Woke up early but didn't get up and out until 11:00am. No need, as we were going to visit the house where Elvis Presley was born. That's our pennance for missing Memphis and Graceland, which seemed from the writeups to be entirely too glitzy and touristy and a cash-grab of memorabilia. Opted instead for the early years, and I'm glad we did.
Elvis was an icon to my generation, and Jan saw him perform in Las Vegas about 5 years before he died. He was a consumate entertainer, but he didn't seem to have a totally happy life in the later years. Today we learned about the first 13 years of his life, which he lived in Tupelo where he was born. The house he was born in is in the same place and is unchanged. It is 450 square feet in size and two rooms, a bedroom where mom and dad and kid slept, and a kitchen. Water hand-pump and outhouse were outside. The family dirt poor, and thrown out of their house in 1938 (Elvis aged 3) because they couldn't make the payments. Depression years right up to when the WWII started.
The museum showed much of his early years and the gospel influence, with many testimonials from friends and teachers. It really was very touching - as some of the tributes from his early life said, he was just a real nice country boy.
Finally left Tupelo late in the afternoon, back on the Natchez Trace Parkway heading south. We got off the exit to Eupora, MS, and headed down US 82, west, to Greenville, MS where we are spending the night. Tomorrow we plan to follow US 82 to the west across Arkansas toward Texas and Santa Fe, New Mexico by next weekend if we stick to our plans. Which is possible but not likely, as this is the least-scripted part of the trip. What we know now is that the south is one of the favorite parts of our trip so far.
