royalty
the month of august brings several landmark events, the anniversary of the birth of yours truly along with several who are dear to her. november must have seen the first chilly weather because there are quite a few of us august babies crawling around. no event however bears as much significance as the death of elvis - the king of rock and roll.
on august 16th 1987 i was determined to get from atlanta to memphis for the 10th candlelight vigil at the graveside of our king. so, dressed in black, carrying a blessed 7-day ritual candle, full tank of gas in my '79 cutlass with a broken timing chain and accompanied by one who is referred to in a previous diary entry as none other than the amoeba - we got gone. eleven and one half hours of bucking oldsmobile fury hurled us into memphis by late afternoon. it was extraordinary; 350 thousand people had already been in memphis and 150 thousand were expected to gather for the service.
i can't begin to tell you how miserably hot a mid-august memphis is but i was desperate to rinse my body in some form of cool, clear water. now we did not have reservations - anywhere - the car was our home. hotels are booked a year in advance for this deal but i wasn't going to let little things like lack of shelter and searing heat keep me from paying my respects. the amoeba was at the end of his rope with my whining so we took off down elvis presley boulevard in search of a car wash, gas station or any damn place i could pull a desperately seeking susan and wash my pits out...i was beginning to offend myself.
like crossing through some mystical portal we became aware quite suddenly that we were on the wrong side of the tracks - no matter - the elvis presley boulevard motel was in our sights so i buck on into the lot , praying for a miracle. the toothless gentleman behind bulletproof glass informed us that yes indeed he did have a vacancy, were we interested in an hour, two or optional waterbed suite? um, well, we were kind-of hoping to stay the entire night. with wide, bloodshot eyes and toothless grin he said awwwwwright, you can get free movies at the all-nighter rate. yes please.
our water-bed suite smelled strongly of generic pine disinfectant and the bathroom mirror had disgarded body jewels pasted to it but it did, thankfully, have a shower. i rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and became more and more reverent with each cool rivulet of whorehouse water. you might say i was elevated. with squeaky-clean pits, freshly applied cat-eye make-up beginning at the bridge of my nose and ending at my hairline and toting my ritual candle i was ready to join the flow of worshipful humanity.
oh the sights, the sounds, the smells...hours until midnight but what did it matter with all these people decked and adorned with the image of our lord? automobiles and hotel rooms transformed into shrines, the pure, sweet sound of elvis' voice piped over loud speakers, anything and everything with the likeness of the king being hawked roadside. to say i was proud and pleased to be a part of this event would be an understatement. suddenly, during my sauntering intake of all things elvis my path was blocked by a spotty young man who asked if he might interview me for his newspaper. i'm thinking high school so i say fire away jimmy olsen!
he was most interested in my clothing and my ritual candle and seemed hell-bent on getting me to say that i was a practicing witch. not liking imposed titles i told him no, he could not put that in his little article but he was welcome to mention that i was a spiritual person with an open mind. that unfortunately does not sell papers no matter how small-time they might be. so, with a fare-thee-well i was on my way. close to ten pm we got in line to visit the graveside - a 1/8 of a mile walk from the decorative gates of graceland to the meditation garden where elvis rests alongside his beloved parents. it took us 4 and 1/2 hours to make this trek. by the time i reached elvis' grave the single red roses placed there formed a mound that was as tall as i was. it was beautiful.
exhausted but exhilarated we made our way back to our waterbed where we found a sex toy crammed between the mattress and frame. with a hand protected by two layers of shopping bags i heaved the thing outside into the dry, scrubby yard, covered the bed in my old sleeping bag and finally lay down for a couple of hours sleep before making our precarious way home.
one week later i got a call from a girl i knew who had moved to memphis the year before to work for federal express. she asked if i had been in memphis for tribute week and i told her why yes, as a matter of fact i had, why?
because, calico you made the front page of the commercial appeal, memphis' largest paper...
and just how long have you been practicing witchcraft?
prevention is kinder than destruction. each year over six million healthy dogs, cats, puppies and kittens are killed as surplus. remember: neuter, spay and don't let them stray!