The Youngest Elvis Fan

An essay

“Are you sisters?” my mom asked the two women who were in front of her on the shuttle bus. “No. I’m not” The man next to my mother said with a big grin. The two women laughed. “He’s our brother. We can’t take him anywhere”. “That’s what everyone says about me,” my mom said jokingly. “When we all get together in a group, it’s trouble.

We are like a big ball of energy barrelling through wherever we are, but we are having a good time” I added, as the shuttle bus pulled out of the parking lot of The Guest House - the hotel on the property of Elvis Presley’s Memphis. This is mostly true, unless someone disagrees with dad. But he wasn’t here. The shuttle bus was taking us to the site of several museum exhibits including the much anticipated tour of Graceland. The VIP tours of Graceland and the planes were included in a package that my mom purchased along with a one night stay at the hotel.

We had already checked out of the hotel that morning and had all of our bags packed for our next destination: Nashville. We would be heading there after the tour of Graceland and a stop for my 12 year old - the mirrored pyramid Bass Pro Shop. He made sure to remind us as many times as possible that we HAD to go there before we left Memphis. That morning we had a delicious buffet breakfast at Delta’s Kitchen at the Guest House Hotel and stopped by the hotel gift shop for a “The Guest House” magnet for my husband. This particular one was a snow globe with a pink Cadillac out front of a tiny Graceland. I know I am getting off track, but I feel I must provide more insight into this particular side quest.

This is a venture I started many years back. I had already purchased a magnet in Tupelo on our way into Memphis and planned on buying him several more before our trip was over. At one point, early on in our relationship, he told me that he wanted to buy a magnet for each place he visited. After I realized that he doesn’t ever go anywhere, I started buying him magnets whenever I traveled to put on his fridge. Traveling is a hassle and a waste of money to him, so if he goes anywhere we are usually forcing his hand. I just didn’t think he would ever have any magnets. I always return with a bag full of magnets after each trip and proudly present them to him and expect that he will respond with gratitude. He always says that he doesn’t want a magnet from a place he didn’t go. I remind him that he was invited and that he chose not to go and that he should be grateful for his magnets that depict every spot we visited without him. I am certain that he loves this game as much as I do.

So I purchased the Guest House magnet and headed to meet my son and my mother who were already outside waiting in line for a shuttle. The first shuttle had already started to leave. We had to wait on the second shuttle after the first one filled up and we would be the second group in line when it arrived. So we moved back to the imaginary starting line and waited for the second shuttle to arrive. The shuttle driver had promised it would only be a moment. We sat outside under the awning with many people behind us waiting. It was a cool, windy, and overcast morning. We all had on long-sleeves, jackets, sweaters or hoodies, but layered in case the sun came out. A woman behind me tapped me on the shoulder to let me know my backpack purse was open. I thanked her and closed the flap. My mom quickly pointed out to the woman and her friend that I made my purse by hand and began to brag about all of the things that I could make and then said “she needs to give you a card. Do you have a card Jenna? This prompted another group of women to notice and they all started doting on my bag and wanted a card. My mom was so happy about this of course. Because she’s a mom. A very good one. I passed out a couple of cards I had in my pocketbook that had my QR codes on it. I was only slightly embarrassed by this exchange. I was mostly grateful for having such a great mom who is always lifting me up. The shuttle pulled up. It had in fact only been a moment, as promised.

“I’ve been waiting 67 years for this!” My mom declared to the siblings in the shuttle. “Well, maybe not 67 years since I am only 67”. This made my son laugh. “Me-Maw was the youngest Elvis fan! She came into this world singing ‘Uh-huh’”(and you must, of course, read that “uh-huh” in your best Elvis impression). We made a few, definitely too many, more jokes about my mom being a newborn and loving Elvis, and shortly after departing, we arrived to the museum entrance. My mom stopped us so we could get a picture in front of the “Welcome to Graceland” sign and we took turns snapping the pictures. My mom exclaimed, “Let’s ask someone to take a picture of all three of us here and we will put it in my picture frame!”

My mom had bought the frame the day prior. On our way to Memphis, when we stopped in Tupelo, MS to see the “Birthplace of Elvis”.

