WEEKENDER Column
We go every year to the Back Mt. Library auction. It’s one of those bookend events of our lives, along with the Bloomsburg Fair and the other various annual events that make living in a community pleasurable.
Oddly enough, even though in another life I was once called upon to be an auctioneer, we don’t bid. But we surely do buy. Bags and boxes of books and other things. And we stuff our faces with the various delectables on sale, from halušky to Hillside Farms ice cream.
We watch Sue Hand, a very nice lady and talented artist, paint her yearly contribution in the crowd. Sue’s paintings sell for a very pretty penny. I should have taken up a paint brush instead of a pencil. The Sue Hand in my kitchen was a yard sale find. I won’t embarrass her by revealing what I paid, but it wouldn’t buy her much paint.
It’s a nice event. Placid. Orderly. Friendly. So I have to wonder why the need for an armed Sherriff prowling the grounds. Of course I often wonder why men with high powered sidearms are needed to enforce the law at High School basketball games and book sales. Many countries, England for instance, don’t arm the police. They have lower crime rates than we do.
I get that it’s a different world now. But the Book Sale Sherriff performed only one law enforcement duty while I was there. He ejected a silver haired senior and her beautiful, blonde Cocker Spaniel. I do get that dogs are prohibited. They might fight, bite or worse, poop.
But this dog was so pretty if I wasn’t married I’d have dated her. I seriously doubt this dog poops. It was perfectly groomed, it’s long golden tresses done up with ribbons. It was completely calm. Even when being given the bums rush by a burly man with Glock 17 on his hip. Thanks be that it was well mannered. It would have been ugly to see the Book Sale Sherriff draw down on the pooch. Uglier than it was.
I felt bad for the little old lady and her pet but she was in fact in violation of the rules and the signs posted denying dogs at the auction. She moved on. The dog went quietly. So did a small piece of my heart. And maybe just a bit of our freedom.
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The Rant D’Jour has to do with a close exam of the female anatomy.
There has been a lot of talk and heat and light generated by the opening of a strip club…more
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