Category: Elvis Week

I was walking back to the entertainment tent at Graceland when I saw 4 people from Brazil.  I was in my Elvis Week element when I started talking to them and asking them about their visit. Only one of them had ever been to Graceland before.  One of the men did most of the talking.  He grabbed at the blue wristband on his arm and said, “I don’t like this.”  I said I didn’t like it either.  The wristband was a “Graceland Property Pass” that gave you access to various areas during Elvis Week.  It was also the only way you could get to the Candlelight Vigil this year. The only way to get this pass was to purchase one of the tour packages. The minimum cost of one of these packages was nearly $30.  This was a significant change for an event that has always been free. It didn’t affect us because we were already planning to tour the house and the new visitor’s center exhibits.  But it was affecting our Brazilian friends because they were spending the week in Memphis for Elvis Week.  They had done the tours and exhibits earlier in the week and had no reason to revisit them.  Each of them purchased an additional $30 ticket just to do the candlelight vigil and they didn’t like it.  These changes came up early in our conversations with most people and without me asking. Change has come to Graceland and the fans don’t like it. 

The rain started falling on us as we got to the edge of Memphis.  By the time we pulled into the parking lot at Graceland, the rain had stopped but there was rain and threats of rain all day. When we were getting out of the car, I suggested to Tina that we take the rain ponchos with us that I had purchased several years earlier for a previous Elvis Week. It was the right thing to do.

“Excuse me, can I get a picture of your backsides?” I have to admit that this was an unusual request, even for Elvis week. You might expect that the reaction would be to call for the cops or at least a good slap in the face. But the four women to whom I made the request turned around to look at me and the turned to let be get a picture of the backs of their matching shirts. 

The shirts matched in style but the backs identified which generation each member of this family of Elvis fans was from. A unique idea that I had never seen in my years at Graceland. After that, I asked if I could get a picture of the fronts of their shirts. While I was getting this picture, they told me there were two other women in their group somewhere. I said I would try to get a picture of them if I ran into them. 

A few days before my yearly trip to Graceland for the Candlelight Vigil, I ran into a friend who had read some of my posts about visiting Graceland.  He told me that he was one of the few people ever kicked out of Graceland. Earlier in his life, he was involved in a comedy club in Memphis and went with one of the performers to visit Graceland.  During their visit, the performer left a wreath of bacon at the gravesite.  This was not appreciated.  They were taken to one of the buses and seated at the back to be taken off of the property.  He said before they left, the bus filled with a Brownie scout troop.  He said it was embarrassing.  He said that he took other performers after that without incident and developed a good relationship with the people at Graceland.  They were the ones that told him he was one of the few people that had been kicked out.

It appears that in one way my friend had come to know some of the insiders at Graceland.  There are other types of insiders at Graceland.  The Elvis Insiders Club is a group you can join to get discounts on tours and Elvis swag both at Graceland and on-line.  Last year, my friend Tina went for her first Candlelight Vigil.  She returned this year.  Since last year, she has joined the Elvis Insiders Club.  This would be a great year to get treated like a real Insider.  To get the VIP treatment for the first time since I started coming to Elvis Week in 2002.  To finally complete the process of blending in with the Elvis faithful.  Would this be as much fun as in years past?  Would I be able to experience Elvis Week with the same vision I had 12 years ago?  How far away am I from growing sideburns and dyeing my hair black every August?   

This year has been one of the hardest years for me to come up with a way of approaching my annual trip to Graceland.  In recent years, I have had some idea of an approach that I wanted to take before I even left home.  This year has been full of distractions.  Other things seemed to take more importance that a trip I have taken ten times before.  Why was I going this year?  It seems to be more out of habit than anything else.  People expect me to be at Graceland on August 15.  And these are not people that are there.  Friends and family want to ask me about it.

Before I left town, I stopped off at the bank.  I thought I recognized the teller as a lady that had gone to Lambuth when I was there.  I decided that it was not her and that it could possibly be her mom or a much older sister.  Definitely not someone my age.  When she waited on me, she asked me if she knew me from somewhere.  It turns out she was exactly who I originally thought she was.  It also meant this lady was only a year older than me.