This was a museum that was built on the site of Elvis’ childhood community. The most interesting thing about this museum was that Elvis’ childhood home in which he was born is still there. You can walk through it while someone gives you a mini tour and read about the history of the town and his childhood. There is a museum inside with pictures, clothes, and different items donated that mostly pertained to Elvis’ early life and childhood, rather than his career and later years. The church where Elvis attended and sang his first solo had been moved to the museum property from where it was originally built. It had been renovated into a single family home and had to be renovated again to look like the original church. They were even able to move the original podium back.

It had been in the new church building all of those years and when they heard that the old church was being brought back they reached out to the museum. I believe that the piano that was there was just a replica of what would have been there when he was a child. Part of the museum experience was that at different times of the day the tourists would fill into the church and be able to attend a church service with Young Elvis. They had projectors all around the church and it kind of felt like you were transported back. The sweet woman directing the experience before the video started, explained that after it was over that tourists could come up and touch things and look around, but to not interrupt the service. When it was over, everyone but one lady and my mother left. I am pretty sure the other lady just stuck around because she noticed my mom “moseying” over to the piano. I had started to leave when I heard “Wait just a minute Jenna I want to play on Elvis’ piano. I’m here, might as well.” The other woman gets out her phone and starts recording my mom. My first thought is that she is probably going to post it on Facebook with a caption that begins with “The audacity…”.

“Come here and hold this down for me”, she said to my son. She directed him to hold down the paper hymnal for her so she could read the sheet music. The hymnals were small prop hymnals that someone had scattered on the piano for authenticity. My mom readied herself to play. I asked her if we can just go and my mom says “No I think this lady wants to hear me, I have an audience now”. I glanced back at the lady recording my mother. The lady’s face remained blank. My face flushed. As my mom started playing the out of tune piano I thought, Okay this is going to be over in a second. I can get through this. That’s when all the hymnals fell off the piano. I turned and booked it out of the church. My mom stopped playing, and while laughing, picked up the hymns, placed them back on the piano quickly, but carefully, and left as well.

My son asked me why I looked embarrassed. I could have said “because mom is so embarrassing” but I knew that wasn’t the truth. “Because she is me and at any given moment that could have been me sitting at that piano. I am her and she is me”. And then I looked at him and said “I am you and you are me and you are her and she is us”. He laughed with recognition and I knew he had understood. He is twelve and has had plenty of experience with all of us together. We are all high energy people. When we are together that energy increases. We talk loudly, we laugh loudly, we argue frequently…and loudly. Even when we are agreeing with each other we do so with so much fervor that it takes us a moment to realize we are on the same page. That usually ends with someone loudly saying “Why are we yelling? We are saying the same thing!” And then we laugh. Oh that can’t happen all the time you might be thinking and you’d be wrong. If one person isn’t on alert and keeping the other one tame, then we could very well get kicked out of wherever we are, just for being ourselves. We find ourselves frequently catching the attention of those around us just trying to have a normal conversation. You know, that big ball of energy I was referring to? We aren’t for everyone. But we love and live big and if you can stick around us long enough you will laugh. We were all laughing of course when we left the church. My mom started joking that Elvis was there and was mad at her for playing the piano. “Only because it was out of tune”, I added. On top of a hill of the Tupelo museum site was a statue of Elvis. “Play an Elvis song on your phone and take a video. We need to dance”. So I pulled out my phone and opened up my streaming app and entered “Suspicious Minds”. This is my favorite Elvis song. I play it on my way to the dermatologist once a year, changing the lyrics to “Suspicious moles”. So we sang and danced by the Elvis statue.

I took some great pictures and videos and then we headed to the gift shop where we bought the picture frame, a coffee mug, and of course, a Birthplace of Elvis magnet for my sweet hubby.

Looking back on it now, I do wish we would have stopped to take the picture in front of Graceland like she had asked. “We’re gonna get shirts at the gift shop here. Let’s take a photo of us all together when we have our shirts”. I said in response to my mother’s request. “Let’s not bother anyone until then”. We spent a great deal of time in the Graceland gift shop picking out our items and shirts. While we were shopping, my dad called my phone and said he was looking for mom so I brought her my phone. When I returned to her moments later she had informed me that a boat had struck the Baltimore bridge and it had collapsed. We have family in Baltimore and she needed to call and check on them. They were okay. While she was checking on them, my son and I paid for our items, including a Graceland magnet shaped like Elvis’ iconic glasses. As we were leaving, my son tripped on a display and tore open a scab that was healing from a previous fall on the pavement. He began bleeding through his pants knee and I had to go find him a band aid and alcohol swab. We headed to guest services and then to the little diner to grab a drink, doctor the scab, and to wait on mom. When mom finished up and saw us in the diner, she couldn’t figure out how to get to us because of the roped off lines near the diner. She couldn’t see the little pathway that went in between the two lines that led to us, and it was quite a show watching her trying to find how to get to us.

