Dixieland Part 7......

The King - Elvis Presley

Day eight was the day that many of our fellow travellers had been looking forward to the most - the tour of Graceland.   Not being avid Elvis fans it was just another interesting tour for me and MWM but of course we took the opportunity to see everything there was to see.    Every morning at 7.30 a.m. the gates of Graceland are open to the public for just one hour, to enable them to walk up the drive and visit Elvis' grave, they are not allowed in the house at this time but for many this is how the pilgrimage starts.    We were up early and after breakfast we took the short walk to Graceland and walked up the drive to the beautiful meditation garden to see Elvis' grave.

Me on Graceland's drive

The meditation garden was built by Elvis in the mid-sixties as a place for contemplation.  The bodies of Elvis and Gladys were moved from Forest Hill Cemetery following security threats and reinterred in the Meditation Garden on 2nd October, 1977.   The garden's centerpiece is a circular twelve-foot fountain pool with five single jets of water and large one in the middle all lit by coloured floodlights.  The curved wall behind the fountain is made of Mexican brick with four stained-glass windows.

  Meditation Garden, Graceland

The grave markers of Elvis, his mother, father, grandmother and his stillborn twin Jesse Garon are beautiful and are adorned with tributes from loyal fans.

Everyone who visits the graves takes photographs to remind them of where Elvis' remains reside and to remind them of the day they paid their respects to the icon that was Elvis.    After paying our respects at the graves, we made our way back to the hotel to meet up with our fellow travellers to board the minibus which took us on the Platinum Graceland tour, which started with the inside of Elvis' mansion.

Graceland

The Graceland Mansion tour included the Jungle Room, Music Room, Racquetball Building and the Hall of Gold with it's amazing display of gold and platinum awards and more, I took a lot of photos so I've put them in a slide show for you.  If you want to have a closer look click on the slide show and it will take you to my Slide page.

The next stop on the tour was to see Elvis' custom jets - the Lisa Marie, which has a living room, conference room, sitting room and private bedroom, as well as gold-plated seatbelts, suede chairs, leather covered tables and 24 karat gold-flecked sinks, and his smaller Lockheed Jetstar the Hound Dog II.    See the slide show below.

We carried on to the next part of the tour - Elvis' Automobile Museum, where we strolled down a tree-lined street to see over 33 vehicles owned by Elvis, which included his famous Pink Cadillac, Harley Davidson motor-cycle, Stutz Blackhawk, a 1975 Dino Ferrari, the red MG from 'Blue Hawaii', two Rolls Royce Sedans, a 6 door Mercedes Benz limousine and his John Deere 4010 tractor.   See slide show below.

By the time we'd seen all this it was way past lunchtime so we went in Rockabilly's Burger Shop for a quick lunch before a quick walk past the Heartbreak Hotel

Heartbreak Hotel

The Graceland Harley Davidson Shop

and a huge wall painting of Elvis before having a quick walk round the Elvis Presley: Fashion King Exhibition, where we saw lots of Elvis' actual clothes before heading back to the hotel to meet up for yet another coach ride to visit 

Sun Studio where the sound of Rock'n'Roll was born!  

Some of the equipment in Sun Studio

This was the place where Elvis actually paid to record 'My Happiness' for his mother's birthday.  When Sam Phillips was looking for a backing singer his assistant, Marion Keisker, reminded him about the truck driver, Elvis Presley, having a nice ballad voice, she called Elvis on May 26th 1954 to come into the studio to record some tracks.  

This was where Elvis recorded "That's Alright (Mama)",

(on this exact spot my foot is standing on -

using this exact microphone), which was then played on radio twelve times in succession on the same day!

Phillips sold Presley's contract to RCA Victor for $40,000; the highest sum ever paid for a recording contract.  Sun had permission to keep pressing previously recorded singles until January 1, 1956, and RCA released Presley's first five singles nationally on their label.  In January 1956, Presley began recording for RCA, recording "Heartbreak Hotel" as his first single.  He returned to Sun Studio regularly over the next few months, visiting with Phillips and meeting many of his new artists.   Although Presley would never officially record with Sun again, he was caught on tape during an impromptu jamming session on December 4, 1956.   Presley had arrived during a Carl Perkins recording session, which also featured a young Jerry Lew Lewis on piano, and a new artist named Johnny Cash watching on.   During a break in recording Presley sat at the piano and began to sing along with Perkins, Lewis and Cash.  Phillips kept his tape recorder running (illegally because by this time Elvis was under contract to RCA) and, seeing an opportunity to promote another of his new acts, he arranged for a reporter to cover the event.  The recordings would eventually be known as 'The Million Dollar Quartet',  which was subsequently released.  Of course we bought the CD!

The Million Dollar Quartet

The following day, an article, written by the reporter, Johnson, about the session, was published int he Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title "Million Dollar Quartet".   The article contained the now-famous photograph of Presley seated at the piano surrounded by Lewis, Perkins and Cash.

