Antiques, Charm, and a bit of Americana...Historic Collierville, TN...

Just before Easter, we spent a delightful afternoon in Collierville, TN, which is a bedroom community outside of Memphis. It was the site of a small Civil-War skirmish, and many Confederate soldiers are buried at a nearby cemetery. Collierville is a popular, growing, modern community, but fortunately the city leaders had the foresight to maintain the charming, historic Town Square area, complete with its log cabin. It easily could have been a set for an old Jimmy Stewart movie, or even a current Tom Hanks film. It's an "Everyman" kind of town....that is its charm.

http://www.collierville.com/mainstreet/main_tour.shtml

It was one of those spontaneous/spur-of-the-moment decisions ("hey, let's go here..."), which often end up being the most fun. The day was clear, bright and sunny, the azaleas were blooming; it was one of those movie-set-perfect days that looked like Easter. There was even an Easter Bunny walking around the Town Square, greeting children and adults alike...and he looked exactly like the Bunny in the final scene of Steel Magnolias.

We decided to first have lunch at "The Silver Caboose", a lovely little restaurant that is only open for lunch...and packed during that entire time period. I had "Fancy Pants Chicken Salad", which was a hearty chicken salad with large pieces of breast meat, apples, raisins, grapes, and nuts. It was so good, and was accompanied by fruit and a warm blueberry muffin fresh from the oven. My son and his Daddy had a "guy's lunch" (thank goodness they had a guy's lunch...DS was such a good sport to go along with this shopping day) of meatloaf and vegetables, and fresh cornbread. For dessert, my son chose creme brulee, which was heavenly. I didn't choose a dessert---which was a mistake! I was soon wishing I had my own creme brulee, which was probably one of the best we've had. It was made in a flatter, wider ramekin rather than the traditional custard cup, which made for more of that yummy "crunch" on top! So good! To complete our fun lunch, there were models from a ladies' and children's store down the square, modeling Easter fashions. It reminded me of department store luncheons years ago. My son (who's almost 16, 6'4" and a big guy---and all guy) graciously smiled and told the models how nice they looked. For some reason I found myself getting tickled at that...at least he's prepared for the occasional "ladies' lunch" or outings with daughters that might come his way after he's married someday.

After eating, we enjoyed seeing the old log cabin (complete with a matching birdhouse and a bird who seemed very happy with his adorable home) , and browsing the many gift shops and antique stores along the square. I found a pretty embossed metal (bronze-looking) door pocket, and some green hydrangeas to go inside the pocket to bring home as my treat (and lots of other things, particularly bunnies, to add to my Wish List!). This store to the right (white and black exterior) was once a service/gas station, and is filled with lovely antiques, silver, porcelain and linens. Store owners didn't seem too thrilled about photos inside their shops (understandably), but I tried to take pics of some of the fun displays and areas of the square to share with you.

It was a really nice day---almost perfect in every way. It would only have been more fun had you been there, also!