The Bus Stops Here
We are all teachers
By Christopher Miller
In 1993, (now) retired teacher Paula Neyhart decided to open a store in downtown Lock Haven. Though the original store was located at the corner of East Main and Henderson Streets, her location now on East Main Street seems to have been anchored there in the downtown all along.
“It was just an idea I had…when I started teaching, there was a time when we had to make everything from scratch like bulletin boards, borders, flash cards; we actually had college classes that taught us, like make and take workshops,” Paula said in an interview. “There were not a lot of materials in the Lock Haven area, so I ran with the idea to open the store!”
“I taught 3rd grade in Williamsport for most of my career,” Paula explained. “It was a wonderful, great career!” In fact, Paula is an alumni of Lock Haven State Teachers College, more recently known as Lock Haven University. “It certainly wasn’t the Central State Normal School,” Paula laughed, inkling that she is not that old to have graduated from the precursor institution that was once “the college on the hill” that overlooked Lock Haven and burned in a tragic fire in 1888.
Though she is not a classroom teacher anymore, Paula does miss the classroom. “I always will,” she explained, “it is in your blood, it is your calling and you know it, you will always miss it.”
A quick glance around the store and one can see that it is jam-packed with goodies! Actually, there is something for everybody in there, young and old. “What I have here in the store are quality products, by quality vendors, things that last a long time,” Paula explained. “It’s hard to say what my favorite product is in the store, it would have to be any product that allows the kids to have fun and learn at the same time.”
“This new product here, the OMG! Pop Fidgety!,” Paula showed me, “is glorified bubble wrap, it helps to keep the hands busy, for those who fidget or need to hold and manipulate something.”
Even though the store is filled with many fun and entertaining educational toys and games, Paula, like many others, has orders out there that have been backed-up for months thanks to the factory and store closures that occurred with COVID-19.
“The New York International Toy Fair which is in February every year,” Paula explained, “I go to it every year except of course 2020 and 2021, is where I see millions of new products and I am able to be there and speak with the company representative, touch and hold the product to evaluate and decide if I should bring it into the store.”
When asked what Paula wants everyone to know, she said, “The Bus Stops Here is a store filled with fun, educational products and it is open to everyone.” “I want parents and kids to know that this is open to everyone, I have fun products in here, but I keep education at the forefront of everything that I sell.”
Teachers certainly never stop teaching, even in retirement. A trip down the right side of the store showed me that as I came across a “Help Yourself” wall. In Paula’s words, “these are free sheets that I made up that help parents and teachers understand concepts taught in the classroom.” “Yellow sheets are for the primary grades and primary development, such as learning numbers, letters, beginning to read, and basic math concepts, while the orange sheets are for the intermediate-aged students, building on the concepts learned in primary school and diving in deeper…I encourage you to please, take these with you,” Paula urged.
Paula has made it easy for people and schools to place orders at her store. A store catalog is available upon request, and she gladly accepts school purchase orders, as well as orders from anyone interested in products available from the store.
So whether you are a parent of a school-age child, an adult wanting to feel like a kid again, a teacher looking for creative ways to teach a concept, a Sunday school teacher looking for hand puppets, or a person just looking for some wall-art posters, you can rely on Paula in downtown Lock Haven at The Bus Stops Here.
The Bus Stops Here
115 East Main Street
Lock Haven
570-748-0321 (P)
570-748-1076 (F)
www.the-bus-stops-here.com
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Summer Hours:
Beginning Monday, June 14 (until early August)
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10am – 5pm
Saturday 10am – 3pm
Closed Wednesday & Sunday
