Spath closes Hi Way Treasures with fond memories

by Mary Le Arneal
published 1/28/09

On Saturday Helen Spath will be selling a lifetime of collections.

Not just items, but memories as well. She has closed her business, Hi Way Treasurers, formerly located at the corner of Highway 30 and Maple Street, and turned in the key January 5.

“I’ve always been a collector,” Spath, 76, said. “Nothing is junk. It’s treasurer to someone.”

The store was an outgrowth of her many collections and finds at garage sales and auctions over the years.

Spath was raised in the Scribner area and after marrying Harold Spath in 1950, lived in the Webster area. She taught at Webster School for two years and then stayed home to raise her six children. Spath would go to auctions or sales and buy items that appealed to her. If she did not have room for it in her home, she would put it in the old church they owned across the road from their home.

When Spath moved to North Bend in 1990 she sold a lot of her collection at an auction.

She worked at Birchwood Manor for 17 and a half years, retiring in December 2002. But retirement brought boredom and Spath started to look for something to fill her days. She didn’t want to drive to Fremont, so when she saw the empty building on Highway 30, she thought it would be fun to have a store to sell “stuff” she had collected.

With the support of family and friends, and almost 10 people consigning booths to sell their collections, Spath opened up Hi Way Treasurers in April 2003.

“There was a good reception from the community,” Spath said, “and a lot of highway customers.”

Days to be open had to be worked out. At first she was open Sunday afternoon and closed Monday, but felt she was missing too many family events. So then she was closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. She would bake all day on Tuesday and take the fresh goods to the store on Wednesday. After a while she decided she would just take baking orders and free up her Tuesdays. The last few years she was open Wednesday to Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 4 or 5, “or as long as someone was there.”

“Wednesday mornings a lot of lady friends would stop by for coffee,” Spath said. “It was always fun. Men friends would stop by too. After I quit baking, I would still bake treats to take in for my friends.”

Spath said she met a lot of nice people stopping by from Highway 30 traffic.

“There were so many special people, dealers or collectors,” Spath said. “There were a lot from Grand Island, Columbus, plus those from around town, that came regularly.”

Spath remembers two women who came every January from Sioux Falls. They would stay in a hotel in Fremont and shop antique stores in the area for their antique store.

“I wish I’d kept track of all the (people from) states who stopped in,” Spath said. “I know I had people from both coast.”

Spath said it was always surprising what people do collect and would ask her if she had. She remembers one couple stopping at the store, as the wife shopped the husband visited with her.

“He said ‘you don’t have what I collect’ and so I asked him what he collected,” Spath said. “He told me he collected stubs from concerts.”

Spath told him she didn’t have any in the store, but if he wanted to wait, she’d go home and look through her high school year book.

“People that collect know their product,” Spath said. “They know what they are after.”

Spath has had great support from her family. Grandsons would have pumpkin and gourds to sell in the fall, granddaughters would fill in when she wanted to be gone. Now that the local Spath granddaughters have moved on, she misses them.

January 5 Spath turned her key to the building in after removing everything. It is now stored, waiting for the auction Jan. 31 at the North Bend auditorium.

What is Spath going to do now?

“Just take time to do things on days I want to,” she said.

Spath will remain involved in the VFW Post 8223 Auxiliary, of which she serves as president, her church and her family.

Spath looks back on her almost six years as a store keeper and says she will miss the people the most.

“It was a good experience,” Spath said. “I don’t regret any of it.”

Spath said she will continue to go to garage sales and auctions, “but I’ve got to break my habit of buying.”

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