By Anne Hershewe
news@joplinglobe.com
PICHER, Okla. — Everyone, in one way or another, showed up to bid. It was, after all, an auction.
One of the successful bidders even went home with a 500-pound statue of a gorilla.
But most of the hundreds of people who turned out for the Sunday sale at the Picher school complex were not there for the furniture or equipment.
Many said they were there for the memories, and to bid farewell.
“Boy, I’ve roamed these halls a lot,” said Carl Berry, a 1974 Picher graduate.
Berry said he hoped to find a few things to purchase, but mostly he “just came for the old memories. It’s a sad thing.”
The Picher-Cardin School District, as a result of a government buyout prompted by lead contamination and cave-in risk in the former mining area, is in its final phase of closing for good.
Alumni of all ages attended a reunion Saturday that organizers said drew nearly a thousand people. Many of them decided to stay for the auction. While several expressed an interest in some items, specifically the concrete statue of the school mascot, many said they simply wanted to visit the school a final time.
“I really came to visit with the people who came from out of town,” said Dorothy Sigle White, a graduate with a legacy at the Picher-Cardin schools.
“My parents graduated from here in the 1930s,” she said. “I graduated in ’61 and my brother in ’64. It’s just kind of sad.”
Picher graduates Norton and Ruth Shoemaker said they simply wanted to look around one last time. “We just wanted to come and see the school,” said Ruth Shoemaker.
Swarms of people followed auctioneers from Clapp Auction Service through the halls, classrooms and fields to bid on items. Any item not going to the Commerce or Quapaw school districts was up for sale.
Dwayne “Buzz” Ervin, of Miami, said he didn’t know much about what was being auctioned off, but he hoped to find something that piqued his interest. He purchased a few desks from the elementary school, and he also wanted to buy some fencing and light fixtures.
Among the many items being auctioned off were bookshelves, kitchenware, sports equipment and the Picher fixture: the 7-foot gorilla.
Many people, mostly alumni, seemed intent on bidding on the gorilla. Though he is not a Picher graduate, Ervin said, “It’s the hottest item they’ve got.”
Berry joked about bidding on the Picher gorilla as well. “I told my wife, ‘That’s what we ought to have in our back yard in Commerce.’ We could paint it blue,” he said.
The gorilla ended up being bought by David Marlin, of Conway, Mo., for $2,500.
Marlin is not a graduate of Picher, nor are any of his immediate family members. When asked by a Globe photographer what he planned to do with the massive statue, Marlin would only say that he has a special project in mind.
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