The Auction

As the kids were growing up we started a tradition in our family, 'The Auction'. Starting the day after Halloween the kids would get to start earning their money for the auction. The money was monopoly money and had to be earned by doing household chores. The bigger the job the more money you could get. The jobs ranged from easy ones the little kids could do to much harder ones the older children would tackle. The money was saved carefully until Auction day. We usually held the Auction after Thanksgiving a few weeks before Christmas. The purpose of the Auction was three-fold. First to help the kids to have a way to buy each other presents for Christmas; the second reason was to teach them that work could be fun; and the third purpose was to learn responsibility. If a child had earned a lot of money and lost it he had to start over. If he spent all his money at the auction for food he wouldn't have any presents for his siblings. If he waited too long to start earning his monopoly money he wouldn't have enough for all he wanted to buy.

It was comical sometimes watching the kids fight over the jobs. One afternoon as the older kids came running in the house from school they were trying to be the first one in the house so they could get the job of washing the hall walls. My neighbor was over for a visit as they came scrambling in trying to be the first to get the job. "Mom said I could wash the walls!" "Huhuh I got here first so I get to wash them" they were shouting. My neighbor turned to me in shock and said, "How do you get them to do that? My kids won't even clean their rooms!" I explained to her that the walls were worth a lot more than cleaning their rooms. One time a neighbor child was playing with my kids and they were working for money for the auction. The child watching got so excited he asked if he could have a job too! He didn't even know about the auction or the money, my kids were just so enthusiastic about the jobs that he got caught up in the fun.

The Auction itself was an exciting night. At the Auction you could buy all kinds of things including food, toys, books, things for yourself or for others. We tried to make each item unique. We would sometimes sell whole pies or sometimes cupcakes or hotdogs or small items for the price the first one ended up going for. Dad was the auctioneer and many lessons were learned as children would start by bidding each other up and then if a child was smart and saved his money things would go much cheaper as the money got scarcer. The children were able to view the items before we started so they could plan their strategies. There was a lot of laughter and some tears as someone won out on an item that the other coveted. Little ones didn't realize the toy he wanted would probably be under the tree from an older child. It was fun to watch the older children help the younger ones learn the art of bidding and strategy.

Since we had so many children it made the auction really fun. As our family grew and we only had our last two at home we began to include grandchildren. Finally, though, it had to end as James and Valerie got too big to enjoy it. I am happy to say that some of the married children have continued the tradition in their families. We all remember the auction with fondness, and all have learned a lesson or two from those great times.