(calm music) - [Announcer] On this episode of "Postcards."

- There's one thing about being an auctioneer or about being a salesperson.

If you're not well liked, people don't want to do business with you, you have to create that system of like a system of likability.

- It's just something that's disappearing and I think it should be spoken stories should be talked about more often.

- That's your life looking that way and it is a real treat to see what I'm seeing.

(bright music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota On the web @shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information@explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web @lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 Kram.

Online @96.7kram.com.

(playful music) - $7 over here, who say 7.50, Do I hear 7.50?

7.50 there, $8 over here.

Do I hear 9?

- My dad was a guy that he loved to visit with people, and it was probably the best thing, if there was an auction sale, of farm machinery, of the livestock and the likes that he loved to go and I started tagging out along with him when I was just knee high the cucumber per se.

I loved to listen because the auctioneer kind of mesmerized me on how he could handle the crowd and how he could talk so fast and remember so many names.

You know, in those days there was no bidding numbers.

Either the clerk of the bank or the auctioneer had to just about know the person's name and was a little embarrassing for the banker or the clerk to have to ask, you know, "Sir, what, what is your name?"

It's a little embarrassing.

(auctioneer chants) (calm music) - All right, here we go.

100 now 25.

I'm 125.

Now 50 now.

Somebody 75 somebody, 75.

I look at the values that we were raised with and there's no doubt we were born with great parents.

There are tenacity and work ethic and doing the right thing and being honest and transparent, I think that was the the key piece.

I mean, we were born in a foundation of very hard work.

With that comes a lot of opportunity.

- [Dale] I knew as a young person that it would be fun to maybe, maybe be an auctioneer.

I started telling my wife, 'cause I was farming when I get the, the ground plowed and all the corn in and the likes of that and the beans in in the bins and so on and so forth.

I think I'll go to the auction school.

You know, I told her that for three years and she said, "You know, didn't you tell me that last year?

And didn't you tell me that the year before and maybe the year before that?"

She said, "Maybe you should make good on your promise."

Of which I did.

I went to the Reisch World Wide College of Auctioneering in Mason City, Iowa.

Found out that I didn't like it.

I loved it.

- [Kristine] Our father went to auction school when I was four years old but I don't remember life not being a part of an auction family.

I remember at times being with our father in the barn and he would sell the wheelbarrow and he practices auctioneering over and over and over even after being in the business for many years and I remember doing, you know, engine, engine number nine that drill as a young child or a 10, 10, 20, 20, 30, 30.

There was something about it.

I could feel it in my bones that someday I wanted to do this.

- [Dale] So I got a break in the business of auctioneering.

Not immediately right away, but shortly after I went an auctioneer from Benson his name is Abner Jacobson.

I asked him for a job and here's how we talked.

"No, I'll tell you this, I got a lot of people here right now that want to work," so it didn't look too good.

But six months later I went back and talked to him again.

Three months later after that, I went back to him talked to him again, and finally I asked him I used a little different concept and I said "If I ever get a sale of my own could I ask you to come and help me with the sale?"

"I'll try to help you and get you started."

(soft music) He had such a magnetic personality that everybody wanted to do business with him.

Everybody liked the guy.

And there's one thing about being an auctioneer or about being a salesperson, if you're not well liked people don't want to do business with you.

You have to create that system of likability.

A guy by the name of Gordon Taylor.

He said, if you're gonna be an auctioneer there's two things you're gonna have to have.

You know what it is?

- A cane?

- He says, one is a cane and the other one is a hat.

And if you wanna be successful, and I wore that with me.

Then when the head started really going bald I figured that was a good cover up for the thing.

- [Glen] The best compliment that my dad ever received when he was awarded the Hall of Fame title as a Minnesota Hall of Fame Auctioneer, one of the auctioneers said, "With Dale Fladeboe you don't need a contract.

His word is as good as gold."

(soft music) - After our father's first heart attack my brother Glenn and I decided pretty much overnight if this business is going to continue, we need to step out and we need to go make a difference and serve client.

- [Dale] I give the kids all the credit in the world because they've taken the thing to about four levels higher than what I had.

But I still enjoy being an auctioneer.

Just the fact of catching bids.

I go to all sales and catch bids and not that much bid calling anymore because the kids are quicker and faster and better and gooder.

Have you ever heard of gooder?

Quicker, better, faster, and gooder.

- [Glen] A huge part about auctioneering, auctioneering is very different at a land auction and an equipment auction and a benefit auction.

You have to be slower sometimes.

Sometimes you have to be faster.

It's a real mix based on what audience you're in front of.

(Kristine calls bids) - The real art behind the chant is how can you connect with the audience?

