When I made my first trip to Elvis Week in 2002, I did several things to document the trip. I took a cassette tape recorder and a digital camera to document the trip. Today, I could do the same with my iPhone. But with the cassette recorder, I felt more official in documenting the trip. The first interview that I did with anyone on that trip was a guy that appeared to be Indian who told me his name was “Elvis Pompeii”. Never expecting to make it a regular trip, I talked to a lot of people that I might not have talked to otherwise. Getting pictures and interviews was the focus of the trip. I also recorded my friend Terry talking about some of people we met. His observations were hilarious. I put together a 20-minute video with highlights from the trip that I can share if you contact me.
You might expect that over the years, I could have placed several items from my Elvis Week trips in our printer’s drawer. The main item that I have was gotten during that first trip. One of the souvenir stores had a display from a local furniture store that had an Elvis bedroom suit. It featured knobs that had “EP” on them. They were giving away knobs and I got one of these. The knobs were huge. Terry joked about making a ring out of them. Mine took a place in the printer’s drawer as a memory of that first trip. That was the only year the furniture was on display. I suspect they don’t make it anymore due to lack of sales. That knob not only represents my first Elvis Week trip, it also represents things you don’t see at Elvis Week anymore like Velvet Elvis paintings. I’m sure you can find them in Memphis, just not at Graceland.