Kinsinger Family Auction

With Grandpa Jonas gone and Grandma Dorothy moved to Iowa, the Kinsinger siblings decided to distribute Grandpa’s leftover possessions–much of it still from the years he was married to his first wife, Ida–through a family auction. The siblings traveled from their respective homes for three days of sorting, discussing, and boxing. On a Sunday near the end of July, the grandchildren started to arrive. That Monday we held the auction, family only allowed.

My Somali-American friend thought it terrible that a family would actually sell a loved one’s possessions for money. How disrespectful to their memory! In my culture, we would give things to family or donate it, she said. Not sell it.

To be honest, my opinion of a family auction before we had one didn’t rank much higher. I was GIVEN a rocking chair from one of my great grandmas and a few precious dishes from the others. Why not, you know, just let the family pick stuff? But an auction is a time-honored tradition in Ivan’s family and considered the simplest and fairest method of distribution. Ivan’s dad kept a list of items and their selling prices from HIS parents’ family auction, and Ivan and I inherited or bought things from this family auction that Grandpa Jonas had acquired way back then. I think people really value the things that they pay for, and Jonas and Ida’s household goods and mementos will be treasured by their offspring for many years to come.

All this to say, I changed my mind after taking part in the auction. It wasn’t a cutthroat affair as I had pictured in my mind, but unique and fun and family. Not everyone got everything they wanted, but that would be impossible however you slice it. We had a good day, and we treasured our loved ones’ memories, and we showed each other love.

This Kinsinger family is so very different from my own, but I really like them. A lot.

And yes. Pictures.

In the days before the auction, the siblings took turns picking some special memento-type items like diaries and dishes, old-fashioned dip pens from a grandparent and childhood toys.

And no, that doesn’t include the brightly colored toys under the table, which are strictly modern and belong to a certain small individual who hasn’t been in this world much more than a year.

Here’s a photo of the Kinsinger siblings. That’s Homer, the oldest, at the front, then Toby, Eli, Rhoda, and Ivan, in order of age.

Below is the main scene of the auction. Because rain was in the forecast, household items were loaded onto trailers and wagons and pulled into our machine shed one at a time the day of the auction (the machinery wasn’t part of the sale). I think this looks like a ‘Where’s Waldo” scene! Good thing we did it this way, because rain fell in buckets the first part of the day.

Miriam and Naomi, cousins to the Kinsinger siblings, acted as secretaries.

The men, whoever felt like giving it a go, took turns auctioneering. That made for some interesting moments, especially when Enos tried his mouth at auctioning in Pennsylvania Dutch! In this photo, I love how young Zackary has mastered the posture of the adult males.

Of course, the children had lots of fun, whether making a bicycle train…

…eating lunch…

…or watching proceedings.

I love the bright-eyed babies. This is either Quinn or Kate, one of twins, with her mama. The twins are NOT identical, but to my shame, I still don’t know which is which. I do know they’re awfully cute, though.

This is Janelle, only six months younger than Annalise. Quinn, Kate, and Janelle all live locally, and I am beyond happy that Annalise has fun little cousins to grow up with.

Speaking of which, here is a photo of the Kinsinger great-grandchildren, Annalise’s first-and-a-half cousins. And no, Annalise is not in this group.

She is with the Kinsinger grandchildren, her first cousins, in this photo. Looks like she made the wrong photo, doesn’t it? When your daddy is ten years younger than his next-to-youngest sibling, and he doesn’t get married till he’s in his forties, fun things happen. You earn the special spot reserved for tag-alongs.

In the evening after the auction was finished, I stood on a rusted something-or-other half buried in the grass, with Louise, my niece by marriage who is just my age (she is holding Annalise in the photo above) and looked at the clouds billow across the field below our barn, the evening light gilding the sky. Funny how when I moved here to Oakland it felt like home, I told her.

Probably this will always feel like the greatest miracle of my life, that God sent a lover from the middle of nowhere and dropped me down into the hills of Oakland. Life here has had its adjustments, but it fits me somehow, like shrugging into a familiar sweater. I remember looking at some geese by a pond soon after our marriage and thinking, You know, I can imagine looking at this with my children and grandchildren and calling it home. It’s one of those places–like Rusk County, where I grew up–that soak deep into a person and linger forever.

Not that Rusk County was the same exactly. It had a scrappier nature–flatter and colder and more isolated. But that’s a story from an earlier time and another place in my life (Read Anything But Simple if you haven’t.)

God put me in Oakland in the Kinsinger family, and I’m glad to be here.