“How do I get to you?” she looked in panic leaning over a black rope. She walked all the way over to the other side where it was roped off and a look of confusion swept across her face again. I said “I guess we are stuck here” and then when she started to move again we snuck out in between the two lines and stepped out in front of her. “Oh I was confused” she laughed and we headed for the glass doors.

It was time to head out to the exhibits. So far we were having a great time. We had about 2 and half hours of time to waste. I was excited about the exhibits but I was just biding my time before getting to walk through Graceland and I know we all felt that way in the beginning. We had no idea how vast and complete the collections in the exhibits were going to be. It’s almost impossible to describe, you really have to experience it for yourself. I always imagined the trip to Memphis would be cheesy and gimmicky. I didn’t realize how beautiful everything was going to be displayed and how much history I was going to learn.

We started with the exhibit about the making of the movie Elvis that came out a few years ago. There were props from the movie, whole set designs, and the wardrobe and costumes the cast wore in displays.

The next museum was even better. It was Elvis “The entertainer” exhibit and it was all about his music specials, costumes, props, and movies. There was a room with all of his gold records from floor to VERY high ceiling, a room dedicated to Sun Records, and a room dedicated to his movies.

There was even a room that was all Lisa Marie’s career and had all of her outfits and shoes and stories about her life. After the exhibit about the movies, we walk around the corner and I see the most glorious display my eyes have ever seen. I think both my son and I were just in dopamine heaven. Mom was still soaking up the previous room’s displays so we had gotten to it before she had. ALL of his jumpsuits were there. They were in glass displays stacked on top of each other. Two walls had two rows and one taller wall had three rows of display cases stacked on top of each other. When my mom arrived at the jumpsuits exhibit, I am pretty sure I heard her gasp audibly. We stayed there longer than any of the other rooms we had visited. I took a three minute video that shows the whole collection. We took turns picking which jumpsuit was our favorite, prompted by my twelve year old. He liked the white jumpsuit with the tiger of course. My mom’s was the powder blue suit and I picked the suit that had three ways of wearing it and the matching detachable cape. My mom told me that it was his most famous jump suit and that made me like it a lot less, of course. And of course I couldn’t say this out loud so I secretly changed my choice to one of the Phoenix jumpsuits on the other wall in my own mind.

I snapped a picture of my mom looking up at Elvis in a picture of him appearing to be reaching out to the audience. She said “Oh it’s just like in my dreams! Take a picture!” And so I did.

Between the three of us, my mom was the most authentic fan of Elvis. She didn’t want to miss anything, so it took her a little longer to move through the exhibits and we were a little ahead of her. We knew we were nearing the end of the exhibit. We turned the corner and saw that we could go two different ways: Move on to the exit or go into a room that says “Stadium seating” with an arrow pointing the way. We decided to wait on mom there. This particular room was a platform with two rows of chairs facing a fake stage that had a screen on top, made to look like you were at one of Elvis’ live shows. I wish we had decided to not stop here. We could have turned around and joined my mother where she was and then finished the tour. There was nothing special about this room. The seats were not stadium seating. It was just a rest area where you could also watch a clip of Elvis singing. I checked the time because my son was getting anxious about missing the exhibit on all of Elvis’ cars and boats before it was time for our Graceland tour. I stepped up onto the platform. My son followed. We sat down. No one else was in the room. I decided we would rest there for a moment, wait for mom to finish up and then we could leave the entertainment exhibit and head to see the cars. My mom finished up in the previous room and she immediately lit up when she walked under the “stadium seating” sign. Of course she is going to like this, I thought. “Oh! I wish I could have gone to one of his shows when I was a girl,” she said. She stepped up onto the platform and sat her stuff down. The next few moments happened so fast, but so clearly, I don’t think I will ever forget it. My mom called out to my son “This is how the girls would react when they would see Elvis”. She turned around, started waving her hands in the air and shouted “Elvis! Elvis!”

