Among the friends of the Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction who attended Monday’s kick-off dinner were, seated: Denise Schnars, Lynn Bartz and Susan Klaips. Standing: Charlotte Bartizek, Michael Elias, Susan Worth, Gladys Harsel and Virginia Luke.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
75th annual event will be Aug. 12-15
The Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction, set for Aug. 12-15, will include a tribute to the late Dorothy L. Davis, a former Dallas High School English teacher. Her sons Brian, Michael and Jonathan and daughter-in-law, Karen, all came in from out of town to attend the kick-off dinner on Monday evening and will be back for the auction.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Owen and Carol Lavery, of Shickshinny, admire a quilt made by Leslie Horoshko, which will be raffled off as a prize during the auction. The drawing for the quilt will take place on the final night of the auction, Aug. 15.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Connie and Durelle Scott of Dallas look over some of the auction items that were on display at Apple Tree Terrace at Newberry Estates, where the Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction’s kick-off dinner was held Monday evening.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
With three weeks to go before the 75th annual Back Mountain Library Memorial Auction, some friends of the library have been planning how they’ll volunteer — Setting up? Cleaning up? Staffing a booth?
Some are hoping to win a raffle and maybe take home a Victorian diamond necklace, circa 1890, or perhaps the quilt that library supporter Leslie Horoshko crafted much more recently.
And some, like Brian Davis, are remembering the adventures of auctions past.
“I came of age during the library auction,” he reminisced Monday evening at Apple Tree Terrace at Newberry Estate, where library supporters had gathered for a kick-off dinner and mini auction. “When we were 12, 13, we’d go to the cemetery afterward and play spin-the-bottle. I got my first kiss.”
His brother, Mike, recalled a less romantic story from his youth.
“I bought a big upholstered chair for a quarter at the ‘children’s auction.’ Then I charged my friends a nickel each to sit in it for a while,” he said, explaining how they were able to watch the auction proceedings from that vantage point. “I made a dollar.”
Along with a third brother, Jonathan, the Davises will, during the auction, sponsor a tribute to their late mother, Dorothy L. Davis, a former English teacher in the Dallas School District, who fostered their enthusiasm for reading.
This year’s auction, which begins at 4 p.m. daily, Aug. 12-15, also will include a tribute to artist Sue Hand, who has painted an auction scene live, during the festivities, and donated it to the auction, for 31 years. This will be the last year for her to do that, and her painting will be auctioned off on Aug. 15, as a grand finale to the bidding.
The auction will be a place to find antiques, jewelry, “odds & ends,” plants, “nearly olde” items, new goods, books, food trucks, children’s activities and more, including Leslie Horoshko’s latest quilt donation.
“It’s absolutely gorgeous,” Carol Lavery of Shickshinny said on Monday as she arrived at the kick-off dinner and admired the quilt.
“It’ll keep you warm on a winter night,” said library board member Andrea Mosca of Dallas, who was selling raffle tickets.
While last year’s library auction was small, because of the COVID pandemic, it was nevertheless held, so this year marks the 75th annual event.
“I like the longevity of it,” Connie Scott of Dallas said as she and her husband, Durelle, looked over auction items that were on display Monday evening.
Anyone interested in volunteering for the auction is welcome to call the library at 570-675-1182.
