Poor ol Elvis... too many YES men hanging about sucking him dry. Someone shoulda taken that gun away that he used to shoot TV sets with and pistol-whipped him into shape. "No more pills! No more nanner samitches!" Then he would have been around for the early 80's Leg-warmer-wearing-let's-get-physical movement... He could have whipped himself into shape and done exercise tapes with Jane Fonda and duets with Olivia Newton-John. How would Elvis have made New Wave his own I wonder? I have no doubt he could have. He was a musical genius, even if he did have horrible decorating tastes.
I, of course, remember exactly where I was when I heard. I was 12 years old. I had been to a Southern Baptist summer camp all week long. I had been been AWOL most of the time, never showing up to any of the bible study meetings or chores they had planned for me... I was hiding out in the stables with my fellow heathen friends Sandra, and her little sister Sheila. I don't know which was the stronger draw - the horses (which I loved) or the stable boy (who I thought I loved) but both were stronger than the alternative of sitting around in a circle singing hymns and testifying! After a week filled with mosquitos and holy rollers, I was ready to go home and sit in front of the TV in lovely icy cold air-conditioning and have my Mom bring me Kool-aid and E.L. Fudge cookies. But on the bus home, as everyone chatted away and I rocked out in the back seat listening to my TRANSISTOR radio (God I'm old!) I heard the news... ELVIS WAS DEAD. Holy smokes! I felt an empty sadness in the pit of my stomach. No I didn't really listen to Elvis, but I did know who he was and he was a Southerner and we were all very proud of our native son, even if he had become a laughing stock in those last years. Just the year before the Birmingham News had run a story with the headline "Fat Elvis Rips Pants" about Elvis splitting out of his beadazzled suit on stage in front of everyone. Poor guy. Dad picked me up from the church parking lot. "Did you hear?" I asked him. "Yeah." That's all we said. We rode home in silence. I walked in the back door of the house and I could hear the TV on, giving all the sad details. Mom was in the kitchen cooking dinner. She was chopping veggies and just bawling her eyes out. I didn't say a word to her... just went to my room and laid on my bed. How many people were crying for this man who never met him... didn't know him at all really? How had he touched so many people? He was truly amazing - even if he was cheesy.
Anyway, that's my little trip down Memory Lane. Such a long time ago. Seems like yesterday.
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