This is Mr. John Tunnell. He’s in his 77th year as an employee at the Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City. He began washing dishes there in 1944, and since then, has cast many nets inside this storied seafood restaurant.

Being a cold, dreary day in early November, there were about four people shy of a twelve pack scattered around the restaurant gnawing on fried shrimp, flounder and everyone’s favorite appetizer, hush puppies. I’m a butter spreader, but ketchup on my puppies will do in a pinch.

After pushing my full, yet satisfied, self away from the table, I noticed this rather seasoned gentleman passing the time, seemingly alone in an empty booth. I thought, “perhaps he’s been misplaced”. “Maybe a loved one is wandering about, panicked as to where he’s been left”. He seemed content not doing anything at all. As I passed by, not a single thought germinated in my mind as to how he might get home, or Heaven forbid, he didn’t have one.

I paid my check and as I began to push on the exit door, one that’s been pushed a million times, for some fishy reason, I felt compelled to saunter myself back to his booth to introduce myself. Turns out, he’s the most well known and beloved old salt Moreheadians can claim as their own. He’s, “The Memory Man”. He can call most folks by their last name, those he’s most partial to, their first.

He knew family lineages, generations of those who call this town their home, their children’s accomplishments, and who they became along the way. And everybody knows him. He’s a wonder of historical knowledge and can spin yarns which are impossible for a stranger to untangle. He’s truly a treasure.

At the time, I was just an ol’ hungry, no name foreigner passing through town on my journey back to Raleigh, just looking for some seafood sustenance. But now? I’m a somebody! I’m Mr. Tunnell’s newest friend.

If you’ve ever been to this iconic fish house, you’ll remember seeing the couple hundred framed photos that’ve adorned the waiting area for decades. Celebrities, governors, presidents, potentates, old friends, outlaws, in-laws and a couple pirates drip from the heart pine walls like the “who’s who” of Neptune’s galley. Ol’ Mr. Tunnell is the main feature in some, many way back in black and white. He says he knows all the characters that’ve forever been cast in the Sanitary Fish Market hall of fame theater.

In closing, as I know eyes are beginning to roll and heads bob, I’ll wrap this up.

Meeting Mr. Tunnell was such a delight. We talked for over an hour, I mostly listened, along with another gentleman I met, a local writer who wrote a book about Mr. Tunnell. It only took a little gumption on my part to enjoy a whole trawler brimming with fish tales, some tall and some true, a crab trap full of local lore and who’s married to who.

I walked away from that place convinced, although Mr. Tunnell may be an “employee”, he’s really less of a worker bee and more of an ambassador of peace, a friend to many and promotional guru, not of the restaurant, but of mankind itself.

He addressed me as, “Mr. Wade”, as I said my goodbyes and I was ok with that.