My ex-sister-in-law went on a double date with Elvis. Did you know that? I mean, she wasn’t Elvis’s date…..her sister was……but they were in the same car, on the same date………….so, I have a connection to Elvis.
Well, my cousin went to see Elvis perform, and everyone was standing in line and all…….she was number seven……….and he looked at her and motioned her to the front of the line. “I like blondes,” he said, and do you know that he asked her to go for a ride in his convertible, and she told him that her mama’d kill her for getting in a car with a stranger??? That’s my Elvis story.
Elvis kissed one of my friends. That’s right. She was at a concert, and she somehow fell down, and he picked her right up and kissed her and went on with the show. He was something, that Elvis.
Do you remember Judy ? Well, she was IN the movie “Blue Hawaii” with Elvis. She was 10 or 11, and they were on a family vacation at the hotel where they were filming the movie, so she just got to splash around the edge of the pool…….and talk to Elvis…………and be in a movie……….and talk to Elvis. I wonder what it was like to talk to Elvis?
Do you have an Elvis story, Dear Reader?
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Thanks to the Beaufort Book Bashers of Beaufort, South Carolina for inviting me to attend my first-ever book club as an author. I will never forget such a milestone with you. Thank you for being a gracious, entertaining and inquisitive group of readers. It was very clever of you to ply me with Kennedy Punch in an attempt to get details on the sequel. But even more, it was a joy to talk about the book with people who read it, to listen to your stories and to spend a meaningful evening with you.
Obviously, we talked about Elvis. If you wonder what Elvis Presley has to do with Meriwether Lewis, you haven’t read my novel. Click below to purchase To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis in your favorite format.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roh2vIM_EAA&w=420&h=315]
77 Comments
Nope. No Elvis story here!
That’s cool. You kind of have one now, since you read this, Rajiv. 🙂
I wish I had an Elvis story! But I’ll be content to listen to a few more videos of him singing. 🙂
I’m glad this one (hopefully) sent you down that rabbit hole. 🙂
Well…..so did the peanut butter and bananas I read about. 🙂
No, I just have that great Elvis Impersonator story at my friend’s funeral. Congrats on being the book club author!
We all have to start somewhere, Helena. I couldn’t have taken the plunge with a better group. These ladies were so much fun. Very entertaining.
No Elvis story other than I took a picture next to his statuesque image in Nashville a few years ago.
That’s a story, Mary. Of course it is. 🙂
The first boy I kissed was Elvis…..Well he wasn’t THE Elvis, just called Elvis 😉
Did you imagine THE Elvis when you closed your eyes??
Haha no because it was my first kiss EVER so I was too busy freaking out about that (and afterwards feeling pretty disappointed, as it turned out this Elvis, like all 13 year old boys, wasn’t a very good kisser)
I did wish afterwards that it had been THE Elvis though 😉
But, WHAT a memory, right? I mean, your first kiss was Elvis. That’ll make a great story for the rest of your life.
Oh absolutely – we’ll skip past the awkward slobbering and just focus on ELVIS!!
I just like the fact that I can say my first kiss was Elvis 😉 (Although wait- that makes me sounds REALLY old. Maybe I need to rework that sentence)
Most women (and some men) would be jealous, regardless. I wouldn’t worry about that at all. 🙂
I have no Elvis story. Although my dad managed a pretty nice Elvis lip curl in a family photo. Great book club portrait.
Okay, I MUST see that photo.
My sister was an Elvis fan. She snuck out of the house and went to where his concert was but couldn’t get home by bus. She missed the last bus. She walked home and she got home as the sun came up… No big story.. I was a kid…
Did she think the concert was worth it?
She loved Elvis. I was a kid and didn’t even know who he was. My mother would say he’d do these things with his hips.. I didn’t even know what hips were. I was sheltered:)
Glad to meet a fellow sheltered soul. 🙂
A friend of mine teaches Elvis to her kids in her fourth grade class. She tells the administration that it’s a fun introduction to American History. And it is.
That’s brilliant, Jim.
