Memphis Blues

Monday, September 13

Sunrise over the river and a long walk with the dogs along the bank.  Then we were collected by the tour company (very convenient) for a 3 hour bus tour of Memphis.

First stop was Shwab's General Store, the oldest continuously operating store in the city, and not much changed in layout since it opened in the 1800s.  Motto:  If we don't have it, you don't need it.

I was tempted to need this (made me think of my brother Andrew - the Blues Brothers part of course!)

Or this:

And such a deal

But then I found this:

And then this,which I just had to buy for the label alone:

We walked down Beale Street, the Memphis equivalent of Bourbon Street ("without the titties" our tour guide told us) but thankfully with this:

  They take pig very seriously here in Memphis.











Another stop was at the shrine of the Two Kings, BB and Elvis.  Now, what I don't understand is this:  you walk into the building and Elvis's statue is off in its own little alcove to the left so you turn left and this is what you see:

No kidding, you see him from behind first (which, come to think of it, is maybe not a mistake.)

We drove past a square that is home to a statue to Nathan Forrest, first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.  He was also a millionaire slave owner and trader before the Civil War, and owned several cotton plantations.  Our African American tour guide said she didn't agree with the people who want it torn down.  "History is history," she said, "the good, the bad and the ugly."












It was unnerving to then drive past the site of Martin Luther King's assassination, now a civil rights museum and memorial.  His car is still in the forecourt.

We also went to the lovely old Peabody Hotel for the ridiculous Duck Parade.  This is the ritual going back to the 1930s where a bunch of ducks come out of the elevator and waddle down a red carpet  and up a couple of stairs to plop into the fountain in the lobby.  They make a big deal out of this with a Master of Ceremonies all tricked out in top hat and tails, fanfare and everything.  You see people jostling for position and being moved back by beefy bouncers.  The anticipation builds and builds and then out they come.  Five brown ducks (couldn't they have trained white ducks at least?  Much more photogenic on the red carpet.) amid paparazzi flashbulbs, and in they go. BFD.

I have to say, I had high hopes of falling in love with Memphis, fueled in part (I'm embarrassed to admit) by the TV show Memphis Beat, a tongue in cheek cop show with a rather delicious leading man with serious sideburns who sings the blues when he's not solving interesting crimes around town.  Check it out:  http://tnt.tv/series/memphisbeat/

Well, turns out it's not even filmed in Memphis (apart from the opening credits which are probably the best part of the show.)  Harumph!  The city is a lot more rundown and boarded up than I thought it would be.  The streets downtown were quite empty at 10.30 in the morning.  Maybe all the action takes place in the suburbs, out near Graceland, which was our last stop on the tour.  No we didn't go inside (a separate tour) but we did get to see what a huge industry Elvis still is.