This guy is just an example of the endless stream of impersonators they have every year. While I was watching him, I had a couple of observations. First is that this guy was not the worst that I have seen although he is probably a little below average. While he was talking, he mentioned his regular shows. Most of these guys do this for money on a regular basis. Some of them may even do this as a sole source of income. I thought that I am better than most of these guys. If they can make any money doing this crap, I should be able to do something in the music business. Don’t look for me in a jumpsuit anytime soon. The other thought I had related to the idea that these people are now called “Elvis Tribute Artists”. I wondered if Elvis would have ever considered performing under a tent across the street from his house. I wondered what Elvis would think of these shabby performances. Would he be honored to have this guy dressed like this butchering these songs that are identified with him? If he were alive today, I bet Elvis would have a buzz cut. He wouldn’t be all caught up in the big sideburns or the jet black hair. He would think the people dressed this way looked ridiculous, no matter how much they loved him.
Another impersonator that stands out for me this year was this kid I met when I was standing close to the beer wagon. A quick note about the beer tent: I don’t drink beer when I am there. I am concerned about the heat and the alcohol. I also think that people might be more reluctant to talk to me if I had a beer in my hand or on my breath. Back to this little guy: he was in a white suit with a light blue shirt. He seemed nervous and acted like he wanted me to talk to him or at least notice him. He had thick hair that added at least a couple of inches to his height. Just guessing, I thought he was probably 8 or 9 years old. When I asked him if he had performed yet, he said no. I asked when he was performing and he said he didn’t know. I detected a slight speech impediment. I asked him where he was from and he said somewhere in North Carolina. It shocked me when he told me he was 13 years old because he was no where as tall as my 13 year old daughter. I was stooping over to talk to him and I don’t have to do that with my 9 year old. Mary is probably a few inches taller that this kid and that is even including his tall hair. I couldn’t help but thinking what unfortunate circumstances for this kid. He is short for his age, has speech problems and his parents encourage this Elvis masquerade. I wonder how often he gets beat up at school.
The last impersonator that stands out was an old guy in an elaborate, white jumpsuit sitting near the Elvis tent. I never saw him perform and I don’t know that he did. He might have just been dressed that way for Elvis week. This guy had the black hair but it was much thinner that Elvis’ hair ever was. The guy looked really bad and not like Elvis at all. Where he was sitting, someone came up to him in a black jumpsuit and a full head of hair. He was helping them with the collar of the jumpsuit. I could only see this person from behind and assumed it was a son or grandson and I assumed that they were both impersonators. I walked on by and saw that this person was an older lady with a flat chest, extreme tan and many wrinkles; probably this guy’s wife.
Speaking of women’s chests, there is no lack of tube tops, halter tops, bikini tops, spaghetti strap tops and just thin low cut t-shirts at this thing. This is regardless of the age of the women wearing them or the size of their breasts. I mentioned that many of the people there are larger than me and this includes the women that are too large and/or old to be wearing these clothes that are too revealing. I have heard some people wondering what all of these women with the tattoos on their breasts will look like when they get old. I have to say without boasting that I have a pretty good idea. There are plenty of airbrushed tattoos that you can get for the day at the visitors center but I saw plenty of real tattoos on breasts that have lost their perk a long time ago. I saw a young lady in a tube top wiping the sweat from her chest while she tried to decide which breast to get a temporary tattoo on. I wondered what would be the deciding factor. I wondered if being the guy running the temporary tattoo concession is a good thing or a bad thing.
I mentioned the heat earlier but I don’t think I really conveyed how bad it was. I made frequent trips back to my Jeep to get water. On one of my trips back from the parking lot when I got to the visitors’ center, the Emergency crew had a lady on a cart taking her to the ambulance. She looked like she had spent too much time in the heat. She also looked like she was too old to spend very much time in the heat to begin with. I think I even detected the feeling that she might be having second thoughts about the intelligence of anyone being there in that heat. An hour or so later, I saw another stretcher that they were getting ready to put an old lady on that was already in a wheelchair. I don’t know if she came to Graceland in the wheelchair or if they put her in it when she started feeling sick. Other than these incidents, I know I saw at least three ambulances coming onto the grounds at different times during the day. There is a bridge that crosses a creek on the grounds between the parking lot and the visitors’ center. I was making a water run to the Jeep after I had seen at least one of these people being picked up and I was feeling a little hot. When I got to the bridge, there was a group of people coming from the parking lot. The lady in front of the group was rather large and not moving very well. She was using a walker but looked more suited for a wheelchair. There was a lady following her with an oxygen tank. At first glance, I thought it was for the walker lady but then I noticed the lady pushing the tank was hooked up to it already. This was the point that I decided these people where crazy. There is no good reason for these people to be here. Someone needs to tell these people to go home. What does it say about me? What am I doing here? Is it really worth it to stand out in extreme heat to see this freak show? That was when I decided that I might not stay for the Candlelight Vigil ceremony. I had left because of the heat in years past. I also decided that if I did stay, I needed to eat in air conditioning during the hottest part of the day to be out of the sun and cool down. It was on my next trip for water that I discovered the water tunnel. There is a pavilion with tables between the visitors’ center and the Elvis tent strip mall. This is a cab pick-up and drop-off point. They had a vinyl tent set up that was open on both ends. The tent had water misters inside to allow you to cool off. I walked through and found out that it was more of a light spray than a true mist but it felt good. There was a lady standing there watching her swimsuit clad daughter play in this water. I struck up a conversation with her as I passed through. I usually ask people where they are from, if it’s their first trip to Graceland or the vigil and I usually end up asking how many times they have been to Graceland and/or the vigil. This lady has been for 32 years. That’s right, they were coming even before Elvis died. They were actually in Memphis when Elvis passed away. Her mom had brought her to Memphis to try and see Elvis. How they knew this, I don’t know but she said Elvis was usually in town for his mother’s anniversary on the 14th. The anniversary of what, I don’t know. Her mother was in a tree on the edge of the property when the ambulance came and picked him up. Her mother called in to work and told them that she needed off more time to attend a funeral. They stayed in Memphis until after the funeral.
Later in the day, I saw some ladies in matching t-shirts from one of the Elvis fan clubs. This was the “He Touched Me” fan club. I was curious about where their fan club was from and found out that they were from various places. I think they were from New Jersey and Chicago. One of them was black. This is unusual. You don’t see that many black people at Graceland that aren’t working there. Almost everyone that works there is black. While talking to them, they mentioned that one of their members had past away earlier in the day. She said it happened in the RV Park beside Heartbreak Hotel. The lady that died was a regular for Elvis Week. She rode around in an electric wheelchair and had a little dog. I think they said the dog’s name was Killer. Later, several members of the fan club went on the stage in the Elvis tent and announced that their friend had died and they started collecting money to try and get her body back home.