Don’t miss this chapter in the story of Alfred NY’s Dr. “Alex” Landis
By Crystal Dodge,
One day I found a one-hundred-dollar bill in the box and thought the students were fooling with me. I took it to the bank expecting them to say it was counterfeit, but they said no, it’s real. I hope whoever put it in knows how special it was to the stand and me and that the animals it helped send their love. People never seemed to take to the PAL name but instead called it the Doggie Stand, the Kiosk, the Bookstand and the most popular was The Box of Books because that’s what it looked like; however, that was the name of the library next door. One day I came upon a lady standing by the stand. She told me she was waiting for a friend who had told her to meet at the Box of Books. I suggested she try the library; sure enough, her friend was standing there a few feet away.
I never went to auctions as I found it hard to understand the auctioneer and thought I might up my own bid or something worse. However, a lady in town I had worked for a number of years had passed away suddenly and her house was to be emptied so it could be put up for sale. Regina Burke and I happened to be in town the Saturday that an auction was to be held there and we decided to go. The auction was to be held at noon giving people time to look around and see what they wanted to bid on. The basement was large (under most of the house) and they had filled it with boxes of things, perhaps thinking if you would want one thing you would take the whole box. I was surprised they were selling “by the room”; you had to take everything in the room to clean it out. The rooms upstairs were sold, and everyone went down to the basement. Regina said, “You should bid.” I said, “Well I wouldn’t give more than ten dollars.”
The auctioneer heard me and said, “You are easy, SOLD!” I was in shock; what had I done? I had bought the entire lot of goods in the basement and it had to be out by the next day, which was Sunday by 5:00 pm. I called my son, Brian, who had a truck and had to tell him what I had done. I expected him to say, “MOM, ARE YOU CRAZY?” However, he didn’t say a word, just arrived with his truck probably thinking what have I got to get Mom out of now? We had three volunteers who wanted things and I was more than glad to give them anything they wanted for their help. There was a landing beside a side door at the top of the stairs. Brian was able to park the truck close. We started carrying; Brian started loading the pile we made, but it never seemed to go down. We eventually discovered other people were putting things they didn’t want on our pile. Three truckloads and a couple carloads later on Sunday afternoon, we were exhausted but we emptied the basement. My garage was packed almost to the ceiling, and it took me a little over a year to transfer it all to the stand. What an investment that ten dollars was, but it was my last trip to an auction
I never turned anyone down who asked for help because the money was for their animal, not for them. If not given the help, the animal would not receive the care they needed. One lady thought I was too easy and would get taken advantage of; however, since I paid the vet, not the pet owner, that seemed unlikely. People were more often embarrassed to ask for help and wouldn’t tell me the truth. I asked one lady how much she could pay towards the bill; she stated she could pay one hundred and PAL paid the rest. Later, I found she didn’t have one hundred and was paying two and three dollars at a time to pay off her bill.
For the most part the students enjoy and respect the stand, but a few times after imbibing at the local bar, they once tore covers off the books and threw them in the street in the rain, tipped the stand over a couple times, and more recently tore off the roof. A carpenter volunteered to repair the stand and restored the roof.
