Calling the shots
“Ding-dong!”
Ray Patterson’s trademark closure of a sale rings a bell locally and nationally. He caps the verbal rapid fire of an auctioneer announcing bids with his booming trademark: “Ding-Dong! Sold!”
“I’ve been known coast to coast as ‘Ding-Dong,'” he said, chortling. “Every auctioneer is known for something.”
Around here, Patterson is known as the owner/operator of a venerable family farm in Nottingham Township and for his presence at the Washington County Agricultural Fair. And it is a formidable presence.
The 216th annual fair will begin Saturday and run though Aug. 17 at the Washington County Fairgrounds and Expo Center in Chartiers Township. Though the event will officially kick off at 6 p.m. Saturday, a lawn and garden tractor pull and the Spam contest at 9 a.m. will cowkick-start proceedings.
Among the prominent attractions the final two days will be the livestock sale, which is in its 50th year. Patterson has been an integral component of this golden milestone, having participated in all 50, mostly as the auctioneer.
“Raymond started as a ring man, who takes all bids from the crowd,” said Jeanine Miles, sale chair for the Washington County Junior Livestock Advisory Committee. “Chris Williams of Hickory was our initial auctioneer, but Raymond is probably the only person who has been involved in every sale in some capacity. I’m not sure when he started being an auctioneer.”
That was in the mid-1970s, Patterson said, and he has been one every summer since. His inability to pinpoint the year is something of a surprise, for at 79, he is a robust dynamo with an otherwise remarkable memory. But after 56 years of auctioneering, it’s understandable if some experiences meld together.
“I’ve been involved with 7,200 auction sales,” Patterson said. “I started when I was 23.”
That’s more Ding-Dongs than Hostess ever baked.
He said he has traveled nationwide, working for a number of large auctioneering firms. “I worked as a bid caller – use that term – nationally,” he said.
Livestock has been only part of his auctioneering equation – but a valuable part, one with which he has been familiar his entire life. He has always lived on a farm in Nottingham – the current one until age 3, then a neighboring spread until he was 13, before returning to his original home for good.
Farming isn’t, but should be, in his DNA. His is an agrarian family with extremely deep county roots.
Patterson’s kin, five generations removed, attended the initial Washington County Fair in in 1798 via oxen cart.
“They had items they wanted to display,” he said. “It was called the Morganza Fair then. There was no bridge and the oxen got stuck in the mud in Linden Creek.
“They made it, but it took some real maneuvering.”
Nearly a century later, in November 1894, his grandfather bought the farm that Ray and wife Mary Jane eventually acquired. Patterson said the oak barn there was “on the county tax books before 1750” and was the first hand-hewn frame barn built in Nottingham and is now the last one standing in the township. The house in which the couple lives was built in 1794.
His father, Alvin, owned it beforehand, where he built a remarkable reputation through hard work and endurance. He raised champion horses, hogs, cattle and collies, according to a 1988 Observer-Reporter article written by Barbara Miller.
And before his son would have an opportunity to do the same, Alvin Patterson etched an indelible mark in Washington County Fair lore. In 1988, at age 88, he was recognized for participating in all but one fair from 1913 through 1988 – 75 of 76. He missed the one in 1927 when he was working at a mine in Colorado, a job he left after six months to return home.
“My uncle convinced him to take a plunge in mining there,” said Ray Patterson, whose father went on to attend the 1989 and 1990 fairs before dying the following spring.
Ray was well-prepared for farm ownership, having done virtually everything agriculture-related during his life. He said he milked cows for 42 years, tended to beef cattle the family owned for 20, and helped with the horses, hogs and other animals.
In addition to auctioneering and operating his 128-acre spread, Patterson still sells livestock, is involed with 4-H and Future Farmers of America – he’s been with 4-H for 70 years – and, because he had too much idle time, bought a business in December. He and Mary Jane own Town and Country Garden Center on Jefferson Avenue in the Wolfdale section of Washington.
Patterson also was a licensed real estate agent for 42 years.
“If I didn’t have three or four things going for me, there would be something wrong,” he said.
His farm has changed. “It’s hay and horses now,” Patterson said, adding that his wife breeds Morgan horses and Shetland ponies.
“We have seven of each plus one donkey.”
He has a son and daughter, but neither will likely take over the farm someday. Patterson said he has “some thoughts and plans on” its future, but would not discuss them.
He is in his element there, to be sure – and at the fair, which he first attended in 1940, when his father was showing Belgian horses.
The almost constant exposure to livestock has inured him to aromas that may overcome individuals who are olfactory-sensitive.
“You live with it. I’m around it every day in barns,” he said. “You notice it when you are away from it for a while.”
With all of his interests, Patterson will be a staple during the eight days of the fair. But he will be something of a featured attraction the final two days, during the Market Livestock Show starting at 6 p.m. Aug. 16 (goats and rabbits) and the Market Livestock Sale at 10 a.m. Aug. 17 (hogs, lambs, steers).
Though his auctioneer’s voice still resonates, it does so in less of the rich baritone to which fairgoers are accustomed. Patterson realizes that.
“My voice isn’t as good as it used to be, I’ll admit,” he said. “Part of it is this humidity. But after 7,200 auctions, my voice should be raspy.”
That doesn’t diminish his enthusiasm for fair duty.
“I have no idea of quitting,” Patterson said. “As long as I am able, as long as someone wants me, I’ll be there.”
Shouting, “Ding-dong! Sold!”
For more information, go to washingtonfair.com.