Attending a closed school auction

On Sunday before we were to leave Forest City, Sandy read an article about an auction in her old school here in northern Iowa.   So with time on our hands and nothing scheduled for 2 weeks, guess where we went.

We are now parked in the county park next to her old home town, Thornton, IA.   We came in Monday after exhausting our comp time at Winnebago.    We were a bit concerned that perhaps we'd have a problem getting a spot to park in the park.  But guess what, we had our choice of any of the 24 sites.  We were the only camper here Monday and Tuesday night.  Today we were joined by a motorhome from Wisconsin.

Back to the auction.  Sandy didn't want a bidder's number because she wasn't going to buy anything.  So we went kind of late this morning,  with only 20 minutes until the starting time.  The first thing we noticed was the smell in the old school. It was horrible.  The concrete floor was damp or wet.    Inside of the building, the stuff was piled about, mostly in the gym.   We didn't see anything that we'd give a wooden nickel for, yet when we walked into the bidding area near some copier equipment, we heard that someone had bid something up to $45.   That is about $46 more than it was worth.   In other words, it was mostly junk!

Sandy did meet a couple of friends that she knew from school.  For a few minutes they had fun reminiscing  about by gone days.  There were only about 15 bidders standing around when we were in the area.   The auctioneer was the sheriff and he needed some practice singing out the bids.   But then a sheriff's auction is not noted for getting the last dollar for an item.

I walked back to the school at 3 PM and it was all over and done.   A few people were loading stuff out.  Two fellows were carrying out some of the tubular desks and chair and just heaving them onto a pile.  I have no idea if they were being sorted, scrapped or what.

Sandy's brother told us that all of the good stuff had been sold 2 years ago and I think what was left had been sold to one fellow, who defaulted on his bill.  Thus the Sheriff's auction on "abandoned equipment".

Once the "stuff" is removed, the entire school is to be leveled.  In my opinion, the newer part of the school should have been retained as a town something.  But I  guess that city father's wanted nothing to do with it, so it is the wrecking ball shortly.  I'm sure they'll regret it years from now.

Gene