Everyone's chant is unique to themself, but as long as you can be clear with your chant, I think excitement and energy really gets the public excited and really feel that connection with the auctioneer to get them to bid maybe one more time.

Going once, going twice, I am.

Sold it for 625 to bidder number 14.

- [Glen] Auctioneering is a role and responsibility that involves not just calling out numbers not just serving as the referee essentially of of prices but you have to have product knowledge.

You have to understand the psychology of sales.

Why do people say yes?

How to get people to say yes or to purchase something but it's also building a bond with the audience.

It's about creating likability.

It's about sometimes entertaining folks.

It's creating a feeling of excitement in a room or you know at a land auction to balance between art and science.

(soft music) I believe we're really not in the auction business.

We are in the people business for both of our businesses.

Whether we're selling a farm or we're raising money for a nonprofit, a big part of our job is to tell a story of why this particular either piece of real estate or this item is of significance.

- [Kristine] The years have gone quickly.

We've grown a lot, we've served many clients but I would've never dreamt that I would be serving clients across the world at times, or whether it's right here at our local convention center raising money for our hospital.

I'm just so grateful.

- There they are, coming outta Gate 29.

What do you give for 'em?

♪ There was a boy from Arkansas ♪ ♪ Who wouldn't listen to his ma ♪ ♪ When she told him he should go to school ♪ ♪ He'd sneak away in the afternoon ♪ ♪ Take a little walk and pretty soon ♪ ♪ He would wind up at the local auction barn ♪ - [Dale] Ebner always said talking about aides, he said, "Tell you Dale" he said, "Life is just like a roll of toilet paper.

The closer you get to the end the faster it goes," which is true.

And talking about the kids taking over the business, it's wonderful.

Grace and I are so lucky, tremendously lucky to have children that want to be auctioneers and knowing that they love the business is just, to me it's amazing.

We're so darn lucky.

♪ 45 dollar bid it now a 50 dollar 50 ♪ ♪ Will you gimmie 50 make it 50 ♪ ♪ Bidin' it on a 50 dollar will you gimmie 50 ♪ ♪ Who'll bid a 50 dollar bid?

♪ ♪ 50 dollar bid it now, 55, will you gimmie 55 ♪ ♪ To make it a 55 to bid at 55 ♪ ♪ Sold that hog for a 50 dollar bill ♪ (calm upbeat music) - My name is Jordan Rogers and I'm an illustrator.

Yeah, I wanted to be a comic artist because I'm colored.

I'm queer and I just don't think that there's a lot of content out there that is for people of color or queer people.

So that's why I want my stuff out there.

(soft upbeat music) When I was younger I was always drawing like every artist but I did grow up watching cartoons and stuff and that kind of shifted into comics.

Now I'm actually really picky about my comics.

I don't really like superhero comics 'cause they're so gritty and I like pretty stuff.

There is one called "Hellcat".

The Hellcat Comics is what I love, because they're drawn so beautifully and I love the style.

But it's a Marvel comic and it is a superhero comic but it's very cartoony, so it cancels out.

"Grasshopper Girl," is a book written by Teresa Peterson and illustrated by me, Jordan Rogers.

It is about a girl, Grasshopper Girl and Unktomi, a trickster.

He is often mischievous, sometimes clever, however, always teaching and reminding us how to behave.

I think passing down stories is important because it's such, it's a tradition that is kind of fading in Native American culture.

It's just something that's disappearing and I think it should be talked about more often.

Spoken stories should be talked about more often.

I grew up working traditionally with painting, watercolor pens and paper, but I wanted to try digital art and now I mostly do digital art, but having those skills on traditional art has helped me a lot.

I make my art on an app called "Procreate", which is $10 one purchase, but it has everything you need.

When you're drawing traditional, you will want to try to double tap the paper to remove something.

- [Interviewer] Wait, did you ever do that while the camera was on?

- No, I did not.

I almost did though.

- [Interviewer] Would've been cool.

- No.

I make activity books based around health and science and nutrition for native kids up north in Minnesota.

I wish I had more Native American themed stories, movies books.

I wish, I do wish I had that growing up but also growing up as a mixed kid, it was hard to find Native American stories as well as black stories.

So I kind of wish I had both, which is why I'm an artist.

So kids like me can also have both.

(soft upbeat music) - You know, when you, when you have a house that has a lot of art in it, you change it up, you change it seasonally or you change it year to year.

But the Richter stuff always has a place because it's so treasured, so revered and it's the the kind of work that when people come into your house they say, "Whoa, who did that?"

- Franz is someone who has real vision and humanity and is able to express it.

- [Kristi] Franz Richter is an amazing graphic design artist.

He's a good friend.

He's somebody who cares deeply about where every line lands.

Anytime you can spend some time with Franz and have him just tell you about his art and what he was thinking when he was doing it, he's such a storyteller.

