the house him and Trish &
Bud are buying together. Jimmie told us
one night at supper Buddy had said there
was gonna have to be a line drawn in
that garage, hehe. Tim had poured a
slab of cement for him on Thursday, on
the south side of the garage, but we all
told Trisha he poured it on the north
side where he could have all his stuff
closer to the house. Needless to say,
we all were belly laughing and Dad was
just grinning real big!!! Seriously,
there is no way in the world we can ever
repay Jim and Cathy for all they did for
thier "Uncle Bill".
Friday evening Peggy and Frank Coleman
and Gayle and Sharon Crawford came from
KC, (hmmmm, more of Hazie's kids, why is
that no surprise to this picture?) to be
here with all of us. We all ate supper
on the car port,(Jim, Cathy, Lloyd,
myself, Trisha, Bud, Dad, Gayle, Sharon,
Peg and Frank) then called Gene
Cantrell to tell him a big fib, about
eating the turnips that Gayle had
brought down for him and how good they
were. Sharon had brought cinnamon rolls
& some kind of real fattening brownie
bar, so we dug into those a day early.
Cathy had made stew for Saturday and we
started on that a day early also. mmmm!!!!
What a fun time we had. (Except when
Gayle & I worked on insurance papers for
Dad. Thank God for his help too.)
Jim Clapp was the auctioneer and they
were there on Wednesday and Friday
morning, helping to pull things out and
sit up tables. They came on Saturday
morning at 6:45 am. The day
begin!!!! We all got there early also
to help, and somehow it was ready.
One time Clint and I were cleaning out a
cabinet and he spotted a really BIG
spider, yuk!!! This same cabinet was
the one I tried to get Becky to go get
and take home with her, no she didn't
want it, then during the auction she
decides she wants it, misses the bid,
another buyer, #99, gets it for $7.50.
Jeff ask him if he would sell it back to
him for $25.00 and the guy gets smart
with Jeff. hahhaha, Jeff wanted to knock
him off the stool he was sitting
on...."on his.....bottom", hahah.
I
told Tim at the beginning of the
auction, "You better get you a number",
his reply was the top sentence of the
day, he said, "Yea I better, cause I
could have Grandpa give it to me like he
wanted to do, or I can buy it". That
sentence proved to be prophecy for all
of us the entire day. But it sure
caused us to laugh alot.
Trisha had been wanting an old phone for
one of her patrons, Becky didn't know
Dad had already gave her one, she gets
excited when she sees a box of old
phones being auctioned off. She starts
bidding on them, gets the bid at $5.00,
then ask which phone did she win, Jeff
tells her, "honey, you get them all, the
whole box" . So here she comes carrying
this big box of phones to Trisha, saying
"look Mom, I got you some phones". When
she leaves, Trisha looks at me and says,
"what am I going to do with those?"
hahah. Come to think of it, I don't
think Trisha ever bid on anything!!!!
At
one point, Niki says, I want those
wheels over on Tom's lot. So here goes
Niki, Becky & I to get those wheels
(during the auction) and we roll them
behind the car garage....so they won't
get sold. (This was the same point
Becky was suppose to get the cabinet #99
bought!!) We didn't realize at the
time, she would be bidding on alot of
stuff that day. She had "hired" Jesse
Lee to watch Delani Jo through the day,
so she could see all that was happening
through the day. I have no idea how
much stuff Justin had to load up at the
end of the day!!!
Tuff, well he was at the bridge most of
the day........see, he was digging up
all of us a cedar tree and putting them
in cups and cans for us to take home.
By us, I mean, myself, Trisha, Letha,
Cathy, Julie, and anyone else he could
talk into needing a tree to plant. I
ask him once what he was digging them up
with, ..... his hands!!!!
Going ....DOWN TO THE BRIDGE",......
that phrase will be another reason
for writing down happening for our
memories someday. Everyone of us, no
matter what our age, at times in our
life, hollared "I'm going down to the
Bridge".
At one point Clint walked by me,
happy-happy, carrying a bag of
golf clubs. He said, "Boy, this
is fun. I think our family oughta go to
auctions all the time, you can get some
really good stuff. And besides, all of
the family gets to be together". Isn't
that great when even the young men in
the family likes for all the "family" to
be together.
Niki bought a water can.
Timmy bought a busted water can.
Timmy bought an Air
Compressor and then he bought
another air
compressor. I said,"Why did you
buy 2
air compressors"? Well, he got
one of them for Billy, cause he didn't
have the money right now (cause he's
building a new garage) and he's gonna
pay Tim back later. Cousins, God did a
good thing when he made them!!!!
Jeff, well, he buys the boat and
motor. He decides it needs to stay in
the family. We were all watching that
bid!!!!! Tim was right there with him,
urging him on. Boating, skiing,
fishing, camping, trot line
running,.......... the boat and motor
is staying in the family.
Johnny Crawford kept bidding on
stuff. HA, half the time, the whole
family didn't know it and they were
bidding against each other. Johhny
would say, "Did I get it?". He was
suppose to be at a ball game in the
afternoon, but......he didn't make it.
