DP News

July 2, 2009

He’s been helping for 50 years

By Sarah Hite shite@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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If the door to the auction barn behind the Back Mountain Memorial Library is open, chances are Ernie Ashbridge Jr. is inside.

As antique chairperson for the annual library auction, Ashbridge, 78, works year round to fill the barn with old chairs, china, quilts and dressers.

This year, Ashbridge is celebrating his 50th year as a volunteer at the 63-year-old auction, having served as antiques chairperson for about 15 non-consecutive years.

“Even if I’m not chairman, I’m here helping them,” Ashbridge said. “I’m interested in the library and seeing they get as much as they can, but I do enjoy auctions.”

Ashbridge and his wife, Betty, moved to Shavertown from Wilkes-Barre in 1958 but had attended the auction for three years prior to moving to the Back Mountain. The couple has two children, Robyn Carson and Ernie III.

In 1959, Ashbridge became an auction volunteer and started out by helping people move and carry items. Soon after, Betty became the antiques chairperson, preceding her husband in the position.

It is Ashbridge’s responsibility to find and purchase antiques for the auction, a job he says takes him about three hours a day throughout the year. He scours items at estate auctions and sales and yard sales, looking for 600 antiques for the auction.

The late Bill Gable was Ashbridge’s antiques assistant and close friend until his death six years ago and his other assistant is Betty, who helps clean the glassware and number items. She also goes to many of the auctions with her husband.

Some of Ashbridge’s favorite auction items over the years include white marble statues of people, including one of Zeus which he remembers finding at a house at Indian Lake in Bear Creek. He also enjoyed two hand-carved carousel horses and has acquired a third for this year.

But Ashbridge is worried that antiques are a dying trend and believes younger generations prefer new, plastic and disposable things.

“Over the years, the antiques have been probably the mainstay of the auction because they bring in the most money,” Ashbridge said. “In the last couple of years, people’s interests are starting to change, so I don’t know how much longer they’ll be desirable.”

Ashbridge’s most vivid auction memory was in 1972 when the event was moved to October because of the Agnes Flood after which people were busy cleaning their businesses and the homes of family members and friends in Wilkes-Barre.

Another memory involves Barbara Lemmond, the wife of former state senator Charles Lemmond.

“We’ve had experiences with lightning hitting the tent,” Ashbridge said. “Barbara Lemmond was holding one of the corner posts and she got shocked, but other than that, everything was fine.”

In 1978, Ashbridge became a Pennsylvania certified auctioneer but he has never been an auctioneer at the auction.

“I never had a desire to do that,” he said. “I would rather gather things. At one time, they would never allow licensed auctioneers to do it. They wanted to keep it community people.”

In his professional career, Ashbridge worked in various finance positions at Hanover Bank in Wilkes-Barre. He was also a member of the Dallas School Board for 32 years where he served as president for 15 years.

“You just find it; you find time to do things you enjoy,” Ashbridge said of his former busy schedule.

In May, Ashbridge had surgery on his carotid, the artery leading to the head and brain, after being told it was 95 percent blocked.

Ashbridge has decided this will be his last year as antiques chair but he isn’t quitting the auction altogether as he plans to continue volunteering for as long as he can.

“I just can’t lift and do this stuff anymore,” he said. “It’s not only getting it in here. Then you have to place it and you have to number it. I’ll always help, but I can’t do it on my own.”

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