It's really, it's precious time.

(classical music) - Because he's a graphic designer I would sometimes ask for help with stuff.

I said, "Franz, what do you think?"

And he looked at it for a long time and he was really quiet and then he leaned over and said, "Well, you know, Andy White space is okay too."

A little while later I learned that he was right that white space is okay.

Ever since then, I've tried to listen to him 'cause he knows, he's got an eye.

- My name is Franz Allbert Richter and there are two L's in Allbert.

I am named after my grandfather's.

This is where my people settled, south of Clarkfield, this hunters earths homestead.

And that house was going to be sent to Norway back in the thirties.

This photo was taken about 1893 and that little building still has a lot of, a missing chunk out of that log to this day.

(instinct chatter) Hey.

Started drawing when I was three, dad worked for the hatchery in Clarkfield and they would use a long, fairly long roll of paper, heavy paper but the rolls came a little bit too long so they sawed off a piece about this big and dad would bring it home and gave it to me.

And I got out the crayons and started drawing horses and cowboys.

Firing rifles.

Firing pistols into the air with purple flames.

(exciting music) Oh, that's it.

Okay, there.

Oh!

(upbeat music) - Was it surprising to you, that all, you had so much stuff around?

- Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And yeah, to be able to see it, yeah.

One surprise after the other.

Yeah.

- Does it make you happy to see it all together?

- Yeah.

Yes, yes.

(exciting music) I'm just me.

I don't know if they're, but so.

I'm glad people have kept these things.

(upbeat music) Oh, I see they've got the plow.

There's an outcropping of rock surrounded by slough but this is a little piece of Avro-rock a part of that big exposure of heart stone.

And these are little buffalo that Jean had in his collection and he decided to display them on this little piece of Avro-rock along with some nature that collapsed there.

(calm music) 16th of October, I turned 80 years old and when you turn and look back, realizing that's your life looking that way.

And it is a real treat to see what I'm seeing here.

(emotional music) (patriotic music) - I was born in Northfield, Minnesota, then I moved to Dennison, Minnesota, and we lived in Hatton, North Dakota.

Then my mother died, then I moved to a farm in Kenmare, Minnesota, and that's where I went to school at a one room school in country school in around Kenmare.

Graduated from high school, joined the Marine Corps.

I was a tank driver.

I drove amphibian tanks.

They were mostly stationed in the South Pacific there or in the Pacific Theater.

That's where, you know, I went to bootcamp, three months at Tank Training school at Jack's Farm, Don San Diego.

And then we went overseas and we were there until November, 1945.

We usually went ahead of the infantry and on the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima .

We went in with the different divisions.

I was at the second division on Saipan.

I was the fourth division on Tinian, and I was the fifth division on Iwo Jima.

Well, the first thing we did was with our tank, we got our tank shot out from under us.

The first thing on Saipan that is, we'd been on beach about oh two or three minutes and I heard abandoned tank.

I couldn't believe it, but we got hit that time.

Then we, then we got hit on Tinian we got hit on Iwo Jima.

The guy got, he didn't get killed, in the one on Saipan where CP operator got killed on Tinian, the guy got his, he got shot, his ammunition pack got hit.

Let's see on Iwo the loader, got hit and he wouldn't, he refused to be evacuated, so he got the Bronze star.

The most memorable day would be when they raised the flag on Iwo Jima.

I wasn't, I was a half a mile from Mount Suribachi and I did not actually see them raise the flag but there was so much gunfire and so much action.

I turned around and I saw the flag up on the Mount Suribachi and there it was.

So that is the most memorable day, I think.

Yeah, sure, I was changed.

I was a dumb kid at 18.

Didn't take long.

About six weeks boot camp.

That changed you.

Yeah.

But after the war, I married my wife, who was high school sweetheart.

She was, let's see, we've been married 74 and a half years.

Come again June 27th.

It'll be 74 and a half.

We had six children.

It's been a great life.

We just had a great life.

I had a little contracting company for 10, 12 years.

And then I went to work at Cenex in the construction division.

And when I retired, we built a home on Beaver Dam Lake and we lived there in the summer and I built a couple more homes in the summer there.

And then we, in the winter, we had a home in Green Valley, Arizona.

So we lived there in winter.

We did that for 25 years.

- [Interviewer] Nice.

- Yeah.

- [Interviewer] It's a good life.

- Yeah.

Oh, just a great life.

I can't complain.

Freedom is not free.

That's very, you know, that's kind of no cliche, but it's so true.

- [Interviewer] But it's true.

- Yeah.

It's not free.

(patriotic music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen.

On behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web @shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information @explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar, showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web @lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 Kram.

Online @96.7kran.com.

(upbeat music)