Not your average auction

I went slightly over budget at the Festival auction tonight. It was easy to do, because the auctioneer (that would be Philip Howard) cajoled me into bidding more for a couple of items than I had planned to. Yes, cajoled. That's the fun thing about an auction on Ocracoke - it's not your standard fast moving event.

No, this auction had an auctioneer who:
- mistook a painting of Cape Lookout for Cape Hatteras, and then laughed good naturedly at the ribbing he received from the audience throughout the evening after that flub
- called bidders by name
- "encouraged" bidders to bid higher
- had to overcome the fact that everyone in the room was fanning themselves with pasteboard fans, brochures, and bidder numbers, so it was hard to tell who was bidding and who was just hot

There were a few other odd things about this auction:
- it was preceded by a huge potluck, with loads of delicious food
- a future fig tree was one of the auctioned items
- the auctioneers assistants were girls from the local Brownie troop, one of whom had a broken elbow
- it included some fantastically unique items, like a quilted wall hanging in the Ocracoke cracker pattern, a whimsical windchime made from a metal colander with several other kitchen utensils hanging from it, a shrine to Elvis, and a painting created during the 2007 Women of Ocrafolk concert (yes, Kitty painted it on stage during the concert)


Items lined up on the stage, ready for the bidding to begin.


This cup went for about fifty bucks. No, I'm not kidding. It was part of a "mystery" item - the bidders knew they would get a pack of CDs from one of the local musicians, but not which one.


Here's Molly (with the broken elbow), giving the future fig tree to the lucky bidder.


The Women of Ocrafolk concert painting, which went for $350 after very competitive bidding between several of the ladies who performed in the show.

No, it was not your average auction. But it was a lot of fun!