“You wiggle your hand, Honey, you bought something.”
The auctioneer got a laugh from the 90 plus people gathered in the VFW hall. Another laugh came when he put the Victoria Secret tote bag up for bids. “And there are other secrets in this bag.”
Family and motorcycle friends were there on this Sunday afternoon to raise money for my second cousin Mike. Many had donated items for the auction. Mike wasn’t there. He is in a Chicago hospital with lung cancer. Not much longer to live, doctors say.
One young father, carrying his two-year old son in his arms, walked near the hefty auctioneer who wore a straw hat and carried a microphone. The auctioneer got another laugh when he announced, ”Sorry, we cannot sell children.”
Four-dozen veterans rode their “bikes” into Knox, a northern Indiana town of three thousand, surrounded by corn and soybean fields. As did family members, they crowded the Knox VFW Hall and ate pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, beans and watermelon.
Then the auction to help offset Mike’s hospital costs began.
The largest bid–$350—went for a well-worn billed cap with a Harley-Davidson logo above the bill. Signatures on the cap’s bill said “Bill Davidson and Willie G.”
Those guys started Harley-Davidson, I was told. The cap has been sold several times in the last 30 years. Each time to a Harley-Davidson owner who, like Cousin Mike, is a veteran of the Vietnam War.
When another biker needs a helping hand, the new owner will probably contribute the hat to sell, again to help another veteran.
A celebration for a good fella Mike
May God bless all the vets of our
Nation as they know freedom is not
Free.