Elvis

On Wednesday the family, along with Lisa's mother, drove into downtown Tupelo to visit the birthplace of Elvis Presley. I have to say, the visit greatly exceeded my expectations.

When Lisa and I were fairly early in our courtship--I am in the deep south here so I need to use words like "courtship"--we came to visit Lisa's family down here, and we visited Elvis's birthplace then. I think it was the summer of 1993 when we were down here. At the time, all that was at the birthplace was the housd he lived in from birth until age 3. The house is a simple two room shotgun shack that is--no exaggeration here--smaller in its entirety than most modern family rooms. On the day we visited in 1993 the museum wasn't even open All we could do was sit--read "trespass"--on the front porch for a few minutes before taking off and visiting other sites.

The site has changed quite a bit since 1993. The little house is still there, but now there is a very modern museum that included some really interesting artifacts. In addition, the museum purchased the church that Elvis attended from birth until age 13 and moved the entire building onto the museum grounds. They have painstakingly restored the original building while also modernizing it. After a brief introduction by one of Elvis's relatives, three huge screens dropped from the ceiling--one that completely covered the front wall, and a pair that did the same for the side walls. We then sat through a Pentecostal service similar to what Elvis would have seen as a child. By looking at the screens in front of and to the sides of us, it felt like we were in the middle of the service. It was actually very cool, and it was realistic enough that when the actor/preacher asked everyone to stand and sing "How Great Thou Art," and all of the actors on the screens stood and started singing, I had to restrain myself from standing with them.

Visiting this site was easily the highlight of the trip for me.