Becky bids on the cement flower pots
(she could have got for free the day
before) and gives them to Barb!
Another flower is sitting there by them
and Letha bids on it. She gets it for a
dollar, says "Did I get it? What did I
get?" She didn't have a card and Tim
told her she could use it, and he pays
her dollar. We were laughing so hard,
here sits the women in the golf carts
and Letha sitting there bidding on a
flower. Even Jim the auctioneer was
laughing then.
They are auctioning off the mine
derrick, ... someone says "Susie's
husband bought it"....I thought, thats
Lloyd. I walked over and ask him, "You
didn't buy that derrick did you"....yes
he did. Found out later he gave it to
Bob Bradens wife Becky (he works for
Lloyd). Boy, I was so glad I did the
victory dance, hehe. Then later Bob
buys a work table for Lloyd and gets
real excited when he finds out he didn't
really get all he thought he did. He
came over to Lloyd and said, "Boss, you
gotta come here for a minute".
One of the funniest lines of the day was
when Julie crossed her arms and said "We
can play hard ball too". See, they
brought in this car to sell, Dad's $
paid for the advertising on it, and it
really irritated me, but.....Dad told me
to not say anything about it, it would
be okay. He is Nice!!! They auction
the car off, the person that got the
bid, he leaves, he don't have the money
to pay for it, (heheh). So they are
going to auction it off again. Julie
and Niki decide the 3 of us are going to
buy it, and make money on it. They want
to get at least $1800.00 out of it, we
are only willing to give $1000.00. They
keep looking at us to make another bid,
and Julie says, "Huh-un, we can play
hard ball too". heehe, the car didn't
sell.
Food!!!! we had so much food. Cathy
made a huge pot of Chilli and
Vegetable soup, we had fritos,
crackers, cheese, chips, pop, sweets,
....for all the family all day. Even
Mom's family, The Spear's, (after much
urging from all of us) that came was
able to eat with us through the day. It
was a real blessing for all of us and
exactly like Mom would have wanted.
When
all was over, we had Jesse and Felicia
go to
Miami and get pizza and we had
supper together also. The scriptures
say in Proverbs, Its better to eat soup
with a friend, than steak with an
enemy!!!! Isn't that true, we could
have had nothing but bread and water,
and it would have tasted good, just
being together.
When they were auctioning off the stuff
out of the house, Dad didn't just pay
alot of attention....but when they
started on his junk he was right there
in the middle of it all. :-) He did
good on his mining pictures and when
they were auctioning those, I told
Trisha to look. On the cellar was
standing, Becky, Jeff, Timmy, Jesse, Jo
Jo, Clay, Josie....they were making sure
everying was being done right!!! That
was a pretty picture.
Gayle, who is just a miracle to be able
to walk, rode around in the golf cart
- I looked up and Gene was with him.
Again, cousins, ain't it great!
If
I am not mistaken, I believe Julie got a
cross-cut saw for her birthday from her
sweeties that day also.
We
would tease Trisha and tell her Buddy
was buying more than he even was!!!!
She would say "Budddddd"! :-)
For
awhile, we had all the babies there,
Delani Jo, Kale, and Jonas. The only
sad part of the day was Corey & Brittney
had to work. We missed them!
Oh
yea, I bought an old lunch bucket and
an old cement bucket. Jim, the
auctioneer was bidding against me, then
he sees its me, and stops. I told him
he didn't have to stop, but he did. Now
what am I going to do with a cement
bucket????
The autioneers Grand-daughter was there,
and she and Clay played together through
out the day. That makes a day better
for any kid - to have a friend to play
with.
At
the end of the day, Jim, the auctioneer,
came up and shook my hand. He wanted to
thank Lloyd and I for calling him to do
the auction, and told me how much he
enjoyed the day. He said, "Your family
is really something, I am glad I got to
be with you all, it was a real special
day. "......I think that is a
compliment, when a family can still have
fun, even when the homeplace stuff is
leaving.
The day after the auction, Sunday, we
had dinner, and we were able to have it
in Dad's garage. Where did all that
floor space come from? I heard alot
say, "I didn't know that cabinet was in
here". It was a real windy day, so it
worked out good. Dad seemed relieved.
Tired, but relieved. He just had to put
a few dollars with his auction $, and
him and Letha went at the beginning of
the week and bought a new Kabota
tractor. Ain't that great!!!!!
Time changes so many things, but I guess
we have to learn to roll with it and
give it to the Lord. I know there is so
much more - but for now I will stop.
This is just some of the things I
remember, let me know yours and we will
add them too.
Blessed? I am blessed!!! So is each
and everyone in this family. See, we
aren't just family, we're
friends! Did you know the first thing
God instituted was Family!!!!!! Before
he started even the church, he started
family, how much He loves us.
Hope
you enjoyed remembering the day with
me.
Billie Joe's daughter,
Susie Jo
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