Page 23 - March 2022

Stepping Into the Past
Stepping Into the Past

Antiques and Country Auctions
Antiques and Country Auctions

in Rural Vermont
in Rural Vermont

A Remembrance From Ron Patch
Edited by Amanda Wedegis

The W.R. Spaulding family at the Henry Farm in Chester. Circa 1915. photo: Ted Spaulding

p until the 1970s, auctions of today didn’t exist here in Off to the side were the women from the local grange. They sold
Vermont. Yes, we had auctions, but not the professional coffee and donuts. Coffee was 25 cents as were the homemade donuts.
Chocolate chip cookies were 10 cents.
Uauctioneers of today. Today we have auction galleries
The house was furnished with antiques. The newest thing in the
offering left bids, phone bids, and internet bidding. house was an electric refrigerator or a television set with rabbit ears.
Instead, we had country auctioneers. These auctions were a lot of Horse-drawn vehicles were stored in the ell. Up overhead was an attic.
fun. Most anything that could happen – did. Hornets and hundreds of protruding roofing nails promised pain. Here
is where generations of chairs, tables, chopping bowls, pantry boxes,
Let’s Visit A Sale and other country antiques awaited liberation. The manure spreader
Vermont was a different place in the early 1970s. In those days was outdoors in the weather.
there wasn’t a great demand for antiques. I remember paying $400 Pa was talking with neighbors who came to visit. He was wearing his
for the contents of an eight-room house. I mention this only to help well-worn denim bib overalls and a soiled Beacon Feeds cap. In his bib
paint a picture. pocket was a hunk of “Days Work” chewing tobacco. Pa was in his 80s
Sometimes these country auctions were at the end of a dirt road. It now and a little gimpy, so he leaned on his cane for support. Ma always
was dirt where wagon wheels and cars had traveled for 150 years. In the wore a printed cotton dress. Her stockings were rolled down to just
center of the road, grass grew. This was an inviting scene as you below the knee. She wore black shoes with thick heels.
followed the signs to the auction. Many of this generation of Vermonters were born in the 1880s. They
It wasn’t uncommon to encounter a farmer driving his herd of cows were of a different mindset. It was my pleasure to have known them.
across the road from the pasture to the barn for milking. Here, you sat
in your car waiting for the cows to pass. It wasn’t a big deal. We weren’t Importing Bidders with Highway Access
hurried as today. In the early 1960s, Interstate
As you approached the
farm, ramshackle buildings I-91 brought newcomers to
Vermont. Vermont began to
come into view. Rocky hillside change. These newcomers loved
pastures resembled the old country auctions.
world. The house often had an Add to this mix those of my
ell on one end. Orange daylilies generation who were a product
were blooming around the milk of the ‘60s. We were looking
house. Off to one side was the for the “alternative lifestyle.”
cow barn. The auctioneer was Some of us found it in the
set up in front of the ell. antiques business. What a diverse
Two or three barn cats were
milling around. One gray lady group we were. We could be
who we were, and people let us
was very friendly. Chickens be. I miss that the most today.
were running about scratching
and pecking the ground for The Kibbe place in Chester
pebbles and insects. You had to showing rocky pastures and barns.
be careful where you stepped. photo source: Ron Patch

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21 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles