“ We started the business here in 2001 then my dad passed away in 2004 We had a few good years here in the shop together. I’ve been running it ever since. Prior to this I was selling Real Estate with Robert Mclennan Real Estate for a couple of years and during this time my wife Lisa and I started teaching Rock and Roll dancing at The Italian Club and also The Lismore Heights Bowling Club for The Summerland Rockers. We did that for a number of years and we also started a Rock and Roll club in Grafton which is also still going. After my dad passed away I was out three or four nights a week teaching and DJing on the weekends and I wasn’t home enough so I made the decision to keep the family life happy. Work the daytimes and get my nights back to be with the family so I basically stopped the Rock and Roll teaching and the DJing and concentrated on the bed business through the day.
I was born in Lismore at the Base Hospital, grew up here, moved away for a little while, moved back and starting working with dad at Gary Bryants Rite Price Furniture on the riverbank which is now the big Sportspower building, before that it was my Dads shop. He sold that to Vados Furniture. Dad spent 27 years at Brown and Jolleys before opening his own shop.
I still have the old purple Chevy my dad had painted before he passed away but never actually had it put back together so a couple of years later I got the car back out from under his house, put the car back together and got in on the road. I also had a pink one which I sold that but kept the purple one for old times sake, nostalgia, and because it was Dads, I won’t sell it.
When I moved home from The Gold Coast I brought home my girlfriend and we got engaged then married. I think its been 22 years. There’s a lot I love about Lisa, she’s a very good mum and a very good partner and we have a lot of fun together. We had a lot of fun dancing when we did our rock and roll for a lot of years. Lisa and I taught together, learnt together, danced competitions together for a while, won a few championships here and there. We have two boys, Jackson 16 and Joshua 12, I wouldn’t be without them.”
Gary Bryants Mattress Discounts Cnr Ballina Rd and Dawson St Lismore.