DATE: Friday, February 28, 1997             TAG: 9702280568

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Guy Friddell

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

IF AUCTION IS SILENT, HOW WILL BIDS BE COUNTED?

Within the past decade or so, silent auctions came into being without my ever focusing on exactly how they operated.

My mind, a reflective-reflexive sort, conjures up an image without analyzing it and goes headlong from there.

If it's an auction, I thought all these years, how the deuce can it be silent?

I figured you looked at the goods on display and, when the fun began, the auctioneer more or less read your mind.

Among offerings to be auctioned in Norfolk tomorrow night at Nauticus to benefit the Virginia Chorale will be tickets for dinners at 25 local restaurants.

There also will be tickets to the Virginia Symphony, the Virginia Opera, the Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival. Under my simple-minded notion of many years, I would, moseying around the tables, spy a ticket for a meal of turnips and, reflecting, think, ``Boy, I'd give a $100 for a bowl of turnips with cornbread and buttermilk.''

Whereupon, the omniscient auctioneer would holler: ``SOLD FOR $100, A BOWL OF HOT TURNIPS FOR TWO TO THE GOOFY-LOOKING FELLOW WITH GLASSES SLID TO THE END OF HIS NOSE!''

But, friends, relax. The auction is nothing whatsoever like that, auctioneer Bob Heely has assured me.

Heely should know. He has been a volunteer auctioneer at many a one for the Norfolk Rotary Club.

The well-planned auction is easy to follow. All you do is stroll about, enjoying beverages and hors d' ouvres, and, seeing an item you like, write your bid on a pad. Later, stroll back. If anyone has outbid your figure, hike yours a bit, if you like.

The Tanners Creek Whalers will be singing sea chanteys.

The reception starts at 7 p.m. and, after an hour, celebrants go to the auditorium for music by the 24-member chorale, including songs from ``South Pacific'' and ``Carousel,'' A trio will sing songs in the style of the Andrews Sisters.

In the auditorium during intermission, Heely will preside at a live auction of works by local artists including Tom Barnes, J. Robert Burnell, Elizabeth Butler, Ed Carson, Darrell Craig and Lorraine Fink.

Also Jeanne Goodman, Ray Hershberger, Charles Kello, Don Lewis Jr., Anne Myers, Lucette Ritter, Charles Sibley, Edith White and the late Dr. Forrest P. White.

Others will include a 19th century European landscape oil donated by Martin & Company.

Tickets to a ``Nautical Night'' are $50 each. Half the price is tax deductible. For reservations, call 627-8375.

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