—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 10,1978
54
By JOANNESPAHR
CARLISLE - The in
scription under her name in
her 1964 high school year
book said only one thing -
“Wants to be an auc
tioneer ”
And they laughed because
she was a girl.
Undaunted, she thought to
herself, “Let them laugh. I’ll
show ‘um.”
And she did.
Today Carol Burruss,
Carlisle, is that auctioneer
that she always wanted to be
and she is one of only two or
three in the state. Back in
1964 when opportunities for
women weren’t nearly as
abundant as they are today,
Mrs. Burruss forged the way
for women in auctioneering,
a profession she grew up
around and always loved.
“My dad (Paul Boyles)
has owned Potties Auction
House in Newville for 32
years,” relates the smiling
Carol, “And, ever since I
was little, auctioneering was
something I thought was
fascinating.”
“In fact,” she continues,
“I used to get up and holler
when I was a little kid. One
time our auctioneer became
sick and I yelled, ‘l’ll do it,
I’ll do it!’ That was when I
was about 12 or 13 years
old.”
It was around that same
age that this self-proclaimed
tomboy made up her mind to
be an auctioneer. And, even
though she knew it wasn’t
going to be easy, she set
about the task when she was
still a senior in high school.
She began the process by
writing a letter to Reppert’s
School of Auctioneering in
Decator, hid., telling them of
her aspirations and her
desire to enter their school.
Unfortunately, they never
wrote back.
Carol, however, did not
give up.
“I made a pest of myself,”
she says with her big, easy
grin.'“l just kept writing for
over a year until they ac
cepted me. I think I wrote
four or five letters until I got
a reply.”
Up to that time no women
had ever been admitted to
the three-week school and
when Reppert’s agreed to
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This auctioneer is a woman!
accept her, she was told that
the school was doing it only
on a conditional basis.
“They said they’d try it
one time,” she notes with her
pleasant, very-shghtly-sou
tbem-tinged accent.
The main drawback, as
the school saw it, was that
women would detract from
the program. But, actually,
says Carol, they have now
found that men actually
work harder when women
are enrolled because they
don’t want a little lady
showing them up.
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Carol Burruss and her daughter Linda display a few of their spotted swine.
At the same time Carol
was enrolled, two other
women were accepted, as
well, and the practice of
taking women has continued
ever since.
But, Carol points out, just
because they were accepted
doesn’t mean that the
women had an easy row to
hoe.
“We poor girls,” Carol
laments with her usual in
fectious smile and laughing
eyes, “We had to furnish our
own living quarters and we
had to worry about our own
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transportation from the
hotel where we were
staying.” The men, in the
meantime, lived in dor
mitories.
Some of the teachers did
take pity on the women,
however, and attempted to
make life easier for them.
“When they did that,”
says Carol, “I told them I
didn’t want favoritism. I
wanted to be treated just like
everybody else. I think I
shockedthem ”
Once
finished her
had another
she
she
course,
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■'•'9
obstacle to overcome - her
apprenticeship. As was to be
expected, few auctioneers
wanted a girl apprentice at
their side. But, she was able
to obtain one with Dean Shull
of Perry County.
She vividly remembers
her first sale with Shull. It
was her uncle’s farm sale,
and the first time she got up
she couldn’t talk because of
“stage fright.”
“I trie ' and I’m still
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trying,” she says with laugh.
Even today, she notes, she
still gets butterflies in her
stomach when she steps in
front of a crowd. But, over
the years she has developed
an attitude which helps her
greatly.
“I just say to myself,
‘Nope. They’re not going to
laugh at me. I’ve heard
worse than myself.’”
But, there’s still
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some