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Moses Yoder
05-26-2014, 9:40 AM
My father left this world last fall, the Monday before Thanksgiving. He was 79. My avatar is a picture of him when he was Amish. We had planned a big birthday party in January for his 80’th and decided to get together then anyway to honor his memory and discuss some business that needed to be taken care of. One of the items to discuss was parting out all of the things he had that mom no longer needed or wanted. The best suggestion that we heard was to give each child a credit towards their future inheritance then auction everything off to the children. What the children didn’t want could be purchased by the grandchildren and what was left over would go to a yard sale, after that the Goodwill. We decided to have this sale on Memorial day weekend.

My parent’s property is in a living trust so unless something strange happens it will still be there when mom is gone. My parent’s will states that everything is to be split evenly amongst the children. Each child was given $5,000 credit. I spent the most at the auction and only spent $1577. There are eight of us kids. The average spent was $767.88. We sold about 640 items Saturday for a total of $6143; that is credit, money that we did not actually physically ever have. If the property sells for $150,000 after my mom passes we will add this total to that money so the total inheritance will be $156,143. Split evenly to eight children this would be $19,517.87. The money I spent yesterday will then be deducted from this total so I would get $17,940.87. My sister Edna spent the least at $98 so she would get $19,419.87. This may sound more complex than it really is but the reality is that those who got more stuff get less money. To me some things are worth more than money. Plus there is the fact that I could die before mom does; a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I found out Saturday that my siblings are mostly as tight as my mother is and I get my spending habits from dad.

On to some of my purchases.

An item that kind of surprised me was dad’s lighter, probably the lighter he used for a while when he smoked. I put a $2 bid on it and no one else wanted it. It is a windproof Zippo, chromed, rubbed through to the brass on the edges. I did some Googling on Zippos and found that they will repair any Zippo lighter free of charge; the finish is not guaranteed on the lighter but everything else is. The wick was in terrible shape and I thought I would need to order a new one but found they can be pulled out and trimmed; it looks like a new wick right now. I hope to get fuel and a flint for it today at Meijer and it will be functioning again I think. Mom said these were the in thing among the Amish in their district when they were young; I can picture dad walking out of the Amish church to go back to the barn for a cigarette and pulling his cool light out.
[PICTURE OF LIGHTER]
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Dad’s Estwing 20 oz. framing hammer. Dad had a smaller hammer that he used all the time. One time some of us kids wanted to break some rocks open so we took this hammer that we never saw dad use and we were breaking rocks when he caught us. He lined us all up and gave us a spanking. This was my first indication that this was a special hammer to him. I never saw him use it once; my only memory of it ever getting used was when we broke rocks with it and got a spanking. I got it for $10.

[PICTURE OF HAMMER]
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Dad’s block & tackle. We used this a lot when I was growing up. Lifting an engine before we had the chain hoist I can hear dad now yelling at us to pull, with him in the front and all four of us boys pulling behind him. My brother bid me up to $150 on it.
[PICTURE OF BLOCK & TACKLE]
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Dad’s screwdriver. A Yankee #35 push screw driver. I never knew he had this; the first time I ever saw it was when we were sorting some of the tools and setting up the auction. They sell for around $10-$15 on ebay; not worth a lot but means a lot to me as my dad’s tool. I have a number of Yankee tools and when I was researching this found out they made hundreds of different screwdrivers and drills. A nice little tool, needs minor cleaning. $5.

[PICTURE OF YANKEE #35]
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Dad’s drill, lots of memories playing with this, a no frills Miller Falls drill. My family knows I collect tools and my brother Henry was selling the stuff at the time this came up. He picked it up and cranked it a round and turned and grinned at me; I said “Fifty dollars!” Nobody else bid and it is setting in my shop now.
[PICTURE OF DRILL]
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Various sharpening stones and knife; I never knew dad had all of these stones; the only one I ever saw him use was a small round one; I did not see it on the auction, mom probably kept it. None are exceptional but it is a nice knife, the only butcher knife I bought. The stones went surprisingly high; I paid $20 for the knife, $20 and $15 for the stones.
[PICTURE OF KNIFE AND STONES]
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The prize of the collection, dad’s bit set and brace. Mom said he bought this new; the copyright in the pamphlet is 1961 so it is probably from the early ‘60s. I remember using this a lot in the early years and then dad bought an electric drill, we hardly ever used it after that; that is probably why it is in as good a shape as it is. It does have the original cardboard box with it; I found a label on it that I missed in the dark garage. The cardboard box is in rough shape, I plan on lightly cleaning it and taping one piece back together. I read that clear athletic tape is best for this repair. The pamphlet contains instructions on how to use and sharpen the bits and then details numerous different sets of bits that are available, really just an advertisement for Irwin. The sharpening instructions are very basic. I thought a piece of the latch was lost but I found it inside the box, it can probably be repaired. I had originally given myself a maximum bid of $1500 on this set but it sold towards the end and I was prepared to go to my limit if I had to. It was the one thing of dad’s that I really wanted. My brother kind of wanted it and ran me up to $150. It is setting on the table beside my chair now.
[PICTURE OF BRACE AND BITS]
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I purchased a lot of misc. stuff that I won’t bore you with, items we will actually put to good use like a small tiller. Some things for Meg and the girls. Overall I think it went very well; we are all still talking to each other and I think we all got some nice stuff.

Mike Cozad
05-26-2014, 12:33 PM
Good for you! I like the way your family handled that.

That is one handome brace and bit set. I see why you wanted it....