One of the changes for this year was a larger group. This was the third year in a row for my friend Tina to join me on the trip. Tina’s sister, Jenny, came in from Louisiana to join us. Jenny had visited Graceland before but this was her first candlelight vigil Rounding out the group was my friend David. David grew up in Memphis and had been to Graceland on a candlelight vigil night before, but it was part of a high school class reunion after party. He had never seen the ceremony, never done the full immersion experience that a trip with me provides. Our plans included the Platinum tour featuring the house, and all exhibits excluding the planes and no VIP access. Going non-VIP was probably a good idea this year. While we were purchasing our tickets, I saw someone with a VIP tag complaining about the length of the VIP access line for the mansion tour. He told the lady in the ticket booth, “I feel like I’ve been taken.” I heard her make some sort of offer to downgrade his tickets to a lesser package to which he replied, “that will just be starting over and put me in worse shape than what I am!”
Unhappy people seemed to be the exception to the rule. Most of the people I talked to weren’t wearing jumpsuits or fan club shirts. Most of their plans to visit Graceland were completely unassociated with Elvis week or the Candlelight vigil. They were there for weekend excursions. Even the people from foreign countries were there on side trips instead of the “Graceland as primary destination” trip. The young, Brazilian couple who sat behind us on the bus from the Mansion to the Welcome Center were here to play soccer. They were not Elvis fans. Neither was the other young couple that was in Memphis on a daytrip. They came to tour the mansion and had no intentions of staying for any candlelight vigil. Maybe they would have put their visit off for a week if they had known what was going on that day.
But most of the people that we encountered were there for Elvis week. I met a family from Argentina because of their Argentina Elvis shirts. It was the man’s third Graceland trip, the woman’s second trip and their child’s first trip. I talk to the two guys from Miami because their Elvis jumpsuit shirts matched the one that my family had gotten for me last year for Father’s Day. It wasn’t an exact match; their shirts had been bedazzled by a girlfriend. This was their 27th year to come to Elvis week. The family from England was there for their first time and had many questions about the candlelight vigil. Their oldest son was 9, which is the same age my son was when I took him to Graceland. Their youngest son was 6 and they wondered how their kids would make it during the vigil. I established a pattern of trying to get a picture with anyone that I talked to. I wasn’t taking notes like I had last year and the delay before I could write anything about the trip meant that details about some of the meetings would be lost forever.
There were more people wearing jumpsuits this year, especially kids. Most of the outfits were little more that Halloween costumes. The first kids dressed in Elvis garb that I tried to get a picture with wanted a dollar to pose. We got a picture of them but didn’t pose with them.
We didn’t pose with the set of kids in more sophisticated Halloween costumes but we did get a picture of them posing with Kid Rock. Seeing Kid Rock mingling in the crowd was the first time I had seen a non-Elvis celebrity during Elvis Week. Sometimes you see people wearing things that they just shouldn’t be wearing. There are some of these that fall into the “People of Walmart” category that are good for a laugh. Then there are some people that you wish someone had not let them go out of the house dressed that way. You feel bad about laughing at them but regardless of how pitiful the situation, you can’t help but be amused. I’m sure that the young man with special needs was in heaven to be wearing his ill-fitting jumpsuit at Graceland during Elvis week. It was unfortunate that the jumpsuit had a V-neck that opened all the way down to just slightly above his navel. It was even more unfortunate that he had a tan line from another V-neck shirt that didn’t plunge quite as low.
This kid was not the only person getting inappropriate laughs this year. An older man waiting in line for the vigil was entertaining the crowd around him by singing along with Elvis and dancing like no one was looking. But everyone was looking. The applause of the crowd around him was what drew me to go and get video footage. While shooting footage of one of his performances, I struck up a conversation with a couple of ladies in line. This conversation was the type I usually remember in detail but my attention was split between them and the dancing man. My attention was slowly drawn more to the dancing man because he looked like he might need medical attention. The show was over and the crowd became concerned about his physical well-being. Was he drunk? Did he have mental issues? Was anyone there with him? The fun decreased as our concern increased. He got some rest and would dance again later in the evening. But it wouldn’t be the same.