| By HOPE MONTGOMERY It’s not every day you go to a restaurant and see a waitress wading through a lake to retrieve a customer’s camera. But that’s just what Tom Dunivant, Thomas Johnson and Kent Henrichs witnessed on Memorial Day morning at The Boathouse, a restaurant in Samburg that overlooks Reelfoot Lake. How does that saying go, “Breakfast and a show,” right? Dunivant relayed the story, saying he and Johnson, both of Hornbeak, and Henrichs of the St. Louis area were visiting over breakfast Memorial Day when John Norvell of Jackson, associate pastor of First Baptist Church Bemis, and his wife, Jane, stopped by for a meal. Mrs. Norvell had just walked out on the pier behind the restaurant when she slipped and fell. During the fall, her camera flew out of her hands and landed — you guessed it — right in Reelfoot Lake. Though unharmed, Mrs. Norvell was upset with the loss of her expensive camera. Waitress Shaunda Long heard all the commotion and told her mother, who works at the restaurant, that if she could get some waders, she would go out in the lake and retrieve the lost camera. Henrichs works as a guide in Missouri and had driven his boat to the docks behind The Boathouse that morning and, lo and behold, someone did findsome waders for Miss Long to wear to attempt to find Mrs. Norvell’s camera.
Waders on and prepared for her task, Miss Long joined Henrichs on his boat and together they pulled as close to the pier as possible. Then Miss Long got out of the boat and waded through the lily pads and water and began her search for the camera.
Not long afterward, the waitress came up victorious and returned Mrs. Norvell her waterlogged camera. Dunivant, Johnson and Henrichs advised the Jackson woman to go over to the mini-mart just down the road and buy a box and a bag of rice to put the camera in to dry it out.
There was no word from the owner of the camera on whether or not it still functions, but it’s not every day you see your restaurant employees show such interest in a guest’s satisfaction.
Now that’s customer service. Published in The Messenger 6.3.13 |
