August 15, 1978 marked the eve of the first anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. This would be the first time I would visit Memphis on August 15 that I remember but this first trip was not to attend an Elvis Candlelight Vigil. I’m sure the Elvis fans gathered there that year just as they had a year before when he died on August 16. But I’m sure whatever observations that Elvis’ faithful fans had that year were probably hampered by a policeman’s strike in Memphis. There were already National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Memphis when the city’s firefighters joined the strike. Add to that the first ever mass influx of tourists to Memphis just to see Graceland. There were no official events planned and I’m sure any attempt at a candlelight vigil was probably not welcome by local officials who had declared a curfew starting at 8 PM to try and curb violence by angry police on the previous nights. It’s amazing that Elvis Week ever took off when its roots were in an environment like this.
But I was not in Memphis to do anything related with Elvis. I was in Memphis to attend a concert by the rock group Boston. Boston had recently released the follow-up to their extremely successful debut album. This was their “Don’t Look Back” tour. My friends and I were excited about seeing Boston. We listened to them every weekend when we were riding around town. Their music was an important part of the soundtrack of our high school years. It was automatic for us to get tickets to see them as soon as the concert was announced. As the day of the concert drew near, it was obvious that the strikes from police and firefighters was still going to be active. We were afraid that the concert would be canceled or postponed because it was scheduled to start at 8 PM, the same time that the curfew started each night. The start time for the concert was moved up to 4 PM. I’m amazed that our parents let us go. Because we lived 2 hours away from Memphis and school didn’t get out until 3, we missed most of Sammy Hagar who was the opening act. At the time, I didn’t even know who he was.
As concerts go, it was typical of shows that I would go to see during this time in my life. The most noteworthy thing happened after the show. We were hungry and hoped to eat something after the show. We decided to stop somewhere to eat before we left town. We ended up at the McDonalds on Summer Avenue near the edge of town. It was almost 8 PM when we arrived and was after 8 by the time we got our food. They let us eat in the restaurant but they locked the doors so no one else could come in. This is the only time I’ve eaten at a restaurant under lock and key. We ate as quickly as possible. They unlocked the door for us to leave and we quickly hit the road. According to some reports there were as many as 166 houses and buildings that burned in Memphis during the firefighter’s strike. Fortunately, the McDonalds on Summer Avenue was not one of them. We were also lucky enough to completely miss any fires or violence going on in Memphis during this turbulent time.