THOM 1 | Fall / Winter 2013

Carol keeps me in stitches with her witty Whitney
one-liners. Every word comes out of her mouth with
a smile. She looks into the distance as she recalls a
memory. I can see her revisiting that moment in
her mind.
PLEASED TO BE SEATED
Born and raised in Thomasville, Nan Myers is a part
of the fifth generation of McCollums in town. Nan is
ridiculously friendly and soft spoken. She is modest
when it comes to speaking of her own creativity but
can share family stories for hours. A vegetarian for
seven years, she had a change of heart when it came
to her grandmother Weezie’s (“Louise, my cousin
could not say his L’s”) cornbread stuffing. Today, in
her home, every meal with her sons and husband
is around their table — unless they are out at a ball
game. Memories of her family around the dinner table
and the personalized school lunches from her father,
Paul, are clear in her mind.
The family dinner table, a late 17th century walnut
table, is the oldest piece of furniture in Nan’s parent’s
home. “Every meal was at that table—breakfast,
lunch and dinner—unless my dad packed my lunch.
He would write ‘Nan 10th grade’ on the bag.” As a
teenager in high school she would remind him, “You
don’t have to write my name. That is so not cool. I
have a locker.” Her father’s so invested in this table
that everyone in the family can perfectly mimic the
face he made whenever milk was accidentally spilled
on it. “We are lucky we didn’t carve our names in it.”
The table is an excellent example of Nan’s father’s
love for antiques, a passion the two share, which
led to the opening of Firefly in 1996. “I was young,
ignorant and blissful, and it didn’t even occur to me
that I couldn’t do it. What I didn’t realize at the tender
age of 24 was that it was really a clever ploy on my
dad’s part to get his youngest daughter on this side of
the world again.”
Nan’s father’s response to Shotgun Supper Club was,
“What? How much? No one will ever pay that.” He
went. He loved it. “He was borderline giddy for days
after and now likes to conjure up locations for the
86