RAGS TO RICHES, THE KING OF TUPELO, MS.

How do you go to Tupelo, MS and not visit the home of Elvis?  Right, the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley.  Answer:  You don't.  There are little statutes of Elvis all over town and festive, colorful guitars placed around the storefronts and street corners, a gentle reminder they remember their native son for putting them on the map.  The motels are even in on the celebration.  Here at our motel the internet connection was our first reminder of where we were.

Well naturally, after that little brain nudge, we vowed to trip on over to the meager digs of the young Elvis.  Here's Jackie standing on hallowed ground. The front porch where He was born.  His Daddy Vernon, and uncle, built this croppers style house in 1933.  Jackie reported actually feeling his presence while standing in the morning sun.

  
Elvis's daddy bought this 37 Plymouth a couple of years after Elvis was born but it seems he had trouble with the payments and accidentally changed a couple of numbers on a check before he cashed it.  It's reported Vernon lost a few pounds while working the Mississippi chain gangs for that small lapse of memory.  A short stay in the cooler got his attention and he was thereafter a reformed man.

All does not end well.  Elvis got rich playing the guitar, grinding his hips and crooning ballads.  With money in his tight jeans he bought a big house for mommy and daddy in Memphis, TN,  "Graceland." Unfortunately somewhere along the road to stardom he got hooked on Hollywood drugs which resulted in his early demise. Dead at the age of 42.  So it goes.