Did someone say it is
time for the Advocate’s article for February…already?….Yikes!!! Well
what to write….about the Farm Show again…..nah! I milked that
enough. How about cleaning out a house after 35 years of “stuff” has
been collected…no you say….been there, done that. Okay! How about
the “Mud Sales”…Got your curiosity up yet???? You say…What is she
talking about…a sale where you sell mud? No, not really.
Lancaster County is
famous for its spring auctions as fundraisers for fire companies.
Because of the time of the year when they are held they have been
referred to as “Mud Sales” where mud is the item you trudge through
on the fire company grounds to get from one area to another perusing
the various sale items. Some of these sales have been going on for
years, others are just getting their feet wet or should I say
muddied. They are usually held on Saturdays starting the end of
February through April. The staff for these sales are the “English”
(non-Amish members of the fire company and their families) and the
Amish (entire families including kids of all ages).
Parking for vehicles
depends upon what you’re driving! If you’re driving a horse and
buggy, you may get to park your “rig” in the barnyard while your
horse may get a nice warm barn with other horses. If your “rig” is
powered by $3.00 a gallon gas, you might be lucky to find a paved
area to park and be transported by a shuttle bus. Or, you may get a
space in a (hopefully) frozen field that sometimes has those funny
brown chunks all over it and is guaranteed to turn into slippery
slime by the time you want to go home.
The items for sale range
from furniture, antiques, farm equipment, lawn and garden items,
crafts, Quilts, Quilts and more Quilts, horses, carriages, truck
loads of hay, straw, and on and on. We’ve seen as many as 18
auctioneers selling at once in different areas, so you really have
to know what you are interested in as they wait for no one. Now you
say, “Good grief! How does this work?. Well, here goes...
Our own community fire
company, Penryn Fire Co #1, was approached 4 years ago by our Amish
community to have a mud sale as a fundraiser for the fire company
and the Amish school in the area. So we met - 12 English, 40
Amish…get my drift…(our committee was slightly smaller than their
committee) to plan for the mud sale. Talk about an interesting
meeting…but we started our planning, they pared down their committee
and away we went.
Now, you should start
planning these things a year in advance, especially when it is your
first venture. We did well the first year even with the usual March
weather…cold, windy, but sunny. So we all agreed let’s go for the
second year which proved a challenge. We had decided to have more
tents with heaters and the Amish actually constructed a temporary
building adjacent to the fire hall for our food “tent”.
It was balmy weather
mid-week as items started to come in. You see, we start accepting
items for sale 3 or 4 days before the sale day, so you can imagine
the hustle and bustle going on at the fire company grounds. We
thought we were going to have a wonderful Saturday sale….nice
weather….
Well! Let me tell you by
Friday the great blizzard hit. Remember St. Patrick’s Day 2007? The
snow storm to top all snow storms, the kind where Rudolph aided
Santa in delivering the toys! Needless to Sue Spuhler #1483 say we
did not have Rudolph but we did have many community folks, both
English and Amish come to our rescue. Would you believe we even had
chicken barbeque dinners available for sale that Friday evening?!
One of our Amish friends set up a barbeque pit in the snow and made
delicious chicken barbeque.
An additional tent was
put up during the snow storm. People stayed all night to assist in
keeping the snow off the tents, plowing parking and walking areas so
that by Saturday morning, even with big piles of snow, we were set
to go. The shuttle buses delivered buyers, auctioneers started
selling the various goods and the kitchen staff was busy selling
delicious homemade foods by 8:30AM.
Now by day’s end there
was a large number of verrrrrrry tired people and it was clean up
time….UGH! This task takes a couple of days from such an event,
taking down the temporary building, picking up the trash, and staff
working on the financial part of the event, etc. Believe it or not
we did well in spite of the snow storm, and reached the conclusion
that we could handle anything in the future. Yes, our 3rd Annual
“Mud Sale” is slated for March 15, 2008.
So listen up all you
Grangers! Look around! You may have just such an event that you can
become involved in. We talk about joining hands with other community
organizations and involving the Grange in varied events. Well here
is one such event for Grangers.
So I say, come, enjoy a
day at a mud sale. Peruse the various wares including beautiful
quilts, partake in delicious homemade goodies, including donuts and
pretzels made on site (we sold 2400 donuts last year). Select one of
many advertised on the internet or join us at the Penryn Fire
Company #1 & Limerock Parochial School’s 3rd Annual Mud Sale in the
village of Penryn, Lancaster County, on March 15th, 2008. The sale
starts at 8:30 AM, the auctioneers wait for no one, the donuts go
fast, and the coffee is always ready plenty early! Trust me…..I am
first in line….Mmmm Good!!!
Fraternally,
Sara Shank
State Pomona