“If you wanted to make money at it,
you’re doing the wrong thing.”
Jerry Speake, Auctioneer
When is an auction more than an auction? When it’s a chicken auction, of course. But this story is not really about chickens. Or about auctions. It’s about the town that needs chicken auctions.
Jerry Speake runs an auction business in Eclectic, Alabama (population 1,162). Every Friday he holds a chicken auction, where people sell chickens, ducks, goats, and other farm animals. That is, he used to hold a chicken auction every Friday . . . until April 27. That’s the day tornadoes ripped through this small Southern town and turned everyone’s world upside down. Mr. Speake lost his auction barn; four people in a nearby mobile home park lost their lives.
Since the tornadoes, townspeople have been asking Mr. Speake when he’ll start the chicken auctions again. It’s not that they need to sell chickens, or ducks, or goats—it’s the gathering of neighbors and friends that they miss. Especially now.
Mr. Speake has been hard at work to get back in business, putting in a lot of 12-hour days. And he’s not alone. The Lutheran church caught wind of the town’s loss, and members from as far away as Houston have pitched in to help the town, and Mr. Speake, put the pieces back together again. With their help, the chicken auctions resumed at the end of August.
Chicken auctions won’t heal the community. But with the pluck shown by Mr. Speake, the townspeople, and their newfound friends, it looks like the town is on the mend.
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