THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290480
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Gary Allen went to sleep Monday night, then woke up suddenly at 4 a.m.
Something his receptionist had told him a few hours earlier had finally sunk in.
Over the weekend, she had lost his hair salon's appointment book, which covers late October through the end of February.
Allen owns Gary Allen Hair and Skin Care Centre in La Promenade shopping center on Laskin Road. With no appointment book, the 13 employees of his trendy salon have no idea who will walk through the door next.
``The scary thing about this is that there were a couple of hundred appointments that had already been booked - things like weddings and bridal parties and galas coming up, like the arts center gala, and we have no record of it and no way to call people,'' he said. ``If anyone has an appointment after the 25th of October, they're in really big trouble.''
Allen's nightmare began over the weekend when his receptionist, Mary Hickam, took home the appointment book on her last day on the job. Hickam is moving. She wanted to do Allen a favor by penciling in all upcoming appointments. Clients of the popular salon often wait three weeks for an appointment with their stylists. Some have already booked for New Year's Eve.
On Saturday, in the middle of packing, Hickam set the book on the roof of her husband's car. He drove off. An hour later, she realized what had happened.
The couple spent until midnight Saturday and all day Sunday driving up and down Wake Forest Road in Cape Story, Shore Drive and Great Neck Road. They also knocked on doors along Adam Keeling Lane in Great Neck Point. They dialed every name from a nearby church's roster, hoping a member of the congregation had found it.
The missing appointment book measures 2 1/2 feet by 1 foot and is 2 inches thick. It lists clients' names and numbers.
Allen has placed a classified lost-and-found ad and will offer the book's finder a day of beauty.
In the meantime, he's calling most of his 6,000 clients to ask them if they'd scheduled an appointment.
He also is trying to look on the bright side.
``I'm sure one day I'll look back on this and laugh,'' he said.
But not today. by CNB