The spring farm auction season has kicked-off with one of the first at the Lionel and Helen Bouvier farm northwest of Gravelbourg.
The Bouvier name is so well-known in this district that Gravelbourg residents used to call the area Bouvierville. Some old-timers claimed there actually was a town called Bouvierville.
Three generations of antiques on auction included items that Bouvier’s grandmother had saved and collected.
One district woman, her eye on a butter churn, whispered to a friend what she wanted but feared antique dealers would bid the Medalta piece too high.
The butter churn sold for $110; a Medalta water cooler from an old one-room school went for $105.
“What are you doing here?” a farmer asked his neighbour.
“I got rained out,” came the joking reply.
A box of old bottles sold for $18. Two boxes of small vases went for $5.
A one-drawer oak Edwards 1924 cash register fetched $70. A 1936 Saskatchewan Wheat Pool calendar sold for $40 while a box of old calendars from the district sold for $20.
Nineteen model stationary engines in a box sold for $25 each. A rope maker went for $110.
A box of old clothing irons contained one that opened to stick in a hot piece of coal or hot brick while the farm wife made her family’s clothes neat.
Lunch, including home-made saskatoon, blueberry or cherry pie, was done by the Mossbank 4-H Club.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
