Our county has experienced much excitement this past few months as the estate of a bachelor farmer has been prepared for auction. The actual auction concluded last weekend. You see it was a very unusual auction to say the least!
The estate consisted of hundreds of antique cars of all models and years. Also old tractors were included along with hundreds of collector plates. That’s all that the coffee drinking crowd has been talking about for the last six months.
Last Thursday Kathie and I took a walking tour of the hundreds of cars lined up and displayed for the curious locals to view. The majority of the locals, myself included, were going to be just ‘viewers’ as the potential prices of most of the cars would be far higher then our checkbooks or credit cards could handle.
The tour was a walk down memory lane as familiar shapes of cars from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s were viewed. There was even a Model T on display which I had the pleasure of opening the front door and viewing the interior of a car that I had only read about in history books.
I could feel the history all around me as we ambled among the rows of ancient vehicles. Some were rusting hulks of junk while others were in surprisingly good condition. I began to think about the families that had owned those cars and depended on them for transportation.
Think of all the happy times families had experienced in those vehicles we were walking by. Some of the cars still displayed the stains of melting ice cream on the seats as a Sunday drive to check the local crops led the kids in the back seat to begin the chant, “ice cream, ice cream, ice cream!” Of course to prevent Mom and Dad from suffering nervous breakdowns the Sunday ride had to end up with a visit to the nearest restaurant.
Those vehicles had carried families to picnics, town team baseball games, scenic vacations, school events, fishing trips and the list goes on. Church was probably a destination too but the young ice cream chanters probably didn’t have that high on their favorite’s list. 🙂
The vehicles were filled with happiness and love as they delivered tiny babies to their new homes as families grew in size. They transported families to weddings, family reunions, county fairs and other happy times.
Of course life is not a bed of roses so there were some unhappy times too. Emergency visits to the doctor’s office or hospital comes to mind. Funerals required somber rides to the church and home. A closer look under the front seat of some of the vehicles might have revealed an empty whiskey bottle reminding us that there were some families that suffered as the result of negative choices family members made. We pray that the succeeding generations were able to heal, make better choices and live happier lives.
I wonder how many of those old cars experienced their drivers pulling off into some secluded spot to do a little ‘parking’ with their ‘honey’? Now millennials may have to google that term or talk to an old person for an explanation. Or there may still be remnants of weeds and grass caught in the car’s underside, a reminder of beer parties in desolate places many years ago.
Oh, the memories those old vehicles must hold. If we could just get them to reveal those memories I’m sure they would add meaning to our lives.
Besides memories the vehicles had the potential of providing a treasure to the new owner. The cars had been displayed in rows for over a month and during that time had to be guarded carefully because items of great value could be removed from the car. A hood ornament would fetch as much as $300.
But think of the possible treasures under the car seats, floor mats and inside the trunk. An Indian head penny might be a possible find in the older cars. Maybe one of the early McDonald’s Happy Meal toys would be discovered under the passenger seat. Other loose change, antique key chain bobs, small tools, action figures, or combs could have fallen behind the back seat too.
Of course with my forty-two years of teaching biology environmental concerns are always uppermost in my mind. The great Traverse County auction has cause for a potential environmental catastrophe. Let me explain.
Even though our family cars are housed in a closed garage year after year deer mice crawl up on the motor and basically any other place they want to investigate. They are especially good at building a nest over the cabin air filter, raising their young there while storing piles and piles of sunflower seeds (stolen from the bird feeder) on top of the nests.
If that common occurrence takes place inside our garage think how many deer mice, nests and winter food piles have been established in those hundreds of cars over those many decades.
Now that the auction is complete the cars will be dispersed in all directions deer mice, nests and food piles included. Over twenty cars are being prepared for shipment out of the country to far off lands.
We are unknowingly introducing established families of deer mice to all parts of the United States and who knows how many other countries. Perhaps the Environmental Protection Agency should have been consulted about this impending deer mice immigration.
What if the newly arrived deer mice fall in love with a different rodent in their new home, breed and produce a super race of cross-bred rodents that would make rats look like field mice? Yikes!
Say that might be a possible Doctoral study for me in my later years of life. It would be my final educational triumph! I can see the thesis now, The Effects of Deer Mice Immigration in the Bodies of Antique Cars. 🙂
The coffee groups will have to discuss other things now as the antique cars depart for their new homes. It has made for an exciting summer but I’m sure in a few weeks new exciting happenings will replace gossiping about “the summer of the big auction”!
Until next time.
