People in jumpsuits was one of the changes in the air this year. We had been told in recent years that they were discouraging the jumpsuits on the day of the candlelight vigil. This was most noticeable among the performers at the tent. But it seemed like this year the jumpsuit was being accepted again if not outright embraced. When I was getting my picture with the guy in the most professional jumpsuit, he asked David to make sure he got the belt in the picture. Another change in the area around the tent with the non-stop Elvis impersonators was beer. In the past, they’ve had a beer concession at the tent but it was gone this year. The restaurant next to the Elvis tent had a new, prominently displayed sign that said you couldn’t leave the restaurant with beer. I’m not sure what prompted the change in policy. It could be that they are trying to change the environment in a way to be perceived as more family friendly. It could be that they had issues with drunks they are trying to address. It could be that the people that ran the concession didn’t want to return this year. Regardless of the reason, beer policy was changing at Graceland and I’m sure this made a difference in the crowd.
Change was also present on the tour but not so much for content but for me. This was the first time that I’ve done the tour in back-to-back years. The content of the tour was not that new for me. I would have to take a different approach if it was going to entertain this year. Last year was the year of the selfie as a way of keeping from just taking pictures around the mansion that everyone else takes. This year, I wanted to take pictures that no one else took. My first opportunity to do this was on the front steps of the mansion. We were greeted by a very pleasant tour guide named Erma. Erma gave us the standard welcome and instructions about photos and movement through the house. I decided that I needed a selfie with Erma. And I got it. As we continued through the house, I continued to take selfies that probably look very similar to the ones I took last year. When I got to the dining room, I decided to take a picture of myself in the mirrored wall surrounding a photo of Priscilla and Lisa Marie. Later in the tour, we were standing next to a door in the hall between the kitchen and the stairwell to the basement. I decided to check the door to see if it was locked. It was. Then I took a picture of the doorknob. Even later, we were standing in a paneled hallway leading to the stairs going up to the Jungle Room. There was a painting of a ship in a harbor. There is nothing special about that painting. I’m willing to bet that very few photos of this painting have been intentionally taken with the painting as a subject of the photo. I took a selfie with the painting. Even later I was standing at the bottom of the stairwell up to the Jungle Room and noticed the shag carpet on the wall. I thought a selfie with this carpet in the background would be great. It might even look like I was lying down.
There were changes that I had nothing to do with. Last year, the Archive Studio exhibit was new and I thought it was a great idea. They had a presentation that lasted about 30 minutes that had video and a chance to show a very small sampling of the clothes and documents that didn’t fit into other exhibits. It seemed like something that could vary and change more frequently than the other exhibits that needed a theme. This year, they would show a 15 minute video and let us go. There seemed to be more people going through than last year. Maybe they changed the tour packages to include this for more people. And with the increase of people for Elvis Week, maybe this necessitated a change in the program to get people through more quickly. I understand the need for this change but not all change is good.
We also changed where we ate this year. After the tour, we had a limited about of time before we would need to get in line for the vigil. We wanted to be able to spend some time around the Elvis tent at the same time. We wanted to get food to go from the restaurant near the Elvis tent and go out and watch. It was confusing enough in the restaurant that we could not figure out how to get food ordered to go. We had noticed a food truck outside and that was easy to understand so we went there. While we were standing in line, we found out they ran out of hamburgers. Much to Tina’s dismay, we were soon told they were out of chicken fingers. I scanned the menu for something that I would be ok to eat that I didn’t think many people would order. I decided on the fish sandwich but I was in the back of the line. David wanted BBQ nachos but they were out of BBQ. Tina and Jenny ordered hot dogs while David and I got fish sandwiches.