4 minute read
Wahoo Swap
Nebraskans mingle at Saunders County Fairgrounds. Vendor fees from the event fuel scholarships. for youth in the community
Wahoo Swap Meet teems with community ties and treasures
Advertisement
story and photographs by MEGAN FEENEY
THE VINTAGE WOODEN
children’s wagon can’t handle the truck ruts. With a bang, it crashes onto its side on the grassy path of Saunders County Fairgrounds. The wagon puller, Melany Lockhart from Fremont, kneels to right it. Members of her group also crouch to gather the spilled contents.
Laughing, Lockhart, her mom, sister and friends collect the toppled items, including a pair of horseshoes; a trolling motor; rusty rings from an old whiskey barrel; an antique toolbox; a three-legged stool; and a wooden duck.
For many Nebraskans like the Lockhart family and their friends, visiting the biannual Wahoo Swap Meet is a tradition. Hundreds of vendors and buyers crowd the Saunders County Fairgrounds. There are motorcycle and automotive parts, historical appliances, well-loved cowboy boots, funky toys and items to upcycle for home décor projects. But many casual visitors may not realize they’re supporting a more significant cause. Proceeds from the swap meet entry fees return to scholarships and community betterment in Saunders County.
For three decades, the Saunders County Auto Association ran the swap meet. A few years ago, its aging members discussed the need to change the event’s oil. The Saunders group had noticed the impact another local car club, Seven Mile Ridez, was making on the community with its annual Mitchell Ostry Memorial Show N Shine car show. They asked Seven Mile Ridez to take over the swap meet in 2018.
Seven Mile Ridez had named its car show for Mitchell Ostry, a young man who’d died his senior year of high school
before he had the opportunity to attend college for custom automotive restoration. To honor him, the club created a scholarship for high school graduates interested in pursuing a career in the automotive industry.
Since 2014, Seven Mile Ridez has awarded 12 students the Mitchell Ostry Memorial Scholarship. Later, the club added another scholarship, the Jacob Smaus Superhero Scholarship, after another club friend died from injuries received in a motor vehicle accident. It’s awarded six of those scholarships. The club has also supported fundraising efforts to help with a local woman’s cancer treatments. And it prohibits food vendors at the Wahoo Swap Meet so that local Boy Scouts can sling hot dogs, chips and pop to raise money for their troop.
On a warm day at a fall swap meet, the scent of those hot dogs wafts in the breeze as vendor David Redding, from Omaha, relaxes behind his table filled with items that haven’t passed his two-year test. (If it’s been sitting in the garage for two years and he hasn’t touched it, it’s destined for a swap meet.) Redding has been doing swaps for years and travels to Iowa and Wisconsin, but the Wahoo Swap Meet is his favorite. He sells items to finance his pet projects.
“It’s hay for horses,” Redding said.
That day, no one enjoys the hot dog fragrance more than Redding’s white and brown bulldog Max (Redding’s best buddy who’s “afraid of a paper bag”). From Redding’s open truck window, Max watches with longing and drools as people pass by with lunch in hand. Soon, one of Redding’s old friends comes to visit.
“We’re both ironmen,” Redding said by way of introduction.
“Blacksmiths.” The friend corrects him.
“Ironmen,” Redding insists. “And I’ve bought stuff from him, and he’s bought stuff from me.”
Who’s made the most money off the other?
“We’ve probably come up even,” Redding said.
Friendship is a recurring theme at the swap meet. Sometimes it feels more like a class reunion than anything else.
At a nearby table, Ernie Abariotes and Rex Medley, both graduates of Omaha North High School’s class of 1959, hang out but do not buy from one another. Abariotes, whose friends call him “The Greek” because of his heritage, is a Pontiac man. Medley is a Studebaker guy. Still, they work in concert to try to sell the items on Abariotes’ table, mostly International tractor parts.
“You need this,” Medley said to a woman browsing.
“No, I don’t.” She laughs, putting the item down as if it suddenly turned hot.
Medley turns back to his friend and shrugs.
“Well, there’s always eBay,” Medley said.
Abariotes smiles and shakes his head. That just wouldn’t be as fun.
Old friends reunite for lighthearted banter, trades and sales. Finding just the right item is invigorating, but getting finds to the car can be tire-ing. Good thing he’s on a roll.
ROAD 6 FARM
Book now for the holidays!
#CodyFarrallPhotography
Check out our progress and additional spaces on AirBNB!
Specializing in the management and sales of farm and ranch land.
BEN FRISCH
BROKER
402.649.7030
ROBBIE FRISCH
SALES ASSOCIATE
402.741.2964
HUNTER FRISCH
SALES ASSOCIATE
402.649.9097
sales@mwlmllc.com
