”Old Man River” really lived up to its name, although not perhaps in the way intended. Our progress up river from Greenville to Memphis was a very slow plod. At one point, we were stopped for 14 hours. Not far upstream from us, a tug had lost control of its complement of barges which scattered across the already narrowed river, with at least one running aground. And we frequently pulled over or stopped for periods to give southbound traffic right of passage. The consequence of all these hold-ups is that we arrive in Memphis several hours later than scheduled.

Elvis The Myth….Lives

Although he was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Presley lived most of his life and eventually died in Memphis. So no visit to Memphis would be complete without a pilgrimage to Graceland, the colonial style mansion and estate he bought in 1960 for $100,000 (with just $1000 down).

Graceland is now an Elvis theme park. The tour through the house (entry floor and basement only) and grounds is self-guided with the aid of a headset and iPad which all visitors are given. It’s all pretty well organized given the large crowds which start showing up (some from the Elvis Guest House hotel just down the street) from before 8 am each morning.

Across a busy highway from Graceland (and behind a vast parking lot) is a bunch of interconnecting pavilions, Elvis-themed restaurants and the the inevitable gift shops. Each pavilion houses a different collection of the King’s memorabilia. Stuff from his childhood, army days, car and motorbike collection, gold records and of course his stage costumes and bling which became increasingly more bizarre as he got closer to the end.

What’s missing completely, is any reference to his increasingly bizarre behaviour, drug abuse and stints in hospital (in 1975, we had tickets to see Elvis in concert in Las Vegas on one of the occasions he overdosed and ended up in hospital). There’s barely any mention of his totally domineering manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker who was responsible for creating Elvis. There’s much about Elvis’ very many US concerts & TV appearances - it could be argued that Elvis was worked to death - but no mention of the fact that he never performed outside the US despite his global popularity. The rumour is that Col. Parker was likely an illegal immigrant (from The Netherlands) who didn’t have a passport. If he wasn’t going overseas, there’s no way he’d let Elvis out.

Priscilla, Elvis’ ex-wife gets some coverage. Not though that Elvis met Priscilla, when he was doing military service in Germany. She was just 14 when Elvis “invited” her to move in to Graceland with him although laughably Elvis waited until Priscilla was 21 before marrying her. They had one daughter, LIsa Marie who gets a lot of coverage in the Mansion. No mention of course of her sham marriage to Michael Jackson. Lisa Marie died just a few months ago as a result of some botched surgery. She’s buried next to her son, Elvis’ grandson who died of a drug overdose.

The myth reaches its climax in the Garden of Reflection, where Elvis, his parents, daughter and grandson are all buried and where this is a statue seemingly of Elvis as Jesus

Ducks In a Row



An unexpected surprise for the two of us is that rather than being housed in a “cookie-cutter” Sheraton, we get to stay for two nights in the historic Peabody Hotel, which describes itself as the “South’s Grand Hotel” and its “Grand Lobby”, as the “living room of the Mid-South”. The Peabody has the air of a rather faded and dated old European hotel.

Its biggest draw though is the famous duck ceremony.

The grand fountain in the middle of the Mid-South’s Living Room has been duck central since 1933. In that year, the hotel’s general manager returning from a weekend duck hunting trip with a bunch of friends thought it would be a bit of a laugh if they released their (live) decoy ducks in the fountain. Turned out to be quite a hit - not least a bonanza of a money earner for the hotel! A local farmer now supplies young ducks which every morning at 11 am descend in a hotel elevator from their home on the top floor (the Duck Palace), march across the lobby and into the fountain. At 5 pm, the procession is reversed. The shows (which is what they are) are MC’ed by the “Duck Master” who ropes in any small children around to roll out or roll up the red carpet along which the ducks waddle. And all the while, their parents and hordes of tourists who pack the lobby are buying over-priced drinks from the lobby bar.