It’s been a year or two since we have been able to go to the annual Amish Auction near Pawnee City, but this year we put it on our calendar as a priority . . . and I’m glad we did.
The location of the auction had moved since the last time we were there. They now have a larger area with some metal buildings. In year past they would haul their stoves out to a tent on the school grounds where the auction was held so that they could serve food. Now they have a large building with lots of counter space, a place to display all of their baked goods and a nice seating area.
We did a quick walk through just to see what was there and then we headed to the building to get our bidding number and have a wonderful homemade glazed donut. On the inside and outside of the building were plants in containers, hanging plants, plants in huge plants. There were also child-sized picnic tables, quilts, chairs, gliders, a beautiful hope chest and guns. While they do take consignments for the auction, everything in this building was from the Amish.
They had a few flatbed trailers with an assortment of yard and garden tools, saddles and tack, lawn ornaments, whirly gigs and two toy ponies that kids could ride. We bought the black one for Emma.
There were lots of other items, fence posts, lawn mowers, rabbit cages, a chicken coop and some other three sided buildings.
They also sold miniature horses, real ponies, horses, a burro, chickens and rabbits.
A big part of why we enjoy the Amish Auction is the people. The girls and women are all wear dresses and something on their head. The dresses were a pretty teal blue or beige. The really young girls wore scarves usually the same color as their dress. The men all wear the same style of pants, not jeans and some with suspenders. Their shirts were button shirts in purple, blue or teal blue. Many times the children are barefoot and running around on hard rocks, but mostly they all have the same black shoes and black stockings
The older siblings take care of the younger ones. For the most part, when you speak to the children they do not reply they just smile. When we were down at the corrals looking at the ponies there was two small girls about 4 years old and a younger boy maybe 2 years old climbing on the corral fence. One of the girls stepped on the little boys fingers while they were climbing. The girls got down and started walking off and then went back for the little boy. There was no adult supervision for these three but they knew to take care of each other. Another woman with two children probably around 8 to 10 years old was standing there with me watching what was going on and she remarked that ‘she couldn’t trust her children on their own like that even at this age’.
By the time it was all said and done, we had eaten lunch there and I picked homemade blueberry pie for my dessert. Along with Ken’s lunch he bought a dozen more donuts and had one of them for dessert. I bought a large welded plant stand that looked like a chicken. We also bought 10 lead ropes, not that we needed 10 but that’s how they sold them. We did bid on some of the outdoor furniture but didn’t get it. All in all it was a great day and we look forward to going again next year.