You know that scene in Looney Tunes when the coyote runs off the cliff and then realizes there is nothing under him? That was my mom.

Except she didn’t have time to look at the ground beneath her before she was on it. She had completely forgotten that she had just stepped up onto a platform. She landed on her knees and hands and then rolled onto her back, laughing hysterically. There was a moment of shock. I immediately rose to my feet thinking I know my mom just didn’t pretend to faint. She was laughing so I didn’t know whether to be scared or if I should laugh too but I didn’t think it was very funny and no laughter came out. I was scared. She was 67. I work at a hospital and I know falling can be the worst thing for someone her age. I felt myself floating to her and was down by her side in no time. “Mom!” I cried out. “What just happened? Are you okay?” “No”, she said while still laughing, “I heard and felt three pops in my foot. I think it’s broken”. She sat up and looked at me and said “Why am I like this? I really have to start acting my age”. “What fun would that be?” I replied.

She sat there for a few moments and said that her foot wasn’t hurting. “I think I can get up,” she said. My son grabbed one of the seats and we helped mom up. A few people came in and sat down. We watched her. My son said “I thought you were pretending Me-Maw!”. I quickly said “Mom wouldn’t pretend to fall. But I thought the same thing at first. It just happened so fast”. After a minute or two she said that her foot wasn’t hurting at all but that her wrists were a little sore. She stood up and put some weight on her foot. “No pain at all”. I guess I am fine. We exited the exhibit to the store and as we were starting to leave to see the next exhibit mom noticed something else for us to see in the store She seems fine, I was thinking to myself. I was so glad she wasn’t hurt. We walked outside and before moving on to the cars she asked “Do you think we need to tell someone I fell? I mean, I am not hurt but if I am hurt, will my insurance pay for it?” I asked her again if her foot was hurting and she said no but that she might get her hands checked out if they continued to be sore. I said, “Well I don’t think that there was any liability on their end. The platform had a clear demarcation. You just weren’t paying attention.” She agreed, almost reluctantly, and we moved on to “Elvis’ Cycles”. This is the area that held his toys and boats and recreational vehicles. It also housed several fun interactive games where you can record Elvis singing to you at a concert or implant yourself in one of his movie posters. We had several sent to us via email for free to share as we like. I appreciated this small touch as I was so used to theme park kind of price gouging when I went on vacations. We spent about 20 minutes here playing around interactively when we noticed it was getting close to time to go.

My son asked when we would get to see the cars. He pointed towards what I thought was clearly a gift shop and it said “Elvis Motors” or “Presley Motors” - I can’t quite remember now - but I said I think that’s just the gift shop. Maybe his cars are at Graceland. We found out later that the cars were in fact on the other side of the gift shop. I thought at the time we probably didn’t have time to visit the store. I thought the person we had spoken to inside the entrance to the exhibits said that we needed to be in line 30 minutes before our tour, when we probably could have lined up 10 minutes before the tour. I explained to him that if the cars were not there we would come back and try to find them. He was satisfied with this and agreed to head back to the hub. We started back the way we came. I was talking to my son and walking at a normal pace when I looked behind me to ask mom a question. She was not behind me. She was several paces behind me…limping. “Mom! You are not okay are you?” She said “I’m starting to hurt.”

