More than 10 auctioneers were used to work the event, which covers
acreage on the west side of the community center, north of the
railroad
tracks along Route 54.
Continuing the tradition, the auctioneers do not charge for this
local fundraiser for this small community of only 100 people. The
sale has as many as 1,000 buyers or more from all over the Midwest.
One of the best deals is the traditional breakfast of either
pancakes and sausage or biscuits and sausage gravy for only $5.50,
which includes the drink ($3 for children). The biscuits are made
from scratch.
Tickets are color-coded to speed up the serving line. Last year,
2,200 biscuits were prepared, but that was not quite enough. This
year, 2,400 biscuits were ready for the crowd.
The breakfast is served in the basement of the 1941 former one-room
schoolhouse, which is now the town's community center. Upstairs,
where the main schoolroom once was, there was a bake sale. The
community center is available for rental during the year. Outside,
the large sale featured tractors, planters, wagons, trailers,
sprayers, cultivators, large augers, shop tools and equipment,
hunting and fishing equipment, pumps, boats, furniture, windows,
doors, and hundreds of miscellaneous household, business and farm items
--
which soon became treasures for bargain hunters. An item of
interest to collectors was a gentleman selling his collection of
nearly 100 duck decoys. Parking was along both sides of east-west
Route 54, on all the streets of Lake Fork village and along both
sides of Primm Road to the north. Police volunteers directed
traffic. The weather was clear and sunny, although cold in the early going,
but that didn't keep Lake Fork from chalking up another successful
annual auction. [By PHIL BERTONI] |
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