Carrie Lynn’s Antiques, a Perry story

I dedicate this article to my friend Cindy Collier, who went to heaven a few days ago. I met this fun-loving lady at Houston Lake Baptist Church when we moved here in 1998 from Tennessee. She had a daughter, and she and her husband adopted three brothers. I had also adopted a daughter and had two boys, and we both dreamed of opening an antique shop where we could have a little place in the back for our kids to be and study or play. She was working at Morningside and I was working at what was Middle Georgia Technical College.  

We finally met together with our husbands and decided to work together to have a little antique shop in downtown Perry, where The Perfect Pear currently is. We rented it from Sue Lott, who gave us a break, and it had been many things over its life and was not in the best of shape. The last renter had a candle store, and we scraped and cleaned candle wax off everything, including the carpets! At least it smelled good in there. We had a cool round counter in the middle and several little booths we rented out. We made great friends, loyal customers and lots of great memories.

On our opening day, it poured rain and water was running down the display windows — from the inside — flooding the back room we had fixed up for the kids and extra storage. But it was still a success. Downtown Perry was not the hotspot that it is now, but we always had big dreams for it to be so. We spent countless late nights after auctions in Hawkinsville or Montrose down at the shop, hauling in our treasures and decorating the store displays in the front windows. It was often midnight or 1 am. The cops would drive by and see what we were doing, as well as all the stray cats that live downtown and come out at night.  

Carrie was my middle name, and Lynn was Cindy’s, and we thought that sounded like a fine southern lady. People often came into the store and asked for Carrie Lynn, and we didn’t know if they thought that was me or Cindy! We had a great time and built a great business. We survived the Y2K and 9/11 years. We left the sweet little shop after two years and went to Macon Road, where a salon now stands next to the medical spa.  At the time, it was next to Mr. Joe Gayle’s Antiques from the Shed.  He was a World War II veteran and our mentor, and we loved being next door to him.  He taught us a lot about antiques and how to do estate sales.  We made a good living out of that little blue house.

Cindy decided to move on to other things and also dreamed of having a store where the proceeds would go to help people in need in the community, which she ultimately achieved through WROC and helped create the Re-New thrift store.  Unfortunately, I got divorced in 2006, and I asked Cindy if she would like to buy the business back. She did, and took it to the Big Peach as Juicy Junk, but it ended up back in the same sweet shop on Macon Road with Re-New.  I am so glad we had the adventures we did together and saw her realize her dreams this side of heaven.  See you again one day, Carrie Lynn!  Happy Collecting!