At the regularly scheduled city council meeting on May 7, 2024, the mayor Shared a letter he received from a pilot who landed at the Mid-Delta airport on March 25, 2024, during bad weather.
The letter says:
Dear Mayor Simmons,
I would like to thank you and the delightful men and women of Greenville for your welcoming and warm hospitality.
My coworker, Jerry, and I are pilots, and we flew into Mid-Delta Airport during all that challenging weather on the 25th of March.
We broke the plane, but we were extremely fortunate for the opportunity to spend the next four days in your heartwarming community.
From Brandy at the airport, to Tequila at the Hampton Inn.
From Tonto at Freddy's BBQ to Angel at Huddle House, and so many more.
The Greenville hospitality was simply intoxicating.
It all starts with great leadership.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for a truly spiritual experience.
With Warmest Regards,
Bil Seaman
It’s not a misspelling of Bil’s name, this retired Air Force senior master sergeant said there was a story behind the one L in his name, but it wasn’t appropriate for a newspaper article.
Seaman and his Co-worker Jerry Carpenter diverted to Greenville due to strong winds and rain back in March.
Once on the ground, they were hungry and wondering where to go.
Seaman said in an interview Thursday, May 9, that he and Carpenter were checking out the two airplane fuselages outside of the big hanger when two women in an airport operations truck pulled up.
“We asked them about food, and one of the operations officers named Brandy said we had to go to Freddy’s BBQ, the other woman wasn’t sure if Freddy’s was open so she called to find out,” said Seaman, “You can’t find this kind of friendly hospitality in a big city, Jerry and I have stay in so many cities and towns all over the county and we look for the non-corporate family-owned places to eat wherever we go,”
When they arrived at Freddy’s BBQ, Tonto greeted them at the door and said, “They called and said you were on your way, come on in, what can I get for y’all?”
What they got, said Seaman was some of the best BBQ he’d ever tasted.
“By the end of the meal, it felt like it felt like I was at a relative’s house having dinner,” Seaman said.
Seaman's co-worker Carpenter, a retired Marine, also used to be a competitive bodybuilder. When he asked Tequila at the front desk of their hotel where he might get a workout, she called and talked to the manager of Extreme Fitness, who not only invited Carpenter to come to the gym but didn't charge him a dime for either of his two visits.
Seaman said, “It’s leadership that makes or breaks any endeavor, I know Greenville has its economic hurdles, but what it doesn’t have monetarily, it more than made up for by the wealth of friendly down-to-earth southern hospitality from its residents, and that’s in part due to strong leadership."
