Ana Lou Marvin knows a lot about Winder.

In fact, she and her sister moved here when they were only young girls. She reminisces about the day, when growing up in the Carrington House, they used to leave the guest-room door unlocked.

One day, when her mother discovered a strange man sleeping in the bedroom, her husband told her, “well, set a place for him at dinner.”Of course, unbeknownst to her, he was expecting company.

Times were different back then and Ana Lou recalls many fond memories of growing up in the home that now serves as an antique store.

She remembers a day when “proms” meant promenades and not high school senior dances, playing shuffle board outside in the front of her house was highlighted entertainment, she recalls when passers-by would come to her home to use the telephone because it was the only one available in town and the time she awoke to a slithering, slimy snake that was tucked into her bed by her nephew, Walter, in order to wake her and her friends from their peaceful sleep.

The idea worked by the way, she told me as she laughed at the thought of it.

“Mama sent him (Walter) upstairs to wake us up,” Ana Lou said. “It wasn’t a Rattle Snake, it was a Garden Snake,” she assured me. “We all jumped out of bed, we left the snake in the bed [though],” she said.Walter was nearly 8 years younger than Ana Lou and was coined the prankster of the family.“He was the joy of our lives,” Ana Lou said. He was a mess ... he threw a snake in my bed,” she laughed. “But he was the joy of my life.”

I sat in a back room of Carrington House Antiques, Winder, this summer with Ana Lou and the gleam in her eye could not be mistaken. 

 She loves that home, she loves the City of Winder and most of all, she loves the people that surround her, her family.

Joining us, seated upon old trunks and various antique chairs, was her daughter, Alta Mae Marvin-Henderson and two of her grandsons, John Henderson, 28, named after his great-grandfather and Wesley Henderson, 23, also named after his great-grandfather.

The family, full of laughter and remembrances, shared with me an abundance of stories about their family and its rich history and foundation here in the City of Winder.

Ana Lou’s daddy, John Wesley Carrington, owned the home she says is filled with so many wonderful memories. He was also at one point the mayor of Winder, owned rental property, owned the Ford dealership in town and was the editor of The Winder News. 

His wife, Mae Carrington, was the head nurse at Emory Hospital for some time. 

Needless to say, the Carringtons were, and still are, a well known group of people in the City of Winder. And well liked, Ana Lou’s daughter Alta Mae told me. Her grandparents, John and Mae Carrington, held their 50th wedding anniversary in July 1967 at the home.

Instead of sending out formal invitations, they opted to put an ad in The Winder News.“They ran out of food and drinks because so many people came out to the house to honor my grandparents,” Alta Mae said.

The Carringtons traveled a lot and collected plates and tea cups from every place that they visited. They would then display their treasures around the home. Mae Carrington also hand-painted china which was displayed throughout the Carrington’s house. 

Now, similarly, tea cups and china plates line the walls of Carrington House Antiques, along with many other antiques and collectables.

Ana Lou attended Wesleyan College, Macon, at the ripe age of 16. “I wasn’t quite ready but I went,” Ana Lou said. “I had a good time.  When I was born my father said ‘oh me, thank you, a girl, now we can have a Wesleyan graduate,’ so I had no choice,” joked Ana Lou.She graduated from the all-girls school in 1941 and recently attended her 65th college class reunion with her grandson, John.“That was fun,” Ana Lou recalled.

She was the only one in attendance from her class. She also celebrated her 70th high school class reunion about two years ago.

Six years after graduating, in 1947, Ana Lou married her sweetheart Robert Marvin, at the Methodist church in town. The reception was held at the Carrington’s home.

“When my mom was married, the reception was here and my grandmother took unbleached, domestic material and went outside and hung it on the outside banister all the way around the house,” Alta Mae described. “And on the side street, when they left for their honeymoon, they took a knife and cut it down and left the house through the unbleached material,” she said.

And when it came to marriage-“I was not an old maid,” said Ana Lou; the room broke out in laughter.

Ana Lou and Robert had two children. The late Earle Marvin and Alta Mae.She had grown up in the house with her sister, Mae Sue Mckay and Walter Pope.

She described the day when there was an unidentified man sleeping in their guest room.

“Mama came down the steps to fix breakfast and she came back upstairs and she said ‘John, there’s a strange man in the bed downstairs what must I do,’ and daddy said, ‘set a place for him at the table,’” Ana Lou said.

“He was the man who had bought the Winder News and he was somebody we knew from North Carolina,” she explained. “He just knew where to come so he came on in and went to bed.”

Something that would surely spark a call to police in this day and age. But, not back then.

Ana Lou’s mind is filled with many joyous occasions she experienced at the home.“We use to have proms and we would come up on my front porch and change dates,” Ana Lou said. “You know, we had a prom sheet ... and we would walk from here to the corner and across the street and come back,” she said. “I still have friends that we promed with,” said Ana Lou.

Alta Mae explained the process a little more in depth, since my generation thinks of fancy dresses and hotels when it comes to the word “prom."

“They would meet here and walk out the front door with one guy,” she explained. “And they would do nothing but take a walk and come back and the next promenade they would switch.” “So you had a card, a promenade card and you would ... have the boys sign it and the ones who signed it you would walk with.”

The family also shared about the time their beloved Mae Carrington received an unwanted Birthday surprise.

“Tell her about the cow story,” John said to his mom. Alta Mae obliged.

“My grandparents had a couple who lived in the back who would come in in the mornings and light a fire,” she said. “My grandfather owned the Ford dealership and somebody came to buy a car and didn’t have a down payment so he gave my grandfather a milking cow,” she said. “And it happened to be my grandmother’s birthday so he walked it home with this big, red bow around its neck and my grandmother was the only one in the house who knew how to milk it, so she wanted to get rid of it. ... she printed this little poem and put it in the paper that said ‘If you want a cow for your very own, bring a rope and take it home,’” Alta Mae laughed.

“It’s really the worst present you could give someone,” John said.  “He gave her work to do [for her birthday].”

Alta Mae also has fond memories of staying at her grandparents’ home when she was a child.

“I would spend the night over here and bring friends with me from home,” Alta Mae said. “And we would take the bus and my mother would put our names and where we were going [on a piece of paper] and literally put us on the bus when we were 7 or 8-years- old ... it was just very different back then,” she said.They had fun though.“We would take the cushions off the chairs and ride the banister down [the stairs],” she said. 

 “We would go outside and catch fireflies and then let them loose in the house and my grandparents never even batted an eyelash,” Alta Mae said. “ We had a shuffle board in the front of the house, over to the right. We all learned how to play shuffle board, which was so much fun.”

Her grandmother, Mae Carrington, would serve iced-tea on the big, wrap-around front porch every afternoon at 3 p.m. and anyone who was in town that wanted to come by was welcomed.

With so many fond memories of the home the family is pleased that it’s now being used as an antique store. It seems to capture the rich history of the home and somehow preserve it.

“It’s a happy place,” Ana Lou said.

“Oh I think it’s great. This is so great,” Alta Mae said. “It’s so fun to be able to come into the house, look around and know that it’s being well used and well taken care of. This is a great use for this house,” she said.

Ana Lou resides in Walterboro, S.C. and is 87-years-old. She has five grandchildren and three great-grandsons.

Carrington House Antiques is located at 171 N. Broad Street in Winder. For more information on the store visit http:// www.mulberryhillinteriors.com/