From the Globe Gazette in Mason City Iowa
MASON CITY — Auctioneer Gordon Taylor is easy to spot in a crowd. He’s the guy wearing the western-style hat.
“Many people don’t recognize me without it,” he said with a laugh.
“My hat is a part of me. It’s a symbol of an auctioneer. It used to be when you walked into an auction you would be able to identify who the auctioneer was because he was the guy with the big hat,” said Taylor.
“People are supposed to be able to spot me in a crowd.”
Another unique trait for auctioneers is their banter — and it is an art form, to hear Taylor describe it.
He reverently calls it “the auctioneer’s chant” — and it has to be done just right.
“A chant is not a sing-song. You don’t sing it and yet there has to be a rhythm to it. You don’t billy-bob around with just any fill word either,” said Taylor.
“A fill word is something between the numbers when you’re calling out the bids. ‘Ten, now 20, now 25 …’ If you didn’t have any fill words it would be very monotonous.
“A chant is part of the style of the auctioneer,” he said.
When Taylor was growing up in Dallas County he figured he’d be a farmer just like his dad.
As a kid he followed his father around to sale barns and watched as items were bought and sold. He thought of it as part of the pattern of farm life, nothing more, nothing less.
But something must have clicked.
This month, at age 87, Taylor is celebrating his 50th year as an auctionneer.
And he is quick to say he’s not retired.
“I’m still in business. I still have my truck, I still have my equipment, I still have my voice and I still have my love for it,” said Taylor, who has two auctions scheduled in April.
“Gordon is the true auctioneer,” said Mark Tlusty, who worked with Taylor for three years and now has his own auctioneering business.
“He has the deepest respect for the business. Look at him after all of these years. He always looks sharp and he runs a tight ship. He is well-respected in the community,” said Tlusky.
Roger Brekke went through Taylor’s school and still works with him at auctions.
“He’s a proud man and has reason to be,” said Brekke.
“He takes his work very seriously and always has. He’s meticulous, he knows how to handle a crowd and how to present himself. Those are all pluses in the auctioneering business,” Brekke said.
Taylor’s career started without much advance planning.
“Dean Huff was a neighbor farmer,” said Taylor. “We were coming back from an auction barn in Waverly one day and on the spur of the moment Dean said, ‘Let’s go to auction college.’
“Like most farm kids, I went to the sale barns all the time with my dad. But I never thought about going to auction college until Dean mentioned it. I just always thought I’d be a farmer,” said Taylor.
But he and Huff went to the Reisch American College of Auctioneering in Mason City and became auctioneers in March 1961.
Taylor bought the college in 1974 and operated it until 1993, when he sold it to Bill Addis. Paul Behr and Vicky Flickinger purchased it from Addis in 2001.
“In the early years, it was mostly farm auctions. It was tractors, cattle, all kinds of animals,” said Taylor. “Now it’s machinery — it’s a whole different world. There’s been a lot of changes in size of equipment, size of land.”
His auctions are generally three to seven hours long. The longest one he ever conducted was 14 hours.
“It was a lumber yard closeout at St. Ansgar,” he said. “And there were seven auctions at the fairgrounds before that for the same closeout.”
Taylor had trouble recalling the most unusual item he ever auctioned off.
“You’ll have to give me a moment on that one,” he said. Then he smiled and said, “I once sold llamas in Louisiana.”
On Sept. 11, 2010, tragedy struck when he was involved in a traffic accident while on vacation in Montana in which he was seriously injured and his wife of almost 62 years, Eva, was killed.
“It’s been difficult,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of support from family and friends.
“I was in therapy in Montana and then in therapy back here until about six weeks ago. It has really helped,” he said.
“I have to keep going. I can’t give up.”
