When I was walking away, I met this lady that was hanging out with the British guy that helped with Danny’s mom. The lady wanted her picture taken with me. We did that and then I got picture of me with her and British guy. She was from Germantown. They joked around with me telling me they had just gotten married. It turns out that she was married to someone else that was there with their 5 year old child. She was there hanging out with people that she had met that day. She seemed to enjoy Elvis too. She said she didn’t like it when the women performed. I bet she didn’t like the girl from Brazil at all.
I went back and started watching the performers. Most of them were unimpressive. I started looking at the crowd. There was the lady with the opened back top with an extreme Graceland/Elvis tattoo mural on her back. For her sake, I hope it is a temporary tattoo. There were other ladies with conditions that were more permanent. There was the older lady with extremely large legs that looked muscular and tight from surgery instead of exercise. Then there were the ladies with the large breasts. There were several older ladies with breasts that drooped as much as the tops of their outfits sagged. Clothes and breasts seemed to be too low on these ladies and too much skin was exposed above. This is also par for the course but it seemed more disturbing this year. Maybe it was because of the comparison with the young lady with the perky breasts that seemed to be popping out into the walkway around the gift shop that we had seen earlier.
We also saw an Indian Elvis impersonator. I think I have pictures of this guy from my first trip in 2002. His name is Robert Pooran. He lives in Toronto. He was there with his wife, 2 daughters and a 5 month old grandson. He gave me his business card. It says he is also known as Etobicoke Elvis. The card advertises his “Tribute to the King…Elvis” and under his name it says “For All Occasions”.
In addition to it being a year for old women falling down, it was a year for naked old men. Not completely naked, just without shirts. During a stop to drop off souvenirs at the car, we saw an old man changing shirts in the parking lot. Not long after that, we were at the restrooms at the visitors center and saw another old man changing shirts.
After we ate, we went to the visitors’ center for candles and made our way to the line for the candlelight vigil. I look forward to this part of the trip each year. You spend more time with the people in line than anyone else on the trip. You have a better opportunity to get to know them. There were 3 young girls from South Africa in the line in front of us. They have recently moved to the US. They told us about a book project they were working on. They said that New Line Cinema also had options for a movie. They asked if we would want to give them our email addresses so they could send us information about the projects when and if they came out. Or course we said sure. While we were entering them into their iPad, they started telling us more about the project. Something about Techno-Romance, Non-Dates and life in the post-dating world. It was hard to understand what all it involved and was sort of scary to be giving out email addresses. They gave us some flyers about it and I checked out the website. I’m still not sure what I think of them. They were also into face painting and one of the girls drew a picture of Elvis on her arm. Every little girl in the line around us wanted an Elvis drawing and they started doing drawings for $5 each. As interesting as they were, they were not the most interesting people in the line.
We started talking to the ladies behind us. There was a lady with bad teeth and her mom. They were from Memphis and big Elvis fans. Bad teeth lady’s sister showed up. Her name was Lisa Marie for obvious reasons. Lisa Marie had good teeth. They all had dark hair and heavy make-up. The mom was pregnant with Lisa Marie when she went to an Elvis concert. Lisa Marie was proud of the fact that she had been to an Elvis show even though she was in the womb at the time. Lisa Marie’s husband showed up later. He is best described as a shit-faced drunk. He was loud and sounded drunk. He was a little guy popping beers in line. The family looked like they were used to the husband’s behavior. At some point before the vigil ceremony started, the mom left. I’m not sure where or why she was gone. Maybe to visit the restroom or get water. Anyway, she passed out in the middle of the road right next to an ambulance. They put her in the ambulance and took her to the hospital. The rest of the family stayed at the candlelight vigil. How screwed up can you be? If I’m with family and family passes out and has to go to the hospital, I think I’m going to the hospital with family.
After we had our initial talk with Lisa Marie and family, we turned around and there was another girl in front of us sort of next to the South African girls. At first, I thought she was with them but I think she just sort of ended up there. She was from Memphis and lived down the street from Graceland. Very pale girl. She visits Graceland about 4 times a year. I sort of got the feeling that it wasn’t to bring friends and family who were in town but just because she liked going. She was able to tell me that they change the rotating exhibit about twice a year. She said her first trip to the candlelight vigil was 2002, the same as my first year. It sounded like she is more regular than the regulars. For a while if we moved up or back in the line, she stayed with us but at some point we were separated. Then there were the girls from Wisconsin. At some point when the line was moving, Lisa Marie and her family got in front of us. The Wisconsin girls were behind them. They had driven 14 hours straight and had gotten there around 6 pm. The vigil started at 8:30. They were wearing black dresses that looked nice. It looked like they might be going to a casual funeral. They were very quiet. They could have been afraid of us or exhausted from the 14 hour drive. There was also a large group of travelers from Belgium and the Netherlands. Some had been to Graceland before and they had varying abilities to speak English. I wish we had more opportunity to speak to them.
The vigil ceremony was typical. The wind wasn’t blowing too badly so you didn’t have to shield your candle as much. Graceland has always been pretty strict about following rules and showing respect during the vigil. They don’t warn people about making trouble anymore. Some of the people got a little rowdy at the end of the vigil ceremony. I think Graceland is just happy to have you there regardless of why. They said not to use flash photography or take video at the gravesite but there were all kinds of flashes going off when I was there. I sure some people were taking video too. It’s hard to police and I think they’ve given up. While they discourage the jumpsuits for the vigil, they’ve gone back to selling more cheap crap in the souvenir stores. It’s easier to find ashtrays again. They know that a segment of the people coming to Graceland are coming to make fun. They’re coming to make fun of Elvis, make fun of Elvis junk and make fun of the people that love Elvis. They need stuff on the shelves to laugh at so the people may not pay as much attention to the people that love Elvis. People that think Graceland salt and pepper shakers also occasionally buy them. You’ve got to have them on the shelf for people to buy.
During walk to the gravesite, Nick and I passed by flowers from several fan clubs. Most of the clubs are named after Elvis songs. I told Nick that we needed to start an EPFC (Elvis Presley Fan Club). I wanted to pick a song that no one else would pick. I thought Rock-A-Hula was a good name for a club. When we were done with the trip to the gravesite, we started looking at the shrines set up in the middle of the street. We took several pictures. We got to one that was set up by the Rock-A-Hula EPFC. The old lady sitting with the shrine was from Fargo, North Dakota. Her daughter who started the club was from California. I told her that Rock-A-Hula Baby was a favorite Elvis song because it was written by Delores Fuller from the Ed Wood movies. I knew she would never know who that was but it didn’t matter. I got my picture made with the Rock-A-Hula lady.
It was time to leave. There had been too many old women falling down and naked old men. I was looking for something to pull this whole trip together. I didn’t think I could find anything that would help it make any sense but there had to be something to tie it all up. I had turned off my camera and slipped it into my pocket as we began the trip to the parking lot. Then I noticed something. A line of people that had gone unnoticed before. A line of people in wheelchairs and oxygen tanks and assistants. The rest of the old women and men that had already fallen down and needed to see Elvis one more time.