We’d been waiting for our first weekend getaway since pandemic restrictions ended.
An ad for an auction sale selling the contents of the old Grand Hotel in Shaunavon attracted my attention. Surprisingly, my partner volunteered to join me on the Sunday.
She HATES auctions.
We decided to make a weekend of it, staying in Swift Current with supper at the casino. Good decision. She won enough to pay for the weekend.
Arriving in the pretty town of Shaunavon the next morning, we had difficulty finding the Crescent Point Wickenheiser Centre.
SIRI on my phone kept directing us to the John Deere dealership. A townsman out walking gave us directions.
The hockey arena has been magically transformed from a dirt floor with hardly any seating into a large well-built rink.
Tables loaded with auction items were lined in the rink.
The Grand Hotel has some heavy local history. Built in 1929 during the pre-Depression boom era it rivalled the larger three-storey Shaunavon Hotel and became a major part of social life.
Two tragic murders were committed in the brick hotel.
Sgt. Arthur Barker of the RCMP was murdered in the rotunda in 1940 by a friend, rancher and soldier Victor Greenlay, who was acquitted on grounds of insanity.
Two months later Toy Ying was charged with murder of two men after a scuffle with the owner Mah Hop and several others. Ying was sentenced to two 20-year concurrent sentences.
We were interested in seeing artifacts but most items didn’t come from an old hotel. Hotel contents included remnants of a closed antique store.
“Bunch of junk,” commented one visitor, like my partner not realizing some people’s junk is treasure to others.
An older woman from Swift Current was delving into a box of old calendars. Holding up a nude calendar, she said. “Look what I found, a 1967 calendar. That’s the year we were married.”
“Yeah,” said her husband. “That’s what she looked like when we got married.”
“I did not,” she responded.
Mike Montagne from Moose Jaw found interesting items as did a couple from Swift Current collecting Coke memorabilia.
Before the auction we had delicious sour cream raisin pie at the concession, one of the day’s highlights.
Prices started low with few people there and fewer bidders. Three scythes sold for $15. An old metal-based coal oil lamp with glass globe sold for $25. Twelve of the lamps without globes sold for $60.
I hadn’t registered for a bid paddle. Thinking of all the bargains ahead I had a decision to make: Get a paddle and buy a bunch of bargains for which I have no storage, or go home.
Reluctantly I chose to go home.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