Interestingly, Jerry Lee Lewis has recently released a new album entitled "Last Man Standing", which is thought to refer to the fact that he is the last surviving member of the original 'Million dollar Quartet'!

As if the tour of Graceland and Sun Studio wasn't exciting enough we then went on to our Memphis' Rock'n'Soul Museum, that presents a chronology of the musicians that shaped 'The Memphis Sound' - legends like Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Al Green, Isaac Hayes and many others who recorded in the city that people called "the  holy ground of American Music".      To finish off our time in Memphis we ate at B.B. King's restaurant that evening, on the famous Beale Street, where else would you finish a perfect day?

It had been a looooong, interesting, emotional day and one we will reflect on for a long time to come.     The next day we were heading for Nashville.    I hope you'll join me for that in Dixieland Part 8.

Read Dixieland Part 1 here
Read Dixieland Part 2 here
Read Dixieland Part 3 here
Read Dixieland Part 4 here
Read Dixieland Part 5 here
Read Dixieland Part 6 here

Remembering.....

A much loved granddaughter 

Sophie

Born 20th July 1993

Died 15th July 1996

on what would have been your 18th birthday

Cherished forever

Forgotten never

Succinctly Yours - A Microfiction Meme #17

Grandma at Grandma's Goulash provides a picture and a word prompt for this Microfiction Meme and the rules are use the photo as inspiration for a story of 140 characters OR 140 words.

Want more challenge? Use the word of the week in your story. This part is optional.

This week's word is OBSCURE here's the picture and my offering using both the picture and the word in 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation.

“When you asked me away for the weekend you didn’t tell me we’d be staying in such an obscure place, 

hell there’s no shoe shops” wailed Amy.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction #169 Farming......

Arthur loved working in the fields, it was his life.

The smell of the earth and the blue sky above was elixir to him.

This was all he wanted to do until the day he died.

He had a great view of the sky from here

under the tractor that had just fallen on him. 

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55.

Dixieland Part 6.....

We fell asleep after watching an Elvis film on the TV (well were were in Elvis country) and after breakfast the following morning we met up with our fellow travellers for our next excursion to Elvis' birthplace - Tupelo.

Tupelo bought the house and 15 acres with the money provided from a 1957 Tupelo concert performed by Elvis, who wanted to raise money for a park for neighbourhood children.   As an official Mississippi landmark, the two-room dwelling where Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, is the centrepiece of the 15-acre Elvis Presley Park.

We got to sit on the swing on the porch of Elvis' house.

before going inside.  We were amazed at just how small the house was.

The bedroom come

living room.

The kitchen

How a family managed to live in such a small place is amazing.  The Assembly of God Church that Elvis attended as a child was converted from its original and sacred purpose and moved half a block from its prior location to the park.

We were welcomed in to attend a virtual service which was really interesting.

There is a bronze statue of 'Elvis at 13' in the park

and a beautiful Chapel which was built with donations from his fans and friends

There is also the Elvis Presley Memorial Museum, the 'Story Wall', the 'Fountain of life' and of course the inevitable gift shop.   

From the Park we made the short journey into Tupelo centre to visit the hardware store where Elvis obtained his first guitar.

Not sure if you can make out what it says on the sign above but the story goes that Elvis' mother took him to the store to buy a bicycle for his birthday but he spotted a rifle and decided he wanted that instead.  His mother refused to buy it for him and they compromised on a guitar and the rest is history!

Whilst we were in the store the man who was telling us the story introduced us to a lady standing next to him as Marlyn Mason, who was in Tupelo for the film festival that was taking place at the time. 

You may remember her looking more like this 

when she appeared in The Trouble With Girls as Elvis' leading lady.    She had taken the opportunity to see where Elvis bought his first guitar too!

We had a quick lunch in a cafe before walking round Tupelo until it was time to meet up and board the coach again to take us back to the hotel.     

As we had a little time before we had to get showered and changed before our next excursion, we walked down Elvis Presley Blvd to Graceland where we did what millions of other tourists have done and wrote our names on the wall at the entrance to Graceland.

See us there in blue - Pearl and Peter?

Of course I couldn't resist a photo opportunity at the famous gates could I?

Our last excursion for the day was the Memphis Mojo Tour, a coach tour with a difference in that two musicians boarded our coach to entertain us whilst showing us the sights of Memphis.   We had great fun singing along and being the percussion section shaking our shakers and tambourines in between having various places of interest pointed out to us, like the old Hotel Chisca, where radio station WHBQ first broadcast Elvis' music to the world. We saw Lauderdale Courts, the Presley family's first home in Memphis, Stax Museum of American Soul Music

We also saw the Lorraine Motel, where Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated.

The hotel is now a Civil Rights Museum.  Our guide pointed out that, before the assassination, the hotel had been a favourite place to stay of many artists going to Stax Records, such as Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and others and many hit songs had been penned at the hotel.

