by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
A curious crowd packed the Omni’s second-floor banquet room Monday, lured by the promise of a fried chicken lunch and and the revelation of a “Mystery Major Announcement” from Rotary Club guest Mayor John Peyton.
Peyton’s speech amused, but the “Major Announcement” remained a mystery. In fact, nobody from the mayor’s office to the Rotary Club could guess where the promise, printed on the front of the Rotary’s weekly pamphlets came from.
“I don’t know how that got on there,” said Peyton about 20 minutes before he took the podium in front of an expectant crowd of lawyers, doctors and business and political leaders.
Rotarian Blair Fonda, who helped bring Peyton to the Rotary’s weekly meeting, jokingly suggested the announcement had been a publicity stunt and forwarded a novel way to let the crowd down.
“I could do like the Geico commercials and say: ‘There’s no mystery announcement, but I just saved a bunch of money on car insurance.”
The announcement that wasn’t drew one of the largest crowds of the year.
Late arriving VIPs like [Guaranty Bank president] Jay Fant had to stand at the back of the room with the media.
Before Peyton took the podium, the packed tables buzzed with conversation as the Rotarians tried to divine what Peyton might reveal.
Fonda finally let the air out of the room when he introduced Peyton.
“The unfortunate thing is how it got on the programs that there was going to be a magical secret announcement,” he said. “That’s not going to happen.
“As my 14-year-old would say: ‘Psyche.”