with her personally and signed her auction pamphlet. She said the shuttle bus drivers all provided their personal cell numbers in case she needed to make any special trips, and that everyone from the bidders assistants to the photographers, the office staff and beyond were kind and accommodating in a way she’s rarely ever encountered in professional settings. “And it wasn’t just me,” she said. “Everybody I saw interact with Mecum’s people, they treated them all so courteous.” Schramm also met a Mecum fan from Marshfield, Wisconsin, who insisted on chipping in toward the final hammer price of Little Blackie if Schramm proved successful in her efforts to win it. “He said, ‘I’m here to make sure you take that home. I want to help you financially with this,’” Schramm explained. “I said, you don’t have to do that, but he insisted, and after I successfully got the bid, he came over and gave me $200. I tried to give it back to him but he said, ‘Please don’t offend me; I’m here. I want to do this.’” After getting Little Blackie home, the Schramms found a temporary spot for him out in their garage, but Schramm said that soon, he’ll have a special spot in their rec room. She’s also already made arrangements for Little Blackie for when she’s called to meet her maker. “I wanted to make sure that if something happened to me that my son would take it, because he remembered it maybe at the age of about 4 years old—my son remembers it in the garage, as a kid,” she explained. “I had to have a little family meeting, as I called it, and I wanted to make sure that they would take that when something happens to me here, when I pass away. They kind of looked at one another, but my grandson, who is 13, popped up and was like, ‘Grandma, that was really yours?’ And I said yes, and you’re going to have to take that when something happens to your mom and dad. ‘Oh, no problem,’ he goes. So, everything got cleared there, so I’m at peace now that it’ll stay in the family as an heirloom, hopefully.” After nearly 50 years apart, Little Blackie is finally back home where he belongs, and if Schramm has it her way, that’s exactly where he’s going to stay from now on. The memories it holds from her childhood are precious and dear to her heart, and as a bonus, she said it now also holds memories of an auction reunion experience unlike anything she could have ever imagined. “I’m just so grateful to everyone—the Duellmans, the Mecum family, staff, the other customers, everyone was just so wonderful,” she said. “I’m still in awe. Truly.”
