Music and Stories from Art Wheeler
It has been almost two weeks since my latest visit to Graceland and less than a week since I posted the essay for this year’s trip. Earlier this week, I was going through the channel guide on my television and saw that the movie “This is Elvis” was on. This documentary was released in 1981. …
Continue reading “Watching “This Is Elvis” After Elvis Week 2014″
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 …
Continue reading “Elvis Week 2014: Hanging out with Insiders”
Earlier this week, I went to eat lunch at one of the local Chinese/Japanese restaurants. This restaurant is close to where I work. It is also my family’s favorite place to get sushi so I am there often. Because of the threat of an ice storm, I was wearing a heavy coat. I was also …
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 …
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 …
This was the tenth consecutive year that I have gone to the candlelight vigil at Graceland. You might think that I have some sort of ritual that I go through before I leave, but it really varies from year to year. There have been years when it was vital that I purchase tires before I …
“Oh! This is nice! Louie!!” She looked around the store with a dead look on her face. Finally Louie shows up and she shows him the life size cardboard cutout of Elvis. “Wouldn’t this look nice in our living room?” Louie replied “actually it wouldn’t.” It was a rare moment of honesty that you don’t …
When you’ve been to Graceland for the candlelight vigil 6 years in a row, you don’t expect trip number 7 to have any firsts. You think you’ve seen it all. This one had several firsts. Here is a list: First time to write my name on the wall. First time to go on the trip …
“Hi! This is Art Wheeler. I will be out of the office on August 15th and 16th in observance of the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. Thank you very much.”
As I prepare for my annual trip to Graceland, I looked through some old stuff. Here are some notes on my annual Graceland trip I forwarded to friends back in 2006. You no longer have to pay to park in the official Graceland parking lot. The Graceland Crossing souvenir mall is now called “Elvis After …