No Elvis story except he was a golden oldie in my youth (and I’m older than you) before his comeback as a Nixonian drug warrior…
Thanks for sharing the book (AGAIN) today, Robert. I saw your tweet about it and loved your hashtag. Everyone in your network must be SICK of hearing about my book by now. I owe you and Katherine dinner when I’m in NY.
Nah, they love when i nag them!
I don’t really, but I remember the day he died. A guy was walking down the street in Chicago looking dazed. He walked up to me and said, “Elvis is dead.”
Isn’t Elvis’s death one of those moments? Almost everyone remembers what they were doing when they found out.
I attended one of his last concerts. he was overweight and needed to have the words to “My Way” on a piece of paper, but until the house announcer told everyone “Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building,” all 9,000 of us were still in place not wanting the magic to end.
Fame has to be really hard to process. I’m sure it contributed to his decline, because how could it not? That’s a great story, John.
I saw his Las Vegas show. I was young and dressed in ‘night out’ attire so they placed me next to center stage. A scarf was coming in my direction when a woman at the next table did a leap and grabbed it – okay with me as she seemed to be a serious fan. If you have seen his shows then you will understand the scarf comment.
I am not a big fan of Las Vegas era Elvis, the scarf-and-jumpsuit Elvis. Mom used to go on about Elvis when I was little, and I was like, “Duh. He’s this yucky fat man. How dumb is my mom???” But when I got older, I met 50s Elvis and totally saw why she liked him.
I used to know one of the receptionists from Elvis’s Memphis doctors office, but that’s as close as I can go.
That’s closer than me, Lisa.
No personal Elvis story here either. You, clearly, are just too well-connected and neato for words. I am in awe.
[But your post did remind me of a novel by Diane Thomas called: The Year the Music Changed. It’s the story of a young girl’s infatuation with the early Elvis told through the letters that they exchange. If you’ve not read it, it’s charming.]
It was these book club ladies. They all shared these stories last night. So, they’re well-connected, and they were nice enough to let me hang out with them for a few hours.
Thanks for the rec. I’m always looking.
Lots of Elvis impersonators here in Sin City. 😉
Congratulations on your first book club!
We almost had an Elvis impersonator do our vow renewal there, Nancy. Expensive prospect, that.
I hope you’re enjoying being back in Vegas and getting some good hikes in.
Not a single one yet. 🙁 Just some quality time with the Stairmaster to build up my climbing stamina after too long away.
I have no idea what happened to my early Elvis 45–“That’s All Right Mama” on the Sun label–I wish I still had it. One sold awhile back for more than $17,000: http://www.sunrecords.com/news/a-box-of-old-records-held-treasure-a-rare-and-pricey-gem Ah, well. 🙂
Maybe THAT was yours!!! What are the chances??
I wonder how many people got to hang out in the kitchen at Graceland watching Elvis stuff his face with fat?
A peanut butter, banana, and mayo sandwich.
With bacon, natch!
And I think they were fried, Nancy! Yikes!
OMG! You’re right. Thinking about the grams of fat in one of those Bad Boys makes me queasy. 😎
Somehow Nancy, I don’t think you reverence Elvis as others do.
I loved watching Elvis movies when I was a kid, but the bloated gospel singer persona did nothing for me.
Among other things, I hated all the capes and sequins. Too Liberace for me.
Fame stresses different people different ways. People seek it out, but they seldom realize what they’re getting into. Decades of fame had to take a toll on him, and he made his choices to deal. I can’t even imagine the crush of all that, so I won’t judge.
I totally agree with you about the capes and sequins, though. I was a kid, and I actually confused Elvis with Liberace. When one sat down at the piano, I knew who it was.
My Elvis story? Mine is that I actually don’t like his music. Or his movies. Or any of it. guess I am just contrary.
You like what you like. Nothing wrong with that.
