Memphis Blues

    So we went to Graceland today – a totally 70’s experience. Green shag carpeting on the ceiling. Big console RCA TV’s in all the rooms. Yellow, green, and orange walls, appliances and furniture. The Graceland mansion was not what I would call a beautiful house. It is on a large piece of property with rolling green lawns and big trees. Today was a gorgeous day in Memphis – sunny, breezy and 68. We enjoyed sitting in the rose garden next to the swimming pool. Elvis and his family are buried in this memory garden. Unless you believe that he is still around.
    We also took a tour of Elvis’s many cars and two planes. Most of the cars had been sold and reacquired by the Foundation. Pink Cadillac, red MG, 2 black Stutz Blackhawks and Harley Davidson motorcycles. In addition scenes from many of Elvis’ movies ran on a big screen “drive-in.” The scenes featured Elvis driving many of his favorite cars. I remembered many of the movies.
   It was a fun step back to the 50’s and 60’s with lots of Elvis’ music to entertain us. It all brought back memories from my teen years when Elvis and his beach party movies like Blue Hawaii were big. I can remember going to see them with my friends and wishing I was part of the Hawaii beach scene.
    After leaving Graceland we drove to downtown Memphis to take a walk down Beale Street. It is near the river and in the early 1900’s was a busy with shops, clubs and restaurants owned by African Americans. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Memphis Minnie, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas and Rosco Gordon  played on Beale Street and helped develop the style known as Memphis Blues. As a young man, B.B. King was billed as "the Beale Street Blues Boy." Today it is still a street of clubs, shops and restaurants. Several small parks along the street feature live music all day. We had some barbecue lunch at B. B. Kings Club, a delightful pork sandwich and coleslaw. I still can taste the smoky sauce. Yum. Then we wandered the shops and listened to some blues.  

     It was a perfect day for wandering around downtown. We couldn’t get down to Memphis Riverwalk or to Mud Island due to the floods. The river has gone down several feet, but the brown water is still running fast and covers an amazingly vast area.