Memphis Tennessee



Duck Walk at the Peabody



   Day 2 of Memphis.  Somehow I was just as interested in seeing the "Peabody Ducks" as I was in seeing anything else in Memphis.  The Peabody Ducks ride down the elevator in the very sophisticated Peabody Hotel every morning at 11 am.  They run down a red carpet towards the waiting water fountain, where they spend the next 6 hours before repeating the red carpet run back to the elevator and up to their temporary (3 months) home.  We lined up, along with about 50 school children, to wait for the ducks to arrive. The Duck Master explains the history, then rides up the elevator to retrieve the ducks. He warns the audience to snap pictures as soon as the elevator doors open, because the ducks do not Walk down the red carpet.  They run. Boy was he right.  I took a movie of the "walk" and was barely able to blink before they were in the fountain. After the Duck Walk, a high school choir sang Christmas carols and it was quite lovely.

    Once we watched the 3 second show duck show, we headed over to the main attraction of Memphis.  Part of me didn't really want to go see "Graceland", just because. But I also figured it's a once in a life time experience.  And after seeing it, it will be.  Once in a life time, that is.

    There were two sort of opposing impressions that I got at Graceland.  My first impression was that  the house was not what I expected.  I was expecting a very fancy, huge mansion, and really, Graceland looks more like a home.  It is still decorated in the style of the 1970s, complete with shag rugs.  The rooms are big, but they aren't enormous. None of the private rooms upstairs are open to tours, but the downstairs and all the out buildings are.  Graceland sits on 13 acres and has a stable for the horses and a building just for playing racquetball, as well as other buildings. 
By the time we left, I was tired of the seemingly dozens of little museums with their attached gift shops. Which leads to my second impression.  WAY over done. And overpriced.  The house and grounds tour was kind of neat, seeing Lisa Marie's swing set, which looked like the same one I had growing up.  But there was one museum for his cars, one museum for his clothes, one museum dedicated to the year 1968, his two private planes etc etc.  It was all those added on features that were too much. 
Although there is not much information there that focuses on Elvis's private life (only one wedding picture that I could see), I still came away with a better understanding of him and the impact he had on his generation. I just missed the "Elvis" generation growing up.  Of course I knew who he was and liked his music, but I was more in the Rolling Stones/Beatles generation.
Yesterday we left Memphis and landed in Hot Springs Arkansas.

Memphis TN

Home of Elvis Presley, some of the best BBQ in the country, and the birthplace of Rock and Roll.  Oh, and the original owner of Piggly Wiggly lived here, although he didn't own the store for long.  He lost it and went bankrupt about a year after he opened the first store.

   I am not a huge Elvis fan.  I like his music well enough, but was never interested in all the hoopla about him personally.  And yet we will visit Graceland tomorrow.  Today we found Beale Street, which is "the" street in Memphis. A lot of the action is there, with lots of restaurants and live music. This morning we visited Sun Studios, where Elvis and Johnny Cash both got their start.  It was interesting to realize that Elvis was only 18 when he started recording songs here, although it would take a couple of years for his style to develop into something that caught on like wildfire.  As part of the tour they play recordings of some of the early recording sessions, back when they were live, and every band member was in the room together. Ray Orvis was among the people who recorded here. In fact, this studio saw many, many stars come through the doors over the years.  It is still used as a recording studio at night, and many big names like to record songs here, looking for the good "karma".   It was a small building with a lot of history attached to it.

        After strolling down Beale Street and eating lunch at one of the many BBQ places, we headed to the Pink Palace, a museum housed in a mansion originally owned by  Clarence Saunders, the owner of the original Piggly Wiggly.  There is a full scale replica of his first store in the museum.  I was amazed to see some of the brand names on the shelves: Procter and Gamble, Ivory Soap, Bertolli, Quaker Oats, Kellogg, and Lea and Perrin. Clarence never lived in the home, since he lost everything to bankruptcy before it was finished.  On Tuesday afternoons, admittance to the museum is free, so we saved $20 by coming today instead of tomorrow!