{"id":4476,"date":"2019-11-23T21:47:46","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T02:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=4476"},"modified":"2019-11-23T21:52:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T02:52:38","slug":"voice-from-the-darkness-revisiting-the-gordon-ball-aucton-nov-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=4476","title":{"rendered":"VOICE FROM THE DARKNESS! REVISITING THE GORDON BALL AUCTON NOV. 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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VOICE FROM THE DARK<\/div>\n
(Revisiting Gordon Ball\u2019s auction)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Nov. 2018<\/div>\n
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This stone  house  was built long ago.  Long before Gordon Bell moved here in 1960.<\/div>\n
But Gordon loved it.  He was a loner in many ways\u2026kept to himself and a few  friends<\/div>\n
who were also in the antique business.  Then Gordon got killed in a car accident and his<\/div>\n
farm fell into neglect.<\/div>\n

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The auction had  a little bit of everything.  Wrong term.  The auction had a lot of  everything<\/div>\n
imaginable.  A lot of the really good things were stolen.  And the remainder\u2026piles and piles of<\/div>\n
things\u2026were  a little the worse for wear.   If you read my first article on the auction you<\/div>\n
would know  what I mean.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
nov. 2019<\/div>\n

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ANDREW AND I went back to Gordon  Ball\u2019s farm two days  after the auction sale.<\/div>\n
We had things to gather.  Andrew bought a truckload of white pine planks as  shiny new<\/div>\n
as if they came from the sawmill a week ago.  But they were ancient. Dead flat\u2026clean<\/div>\n
as a whistle…<\/div>\n
below the raccoon dung.<\/div>\n

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I wandered back to the farm house.  Noticed that Gordon\u2019s kitchen<\/div>\n
was now empty.  The  day of the sale there were piles of things in<\/div>\n
every  corner.  Thrown there by the vandals who had trashed the farm<\/div>\n
on many  midnight visits. Today it was spanking clean.  Sort of! <\/div>\n

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Memories of this kitchen on a winter night with that stove belching<\/div>\n
out heat with the family gathered round pushed the ruined site<\/div>\n
to the background of my mind.<\/div>\n

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In the woodshed, I made a discovery.<\/div>\n

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Outside the house there is  a woodshed.  Dishevelled woodshed that is.  Chunks<\/div>\n
of cordwood thrown around.   And at the far end there is a STAIRCASE.<\/div>\n
Never noticed it the day of the sale.  Seems that Bob Severn and Jim McCartney<\/div>\n
missed  it too.   <\/div>\n

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These stairs were dark.  Lit up by  my flash camera.  <\/div>\n

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Downstairs was  as black as the worst night imaginable.  <\/div>\n
Then I pushed  the flash button again.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And the basement was full of kerosene lamps and  lamp parts.  No Good Housekeeping<\/div>\n
awards though.<\/div>\n

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Sort of looks like boxes full of gold.  Right?<\/div>\n

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Then out of the dark in another basement room came  a voice<\/div>\n

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\u201cBe careful down here\u2026lots of broken glass.\u201d<\/div>\n
I couldn\u2019t see anyone\u2026so I pressed  the flash and<\/div>\n
presto this image appeared\u2026a man wearing some kind<\/div>\n
of ventilator.<\/div>\n

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\u201cProbably best you not come down here.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAre you the new owner?\u201d,  (I did not say this as<\/div>\n
bold as it sounds.)<\/div>\n
\u201cI will leave\u2026take a couple of pictures on my way.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Was  he the new owner?<\/div>\n
Why was he wearing a ventilator\u2026mask\u2026?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat was he looking for?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow could he see in the dark?<\/div>\n
\u201cHe had a  small penlight\u2026see the smudges of light?”<\/div>\n

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So I left.  Now here are  a  couple of questions for you.<\/div>\n

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1)Scan the things.  What seems to have value to you.?<\/div>\n
2)Who do you think the man  in the black coat might be?<\/div>\n
3) Would you run out as fast as you could?<\/div>\n
4) Would  you have climbed down those stairs in<\/div>\n
the first place.  (I was not trespassing\u2026purchasers of goods<\/div>\n
have time to get their goods.)<\/div>\n

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My exit was different from my entrance.<\/div>\n

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I could  only see the No Trespassing sign on my way out.  <\/div>\n

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ELSEWHERE ON THE FARM BIG THINGS<\/div>\n
WERE HAPPENING\u2026CAREFUL DEMOLITIONS<\/div>\n
SLOW IN CONTRAST TO A VANDALS DEVIL <\/div>\n
MAY CARE TREATMENT.<\/div>\n

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THESE BUILDINGS ARE WONDERFUL \u2026 EACH HEADING<\/div>\n
TO A GOOD HOME.<\/div>\n
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I wish I had bought this old  wrecked car.  It has  character\u2026too nice to be melted down\u2026don\u2019t you think?<\/div>\n

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The guy with the crayon is  going to rebuild the log cabin into a blacksmith shop on his  farm.  He is full of joy<\/div>\n
as  you can see.<\/div>\n
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A FINAL WORD FROM BOB SEVERN, CHIEF AUCTIONEER<\/div>\n

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\u201cThought you would be  here, Alan. This was not an easy  auction.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo one living here\u2026a dead end  road\u2026and  great piles of antiques.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cVandals got here first it seems?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCame many times in dead  of night.\u201d<\/div>\n

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(Somewhere in this tree is a motion camera watching me.  Cannot see it.)<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe would  notice things gone with each visit as we got<\/div>\n
things arranged.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCould\u2019nt you do something.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe did.  We put hidden cameras in the laneway but that <\/div>\n
did not work\u2026they were found.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo we put a camera high up in that big willow.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSee anyone?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe did.  We watched a  man casually walking around loading up<\/div>\n
at his leisure.  He did not know where the camera was but he did not<\/div>\n
really care.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat could we do?  We did not see his face very well and if we had  seen him<\/div>\n
even then  there was  little we could do.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSad.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThere was  one thing we could  do though.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe  rented  that big steel container, the kind that cross the ocean, and filled it with <\/div>\n
the antiques that had not been stolen\u2026lots of them\u2026locked it up.  To get it open<\/div>\n
would require a blow torch.”<\/div>\n
\u201cI thought the container come from Scottish estates\u2026looked that way.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThere was  one other thing we could do.<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat?:<\/div>\n
\u201cHave this auction as fast as we could\u2026turned out<\/div>\n
to be an  auction in a  snowstorm.  But the half ton trucks<\/div>\n
just kept coming. Turned  out to be a good auction.  Even<\/div>\n
sold  the three log cabins and both of the big barns.\u201d<\/div>\n

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(I am  paraphrasing Bob\u2019s comments\u2026.)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Nov.  2019<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOICE FROM THE DARK (Revisiting Gordon Ball\u2019s auction) alan skeoch Nov. 2018 This stone  house  was built long ago.  Long before Gordon Bell moved here in 1960. But Gordon loved it.  He was a loner in many ways\u2026kept to himself and a few  friends who were also in the antique business.  Then Gordon got killed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}