Sunday, March 19, 2017

THE AUCTIONEEER SONG

"There was a boy in Arkansas who wouldn't listen to his ma When she told him to go to school..."


The lyrics of The Auctioneer song conjures up the imagination and toe tapping of a bygone era when auctioneers and their chant (singing words) uniquely transformed sounds into dollars.


I was only 9 when I heard one, Colby Johnson of North Brookfield, Mass, auction off the contents of my grandmothers estate. As I sat in the front row of the small crowd I thought 'What is this man doing?" My desire grew fast that 'someday, I too would be an auctioneer."


I was a novice of sorts and THE AUCTIONEER SONG catapulted my entrepreneurial mind into oblivion. In 1956 this cowboy song came out and thrust LeRoy Van Dyke into fame and fortune not to mention the thousands of boys who wanted to be an auctioneer like me became one.


Forty years later I had the honor of seeing Le Roy sing his song at The Grande Old Opry in Nashville. I was in heaven.


LeRoy and The Auctioneer Song may be found on YouTube. Why not tune in and reminisce to music that does the soul good. The fate of country auctioneers is dubious as I see it but I do know auctions are my love and I have VHS evidence here in my pad... auction movies of the Eighties.


Although Sons Ben and Josh are not auctioneers per se they have seen Dad enjoy the auction action and worked at my auction sales in their teenage years into college. When you mix business with pleasure you just cannot lose.


LeRoy Van Dyke lives in Missouri at age 87! My



cowboy hat is off to The Man.

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