My first record was a 45, with the little gold disk that went in the center, and was played, over and over again, on a red and white record player; the kind that went round and round. My Aunt Christina gave it to me for my birthday when I was in 8th grade and one side played “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You”. I was certain Elvis was singing to me. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Elvis sang to everyone who ever heard him. That’s got to be part of the secret of his appeal. He could make a person feel like he was singing just for them.
Other than the velvet Elvis painting my late grandmother proudly hung in her house, that’s all I got.
That’s quite a connection, Lance. I don’t know anyone with a velvet Elvis. 🙂
Sorry, Andra — Elvis may have died the year before I was born!
I was only 8 when he died, and I couldn’t understand why everyone was so upset, because he was just this gross fat man I confused with Liberace. (See above.)
I lived in Durham in 1974-1975 and my roommate had heard that Elvis was in town doing the Duke University rice diet. She heard he was staying in a refurbished train car. Well we found them and proceeded to knock on the door. A man answered and said Elvis was not staying there. Oh well, we tried! I think there might have been some drinking on our part. Crazy 20 year olds!
You might’ve been right, Debbie. Elvis might’ve been hiding in there, and he actually heard your voice.
I don’t have any Elvis stories lurking in my family (that I’m aware of)! Congrats on being a book club author!
It was a great time, Katie. Thank you.
Those are great Elvis stories 🙂 And congrats on attending your first book club as an author! How’s is your current project coming along?
Thanks, Laurence.
Current project…………..don’t ask. You know……….making sense of a first draft………….do you have those points (or pretty much spend the whole time) where you slap your head and say, “Why on EARTH do I write???” 🙂 Yeah. That’s me right now. My face is red in the photo from all the slapping of self. 🙂
You DO have a personal connection to Elvis. I think that’s quite exciting. My only connection is fairly ordinary, but still a fun one. I was barely out of high school and a girlfriend and I went to Vegas and saw him perform–the white jump suit days. It must have been about five years before he died. I have always been glad I had that concert and I still remember it very vividly. He did NOT pick me out of the crowd. LOL! Now, what is Kennedy Punch? I’ll Google it! 🙂
I had to write about him to make my connection, Debra, but I’ll take it. I’m glad to know so many people who actually saw him perform.
Kennedy Punch was their slang name for what they served, because the woman who first brought it dressed up like Jackie and called it that. I can find out the recipe from the group. Maybe they’ll let me post it here. I’ve gotten several questions about it today in different platforms.
No Elvii connection here. Singular (Elvis) Plural (Elvii). Never even owned any of his music. Though I did watch the movies.
I only have his gospel, but it’s an exhaustive collection.
My neighbor growing up was a distant cousin of Elvis. And my son does a mean impression. Thank you very much.
Hee Hee. I heard the ‘thankyouverymuch.’ 🙂
the office manager in my advertising days told a tale of when she and her girlfriend, also both blondes, went on a double date with him to a drive in movie in the south somewhere. her friend was a stewardess and they met on a plane. that’s as close as i’ve come – love the pic and congrats on the book club invite )
It seems Elvis was a very prolific, um, dater. 🙂
Thanks, Beth. They were so, so awesome.
My birthday girl, Katy, had a STACK of Elvis records when we first got married. I think she even had a huge picture of him at one point, in our bedroom ABOVE the bed. It was not long before Elvis got relocated to somewhere else. LOL Katy is a huge fan of Elvis but I do not believe she ever got close to him in real life.
Now James. You don’t know WHAT that Elvis above the bed got you. 😉
Ha! Katy had that Elvis picture way before I entered into her life. I did not have a problem WITH the picture , just where it was located. It creeped me out….. LOL
Happy Birthday to Katy.
Sadly none whatsoever Andra!
Long Live Elvis! My only story is of hugging a look-alike while walking through Hollywood Blvd in LA. 🙂
I helped an Elvis impersonator pick out chicken legs at the grocery store I worked at. Does that count?
Not really, but a very unworthy boyfriend of mine had tickets to take his mother to see Elvis at the Coliseum, but he died right before the concert. The scurvy boyfriend saved the tickets to sell later. I thought that rather unfair that he should profit from Elvis’s death.
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