I’ve started this Blog page to share my thoughts with auction attendees that don’t have the opportunity to get to know me. I was basically raised in the antique auction business, and I thought I’d share some of my life experience with you. As a child I remember my father working with his brother Albert, and how they would put me to work filling boxes with loose paper and sweeping floors to keep me busy so I would be “out of the way”. I remember watching very closely how the business was operated, so I could do more important jobs in order to work closer with my father. As I learned I would ask if I could do more, so my father let me hold things up in front of the crowds, and pass them out to the winning bidder. I recall one time early in when I dropped a souvenir ruby flash glass, and it broke. My father wouldn’t let me hold anything up for a time after that, so I had to find something else I was good at. Being small and not very strong at the age of eight I couldn’t handle furniture, but after watching them pack and unpack items in boxes for so long I knew how to pack boxes. I would offer to pack until my father realized I didn’t break anything and let me attend auctions again holding items up. I remember once my father was setting up an auction when I was nine at a supper club in Oregon WI, and he needed my Mother to bring him some items from the storage, and she couldn’t make it all fit in the station wagon. After watching my father load several times I knew I could make it fit, so my mother let me, and I remember the look on her face when I fit everything in the car. I couldn’t wait to see my father’s expression when he found out I loaded the car when my mother couldn’t. He was pleasantly surprised, and let me help load more after that. Soon he started letting me sit in when he was settling with consignors, and took me on trips for a few days to buy items to re-sell. I learned a lot, because I watched and listened to everything. When I was about twelve I began to get rebellious, and territorial and only wanted to be around my friends, so there was a gap of a few years that I didn’t work with my father much. When I was 14 or so I started needing money for things I wanted, so I started working for my father and my uncle Larry cleaning the auction hall, setting the items up for auction as they arrived, and riding along to load estates. I remember being very hurt during the auction because my father would embarrass me when he couldn’t find me. I was usually assisting a customer loading, or getting an item up they wanted to bid on. After a long battle with adolescence, and trying to find my place in this world I was still working for my father. He began to teach me more about buying, and let me take some cash to buy to see if I could make some money. Well that didn’t work very well at fist, so I just kept working around the hall, and repairing things for a while. When I was seventeen I decided I wanted to try it again, and I remember it was when my father was placing an ad in a paper to buy antiques. I talked him into letting me place an ad in the Milwaukee Journal, and go on the calls. I knew a good item when I saw it from being around and handling so much of it my entire life, and I especially knew furniture from doing repairs, and knowing how it was suppose to be built. I was having trouble placing a value on many of the items I saw, so I would call my father for advice. I tried working for a few other people as a carpenter, and a few other jobs, but the antiques and auctions where “in my blood” so to speak. Before you know it I was traveling to New England buying huge trailer loads of antiques from Indiana to Maine. I did that for quite awhile supplying several show dealers, and made several contacts, learned a lot, and made a lot of friends along the way. After a while I decided to try going off on my own, because it was difficult working too close with my father. I bought and sold antiques, built antique reproduction furniture, and restored furniture for several years before taking a job driving truck. I needed a break from self employment, and wanted to see what else was out there. I had a lot of experience driving our trucks around the United States, so I figured it would be easy to find a job driving. It turned out to be very easy to find a job, but not very rewarding. After driving several types of trucks I received a call from my father when he was living in Tennessee. He said he had an ad in the paper and needed help answering calls, and wanted me to come help him for a while. I was 29 years old, and off work for the winter, and Tennessee was warm, so I said yes. After working with him for a week I was hooked again, so I moved to Tennessee. After about a year my parents moved back to Wisconsin, and I stayed behind buying antiques, and restoring furniture. After a while my wife and I split up, and I took a job at the local College, and a 34 hour a week part time job at Lowes Home Centers. I found out I could go to College for free as long as I was employed by the Tennessee board of Regents, so I signed up for a class. After I realized how easy and rewarding it was, and kept my mind off the separation I signed up for 3 classes per semester, and maintained my jobs for 3-1/2 years keeping a 4.0 GPA. I felt good about where I was going, but then my parents moved back to Tennessee, and my Father wanted me to work with him again. I left both jobs and school, and went back to work with my father. Eventually I moved back to Wisconsin, my father retired, I bought the auction business, and gained custody of my three youngest children. Being a single father of three, I was limited to travel, so concentrated on consignment auctions. My parents moved to South Carolina, but eventually moved back to Wisconsin. My father attended almost every auction, but it was difficult because he wanted things to go his way, and I had my own way that has been working very well, which brings us to today. I came to the conclusion that the differences my father and I have at the auction was not only stressing our relationship, but destroying my business, and my desire to continue it. I decided I finally had to stop it, and either ask my father to sit out at the auctions, or discontinue the auction. I chose to ask my father to sit out, and he seems to understand. I want you my Customers, and Friends to know that all of these years you have witnessed my father and I having disagreements during my auction was not out of disrespect for my father. I have been trying to continue the auction with my father present, because I wanted him to be a part of what he built as I was growing up. It is with great regret that I had to ask this of him, but the time has come. My father is very appreciated, but difficult to work with at the auction. I will continue to have him by my side when I do business outside of the auction as often as I can. I love my father very much, but there can only be one Captain of the ship. I know I am probably difficult for my children to work with at times, and I pray they understand the stress, and pressure during the auction process. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, and I hope to see you at my future auctions. Gregory Klug Sr.
