After Texas we drove onto Memphis Tennessee which of course
is famous for Elvis Presley and Graceland which is the mansion he built and now
stores quite a lot of memorabilia about his life and career. We drove straight to Graceland and toured
around everything that was free because for all of us to go through the actual
house would have been over $200 and we don’t really love him that much to go
through – heck most of the children don’t really know who he was! However the commercial area around the house
was done really well so we got to watch quite a few movie snippets about his
life and see a lot of his possessions like two planes and heaps of cars that he
owned. It was actually quite surreal
being there.
Then during afternoon we went to downtown Memphis to visit Beale St made famous by its
culture and musical variety which is described in a famous song called ‘Walking
in Memphis’ by Mark Cohn which of course we had blaring on the radio
as we drove into town. I think our
children thought we were a little crazy.
However Beale St was definitely buzzing with loads of people and
southern jazz music and vibrant people and colours all around and it was only
about 4:30 in the afternoon. There were
a small group of boys performing acrobatics all down the street and collecting
some pocket money of course but at least they were really great!
We also had a treat listening to some jazz bands in the local park. That night we ate dinner at a restaurant on Beale St and tasted some real catfish and Buffalo wings. One great meal! As much as I enjoyed this day, experiencing a new environment I would feel quite unsafe taking my children down Beale St after 6pm. The caravan park we stayed in that night was pretty rough as well. I really felt lucky that we awoke safe without anything being stolen!
We also had a treat listening to some jazz bands in the local park. That night we ate dinner at a restaurant on Beale St and tasted some real catfish and Buffalo wings. One great meal! As much as I enjoyed this day, experiencing a new environment I would feel quite unsafe taking my children down Beale St after 6pm. The caravan park we stayed in that night was pretty rough as well. I really felt lucky that we awoke safe without anything being stolen!
The next day we attended sacrament in Memphis and this would
have to be one of the most memorable and wonderful meetings we have ever
attended. Everyone was just so happy and
friendly and of course wanted us to talk so they could hear our accents. The lady that Michael sat next to at the end
of the row even wanted us all to sign our autograph in her hymn book in case we
became famous! During the meeting this same said lady who was probably about
65, leaned down to Michael in her southern Tennessee accent said to him “Have
ya got any caaaandy?” He said he didn’t
understand her so she had to repeat herself a little louder so even I heard her
this time. Michael replied sorry no…but
I have some gum and showed her and she then took it from him and said ‘oh
goody’. I found it a little amusing
that there were quite a few gentlemen with Elvis sideburns throughout the
congregation and Jason suggested to me that they may be Elvis impersonators for
their employment. And just as he
finished saying this, someone walked in very late and he still had all his
Elvis outfit on complete with sideburns, hair and open shirt! It was very difficult not to laugh!
Throughout the meeting there just happened to be 3 musical
items (most normal sacrament meetings only have 1 or 2 at the most). We thought this may be because of all the
musical talent in Memphis and how many of the people may have grown up in
gospel revivalist churches where they do a lot of singing. The first two items where absolutely fabulous
and really helped us feel the spirit however the last song a lovely sister
stood to sing a hymn and it was really really bad. One of my kids leant over and asked if she was
alright….some of the others were trying not to laugh. It was a tense situation especially when
after verse 1 she went onto verse 2, then by the time she went onto verse 3
some of the other sisters in the ward slowly and reverently arose to the pulpit
to help her sing the last two verses. It
was actually really lovely to see. The original
singer was very grateful as well.
Definitely one memorable meeting!
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