We walked back to her to meet her where she was and walked with her inside. There was a bench right inside the doors and she sat down there and my son sat next to her. “Let’s just go” I said. You don’t need to be walking on your foot”. “I’m fine. It’s not that bad and I am going on this tour. Go wait in line for us and I will wait here with [redacted] and when you are about to get on the shuttle I will meet you. So I got in line with our passes. A couple of minutes go by and I realize that the people in line with me are for the 11:45 tour and the people in front of them are there for the 11:30 tour. I am still not sure if I should get out of line, and look over to where mom is sitting and there are several staff members surrounding her and my son and her are listening to them. I decide it is safe to leave the line at that point and I need to know what’s going on. “This lady said she has to make a report,” my mom said. “She heard me on the phone telling my friend I had fallen.” The security officer was diligently taking a report and another staff member came to join her. We then had to tell the lovely staff at Graceland that mom had fallen and then continued to walk on foot for half an hour while playing with the interactive exhibits. We then found out that when leaving the Elvis Motors exhibit you just walk around and the entrance to the main hub is right around the corner. We didn’t have to circle back the way we had come in. I felt so bad and as my mom peeled her sock off for them to take pictures, it was obvious that she wasn’t going to get to see Graceland that day. Her ankle was visibly swollen. Someone went to get an ice pack out of their first aid kit. One of the security guards was a man from Tupelo who was born a few years after Elvis passed. He said that some of the teachers that taught Elvis were still teaching when he was growing up and that they would still find library books that young Elvis had checked out. When that would happen. they would take the books from them and send them to the “archives”. “Where are the archives, I asked?” He didn’t know. I made a mental note of this. While they were finishing up the report I headed to guest services and they provided a refund for my son’s ticket and notified the hotel to adjust my mom’s reservation to take the tours off. They made the adjustment so quickly and were so kind. I jokingly asked the attendant there if he could get me a copy of the security footage so we could have the memory, and I don’t think he found it funny. “You’ll have to contact security about that ma’am.” he replied. “I was only kidding, I promise…and even if I was serious, I would only use it comedically, not litigiously” I said while laughing nervously. He didn’t think that was funny either. I turned around and headed back to where they had been sitting. We praised the staff there for being so helpful and by that time they had a security officer ready to take us back to the shuttle pick up area in a golf cart. This security officer was the first person my mom tried to convince to take us on a private tour of Graceland since she was hurt and couldn’t go. He joked “I will c’mon”. I think my mom was hopeful he was serious. He dropped us off at the shuttle waiting area. The shuttle arrived just a few seconds later and I informed the driver that my mom was hurt and that it might take her a moment. He attempted to get out to help her but someone else stopped him to tell him something before he could get to her and we had already helped her up. He looked at us and said “You guys are fast. Let’s get you back to the hotel”. When he hopped back in the driver's seat he asked my mom what she planned on doing now that she was hurt. She said “I think I’m going to drive back to Birmingham and get it seen there”. He pleaded with her to be seen before heading back but my mom was resolved to getting home at that point. He asked if he could put on a cardboard splint before she left and she agreed. He helped her out of the shuttle and into the lobby. She sat down on one of the glorious chairs that filled the space and he started doctoring.

My mom asked him if he was a nurse and he said that was a fireman and was in the military. He said his name was Sargent and my mom asked if he was Sargent Sargent. He laughed and said yes. Some of his friends in the lobby were teasing him in good fun and he joked back with them.

When he was done, he packed up an ice pack for her to take on the road. I pulled the car around front and Sargent retrieved a wheelchair to roll her out to the car. We loaded her in the backseat and said goodbye to “Sarge” and his friends. I hopped in the driver’s seat while thinking again how nice and helpful everyone had been there throughout the whole short stay. As we headed back home, I reminded mom that we never got a picture of all three of us together and that if we just had that video we could get a still shot to put in her pink caddy frame. She laughed and said no; that we are going to come back and get a picture to put in that frame and next time we were going to drag our husbands along. I agreed but thought, “we sure are going to have a lot of Elvis magnets”. My mom’s ankle, we later found out, had a torn ligament and she’s in a boot for a bit. We plan on heading back to Memphis this summer when she is fully recovered. Our tour will be the first one of the day and we are not making any stops.

Later that day, while we were sitting in the ER room of the Freestanding ER waiting to be seen by a doctor, my mom asked me if I thought she was being punished for making Elvis into an idol. I looked into her worried eyes and I could tell that she really believed this. “Mom, Elvis makes you so happy. And no one ‘good’ would punish you for experiencing the amount of joy that you felt today.

She instantly perked up and said “You’re right. I had so much fun before the fall. And I had so much fun with you two. I can’t wait to go back”. And we will. We will all pose together for a photo next to a pink Cadillac at Elvis’ Motors and my mom will see Elvis’ Graceland like she has been waiting her WHOLE LIFE (SINCE BIRTH!) to see.

Update: We saw Graceland a few months later, and my son was right. The cars were just around the corner. We also made it to the Pyramid Bass Pro. This time we just made a day trip out of it and booked no rooms. But we had a great time, and my mom DID see Graceland.