As Valentine’s Day approaches, jewelry stores and florists are ramping up to handle the heavy demand that this day — set aside for love and romance — creates.
Through the years, Tom Vanater, owner of Nabers Jewelry at 6951 Gall Blvd., in Zephyrhills, has seen his share of love stories.
(Fred Bellet/Photo)
He recalls one couple, in particular, that came into his shop to purchase an anniversary ring.
They were celebrating their 50th anniversary.
The man told the jeweler how he met his wife.
“He was at a dance and he looked across the room and said, ‘I’m going to marry that girl.’
“He was about 6-foot-4. She was about 5-foot-3.
“He was in uniform. He asked her to dance. He told her he wanted to marry her.
“He left (for World War II) like three days later.
“She waited for him to come back.”
“Some of the hardships that they’ve gone through. And some of the things they’ve endured — to stay together through all that,” Vanater said, marveling at the couple’s enduring love.
As a jeweler, he’s had the chance to be part of many happy occasions — as patrons selected jewelry for engagements, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, retirements and other special occasions.
Jewelry helps convey a feeling of connection, Vanater said.
In many families, it is passed on from one generation to the next, and people often become quite attached to it because of the emotional bond it represents, he said.
Nabers Jewelers was established by Myron Nabers in 1933, offering jewelry services to residents in East Pasco.
Vanater bought the business more than three decades ago.
Now, he’s retiring from the business and liquidating the store’s contents so he can focus his energies on his real estate interests.
Vanater, originally from Charleston, West Virginia, didn’t set out to become the owner of a jewelry store.
After graduating from college, he went to work as a salesman for a company in New York that imported costume jewelry.
He decided to move to Florida, after being snowed in at a hotel while on a business trip near Eerie, Pennsylvania.
That snowstorm motivated him to move to Florida, where his parents had already moved, he said.
He needed a job, so he found one working at a jewelry store at Eastlake Mall.
An opportunity arose for him to move into management, so he took it.
Next, he went to work for a distributor representing Citizen Watch Co.
“They were a wholesale jewelry distributor, from Tampa to New Orleans. I covered the territory selling to jewelry stores,” he said.
But then, he said, “my daughter was born, and I wanted to get off the road.”
That’s when he found out that Nabers Jewelers was up for sale, and he bought it.
“The store wasn’t open if I wasn’t there, the first few years. I started the store with myself and two part-time people,” he said.
At one point, he had a store in Dade City and one in Zephyrhills, but he later decided to combine them.
“When you’re doing two stores, you’re trying to run them both yourself,” he said. “So it really is very difficult.”
Within a year of combining the stores, he found he was doing more sales in that store than he had in both of his stores, combined.
Over the years, the store has changed locations. The current location is in a shopping center he built.
“It’s worked out beautifully. It’s been a great location for us,” he said.
Working in the jewelry business has its share of challenges because it requires a great deal of knowledge about gems, settings and other technical aspects of the business, as well as the ability to stay tuned into trends and deliver reliable and trustworthy service, Vanater said.
But it has many rewards, as well.
“It’s a fun business. You’re experiencing a happy time in someone’s life, almost always. They’re either buying something for someone as a gift, that gets them excited, or they’re buying something for themselves that is very exciting for them,” he said.
He hopes that the new owner will find as much success in the business as he has.
“I hope it makes it to 100 years – Nabers Jewelers. It’s a good service to the community, and it’s a good living for whoever owns it,” Vanater said.
Published February 11, 2015