We also saw Sun Studio, where Elvis recorded his very first song but we had to wait until the following day to tour the studio and learn all about that historic event.    Part of the tour should have taken us down Riverside Drive, the main road running by the Mississippi,  but unfortunately it was flooded, this was the only diversion throughout the holiday because of flooding.

After the tour had finished we toyed with getting a ride in one of the amazing horse drawn carriages before going for something to eat

but as our stomachs were grumbling we headed straight down Beale Street

to Silky O'Sullivans  

where MWM enjoyed a huge plate of ribs and I tried the fried oysters before heading back up Beale Street to the Blues City Cafe Band Box

where we enjoyed a few drinks and good music

before meeting our coach for a ride back to the hotel  where we retired for the night.  Of course we put the TV on once we got into bed and guess what film was showing - 'The Trouble With Girls'! 

If you've always wondered what it's like inside Graceland join me for Dixieland Part 7 to see the photos and also see inside Sun Studio.

Read Dixieland Part 1 here

Read Dixieland Part 2 here

Read Dixieland Part 3 here

Read Dixieland Part 4 here

Read Dixieland Part 5 here

Succinctly Yours - A Microfiction Meme #16

Grandma at Grandma's Goulash provides a picture and a word prompt for this Microfiction Meme and the rules are use the photo as inspiration for a story of 140 characters OR 140 words.

Want more challenge? Use the word of the week in your story. This part is optional.

This week's word is RENEGADE here's the picture and my offering using both the picture and the word in 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation.

Rene Gade ran down the beach towards them.

Naturally they ignored her, until they realised the boat they’d been admiring belonged to her Dad!

 OK, so I cheated a little on word of the week.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction #168 Boring......

This is boring, why did I let her persuade me to do it?

Repetitive - listen, check, mark, listen, check, mark.

Stupid cliches, monotonous, unstimulating.

What am I doing here?

Wait, this could be it....

What was that?

What did he say?

Oh, it's me, me, over here....

I won the jackpot....

BINGO, HOUSE, LOTTO, HERE!

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55.

Dixieland Part 5.......

Wednesday morning found us aboard the coach for the journey across the state of Mississippi to Memphis.

Our journey took us through Jackson, the Capital City of Mississippi, which was named after President Andrew Jackson.  In the 1960's Jackson was a hot bed of activity during the Civil Rights Movement.    We stopped for lunch, calling in a cute little drug store

 to pick up sandwiches and a milk shake to eat outside in the sunshine,

before resuming our journey towards Memphis, Tennessee, for a three night stay at Days Inn on Elvis Presley Blvd, right opposite Graceland itself!

This was our room

The television had three channels devoted to Elvis films which were shown 24 hours a day!   The hotel boasted a guitar shaped swimming pool too.

and Reception was full of Elvis memorabilia.

As we were approaching the hotel Alice, our tour director, told us places to eat in the area and we were intrigued to hear that a nearby restaurant, Marlowe's,

would send a pink cadillac to collect and return diners, all you had to do was tell hotel reception what time you wanted to be picked up.    Well of course we couldn't miss an opportunity like that could we?

Another couple from our tour shared the caddy with us and we had a lovely evening in their company enjoying great food

in interesting surroundings, listening to a guy, Scott McDonald, singing Elvis songs whilst we ate, you can listen to him here,

before being driven back to the hotel in the Pink Cadillac!   

It had been a long day, we had travelled 360 miles, and we were tired, so we retired to our room and as we were in Elvisland we just had to watch one of his films on TV before we fell asleep and dreamt of visiting his birthplace, Tupelo, the following day.

I hope you'll join me for that little adventure and much more in Dixieland Part 6, coming soon.

Read Dixieland Part One here.

Read Dixieland Part Two here.

Read Dixieland Part Three here.

Read Dixieland Part Four here.

Succinctly Yours - A Microfiction Meme #15

Grandma at Grandma's Goulash provides a picture and a word prompt for this Microfiction Meme and the rules are use the photo as inspiration for a story of 140 characters OR 140 words.

Want more challenge? Use the word of the week in your story. This part is optional.

This week's word is EXPEDIENT here's the picture and my offering using both the picture and the word in 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation.

Melanie watched carefully as she formulated her plan.

The rolled up newspaper would be expedient in dispatching the fly, if her aim was true.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction #167 Making up......

He wouldn't speak for days after they'd 'had words'.

She always made the first move.

Well not this time,  it was his turn.

She spotted the bouquet on the dining table.

This was a turn-up, him apologising, with flowers!

'To my darling Pauline' the card read.

"Those were delivered for her next door" he mumbled.

Friday 55 Flash Fiction is brought to you by G-man (Mr Knowitall). The idea is you write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to take part pop over and let G-man know when you've posted your 55.