European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                $35 paycheck Lor each game worked ii is neither a picturesque nor lucrative existence by Day. Postema spends Lime wandering through shopping malts Al night she joins her Crew at inc stadium and then either ventures out with them Tor a pos game Beer and Burger or watches television in her room. Socializing with player is. She said totally taboo. But the people t meet m my Job tend nol to be the sort of people i d Date " from april 1o september she and her Crew Are on the Road it s a me so nomadic she does t have a mailing address. In the Oil season she returns 1o Phoenix where Sha works Tor United parcel service and boards with a Friend from her Hometown of Willard Ohio the Friend has a House and a family Postema has a cat. My schedule makes it hard to have much of a social life but the Challenge of what i m doing of having to go out there and try to be perfect makes up Tor that she said i really Don t miss whal i Don t have. I Don 1 know if i d want to 90 through it All Over again but i have no regrets about my Lite. I be always been a feminist but i can t be a card carrying Flag waver for them i m just an individual who Ell i had the right to do any Job i wanted to As Long As it did l hurl anybody else. And i love this  her initial task before a game is a guilty one. With a can of local mud she roughs the surfaces of three dozen clean White baseballs and 1hen Geta Down to the business All done in rum native pre game silence of outfitting herself. As Only the third woman to work As an Umpire in organized baseball Postema allowed ones who were shown less hospitality. Bernice Gera lasted Lor just halt other first assignment a doubleheader in Geneva n.y., in 1972. After making a Call at second base Gera received a Harangue from the Auburn manager and stalked Oil 1he fiend in tears Al game s end. Christine Wrenn worked four seasons before being encouraged by her supervisor. Barney Deary to accept a full time Job elsewhere in 1979. Postema however is regarded As a major league Prospect by Deary the administrator of baseball s Umpire development program. I Haven t had one problem with her and i understand she s still rated As a Prospect he said. It s my hops that the National and american league will look at the Umpire first not whether the Umpire s a Man or woman. It la be utterly ridiculous if they say of she s a woman we can t take her " Postema who in 11 seasons has worked her Way up from Florida s Rookie league to the top minor league wears Standard Issue clothing when she s on duty for 140 games a season she slips her Gray trousers and Light Blue shirt Over the Bulky padding that is Protection from errant baseballs and Steps into steel Loed shoes. A Navy Cap is squashed onto her Spiky streaked Brown hair. Finally she Puls on a mask. If i thought that wearing a lol of makeup would help me Call the plays better i d Wear in she said later but i Don t think that s what it  re Fin limn Hafl must Birnn the contestants to play bail she has achieved the desired effect and looks like any Umpire. The crowd of 9,800 certainly notices nothing different about her. Postema her manner brusque her voice hoarse with authority assesses the sunlit Diamond vigorously applies her whisk Broom to the plate and is ready to pass judgment on a Field full of men who like her aspire to make their Fortune in the major leagues. "that1 one thing we Veall Gol in common she said. We re All trying to make it to the big leagues. We re All on the Edge and Loi some our Days Are numbered. In another couple of years it s either up or out or me. But i think i m Good enough or the majors so i Don t worry about time just about gelling Betler. I m nol a Flash in the  As the shadows Start to Drift across the steamy Ball Park the royals take a 7-2 Lead and the manager of the cubs Joe Sparks catapults Tram the dugout when Moslema Calls Chico Walker who walks from the plate with an icy stare out on strikes. Was that a strike was that pitch a strike Sparks demands his hands on his hips his eyes intent on those of Moslema who removes her mask. Postema lets the manager have his tirade and then with a Trace of a smile sends him Back to the dugout by now Sha said i know a perfect Pilch when i see  my Crew we in turn. Act Fow h. Junior Wilton or of hundreds of items at the estate a or to Rte Likht la Moor told a it. Several Hundred people Tumart out and everything was sold. Auctioneer s machine gun Litany stirs fever of desire by Mercer Cross National geographic Lottie Lakin would have had a conniption. The Street in front of her House in Moorefield  barricaded hundreds of people were milling around in Yuxiu. A Varnai Titian wish a Rnic Rompc a stood on her porch making a big Racket. In the course of her 79 years. Lakin had earned a reputation As one of the Crank est citizens of that country seat town of 2,400. She complained regularly and profane by about loudly played radios and anything else that rubbed her the wrong Way. When she died last fall she had no idea that the Yard of the unfinished unpainted Frame House her father was building when he died in the 1920s would be the scene of a memorable auction this Spring. Everything was sold the House itself for $29,000 Lakin s 19-year-old Mercury Comet for $200 her furniture including a Glass front Oak Cabinet for $1,050and a lifetime accumulation of hundreds of other possessions some precious Many of dubious Worth. Al the Hub of Al the commotion stood the Veteran auctioneer 44-year-old a Junior Wilson 125 pounds of nervous Energy compressed in a 5-fool-s-Inch Frame. For five hours nonstop Wilson and an assistant Roscoe Collings chanted into the microphone a Fhi Chmir rear hip Nijen Litany of words Rind numbers meaningful to the initiated mostly unintelligible to the outsider. Chest of drawers Chest or Dawers Wilson began one Niagara of staccato verbiage ten Dollar Bill. 5 bid 6 bid 6 bid 6 bid 6 bid 6. 7 bid 7 bid 7 bid 7. " and so on a Dollar at a time until finally "18.18,18.18 All done 18." Wilson s sales Are just a tiny pail of a Loo Billon a year auction business in the United slates that figure is the estimate of Dean a Parker of Logan Utah president of the National auctioneers association the auction business night now is enjoying probably the greatest Prosperity it Ever  says Parker a leading auctioneer of horses. His association headquartered in Overland Paik. Kan., has some 6,000 members among about 32,000 auctioneers he says Parker attributes auction ering s current Boom to the growing realization of americans that it s a Good Way to got of Dollar Lor whatever they have to sell and that covers almost anything these Days. Every Day. Somewhere auctioneers Are peddling livestock tobacco used cars real estate line Art Antiques Industrial machinery you name it somebody s auctioning in. Some auctions particularly in Rural areas Are More than Mere sales they Are like the one or Lottie Lakin s estate Community events this Marks the opening of the Spring social season said one Moore held Matron taking