Death Day and Cookies

Its the most wonderful time of the year.....NOT.

Those familiar with where I live know that this is a very unusual week. People from all over the world converge on our great city to commemorate the death of The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley who died on Aug 16, 1977. I remember where I was and what I was doing when the event occurred. I was 9 years old and at my best friends house. Her mom had been making some chocolate chip cookies and we were upstairs playing when she called us down to the kitchen. She said that she had some bad news. The worst thing I could have imagined happening was that something had gone wrong with the cookies. Then she said "Elvis is dead." I remember looking over at her tiny tv that she had in the kitchen (back then only rich people had tvs in their kitchen. was my friend rich? why yes. she had a 2 story house and a tv in her kitchen) and there being a "breaking news" on.

My mother was the biggest Elvis fan I had ever met (up until then). We actually had tickets for the concert that never was. I remember seeing Elvis in concert when I was about 4 at the Mid South Coliseum. I remember thinking he was tiny as an ant. We must have been on the last row. I dont know what I expected but evidently that was not it.

I worked at Graceland one summer while I was in college. It just happened to be the 10th anniversary of his death. That was an experience, let me just say. Elvis fans are a rare breed. My mother she was a fan, but not to THIS degree. She had his records, she had some tshirts and other memorabilia. We had gone to the gravesite before he was moved to the mansion, when flowers were still there. I remember that and I have her Elvis scrapbook with the dried pressed flowers still in it. But these Elvis fans that make the pilgrimage to Graceland every year are different. To come, some from the other side of the globe, yearly for the candlelight vigil and other events is a little....weird and stalkerish if you ask me. We were required to memorize facts about Elvis in case asked. We were not allowed to talk negatively about anything related to Elvis. We couldnt even stack the cassette tapes in front of the albums for fear they might cover up his face on the cover.

Not that I dont appreciate the economic impact that these fans have on our city, dont get me wrong. There is not a hotel room to be found during Death Week. They spend money here eating out and shopping, and of course going to Graceland, which is not an inexpensive thing not to mention the cost of getting here. A great deal of the fans who come here for Death Week are not Americans.

Most of the people I know here either havent been to Graceland ever, or only have gone to take out-of-towners. When our family comes to visit and they start asking questions about Graceland and Elvis, we just roll our eyes. Oh great. The last visitors we had who wanted to go balked at the price so we only drove by and took pictures at the gate. Yeah, we narrowly escaped that one.

There arent many other people in history whose life had quite as big an impact on the world as Elvis. The whole world. And his sudden tragic unexpected death had a huge impact as well.

On some more than others. Pass the cookies.