Totem Pole at Auction

After we gave Mom her wonderful gift...life went on. Within the next five years, four of us moved out of the house. Mom had an empty nest (more or less). Dad built a new house, and they moved off the farm...

I don't remember ever having a conversation about the Totem Pole. We were all busy learning how to "Adult"...Soon, we were getting married -- then the babies started coming...

Thirty-odd years went by PRETTY QUICKLY...

In 1997, Mom died. Nine months later, Dad died. They had A LOT OF STUFF...so we decided to have an auction. The added benefit is that if we wanted something -- we could simply buy it back.

Anyway -- it was during this time that we understood (for the first time) how much the Totem Pole really meant to our Mother....

As we were clearing out the house, we discovered the Totem Pole buried under some old clothes in a forgotten corner of the basement laundry room, .

It was AT THAT MOMENT that we realized Mom had never displayed the Totem Pole in any way. Ever. Hummm...

While getting ready for the auction, there was a lot of discussion about sooo many things. After all -- we didn't want to bid against one another.

Ronda wanted Mom's dining room set. Deena wanted a Walnut what-knot shelf that came from Grandma Dodds.

But, the truth is, if an item went high enough, sometimes we decided to take the money.

Here's the shocker.  Of ALL THE THINGS OUR PARENTS OWNED...Rooms and barns full of their belongings...cars, jeeps, campers -- the only thing we could NOT agree on was that Totem Pole.

The Totem Pole was the ONLY thing I wanted.

But Ronda wanted it, too.

And so did Deena...

The three of us were ALL DETERMINED TO BUY THAT TOTEM POLE...

The three of us have this in common...we are stubborn. So, it was very possible that one of us might end up spending $1000 to buy back a $35 Totem Pole...and a sisters-against-sisters bidding war was bound to cause hard feelings down the road...ugh... 

So, we came up with a genius compromise. We would ALL THREE buy the damn thing. We'd split the cost -- and it would move around our three homes every Mother's Day.

IT'S A GREAT PLAN!!

But, we worried that if we looked too eager, other people would think the Totem Pole was some kind of valuable antique -- and they might start to bid against us.  So, we hatched a plan to have Ronda's husband Dean casually do the bidding...

He asked, "how high should I go?"

We looked at one another and said..."don't quit bidding until we tell you to stop..."