I reckon I’m getting old. That’s why I’ve decided to write all this down. I was writing my Last Will and Testament (not that I have much money to leave folks), but I realized the things I really wanted to leave to people, well they won’t hardly know what they are. So I figure I need to tell ‘em.

I’m full of stories, but people are too busy for that these days. Anyway, I don’t even think I’m good at tellin’ tales, so I guess I feel better about writing them down and tucking them away.

I suppose everybody collects stuff over the years, but I’ve tried to only hang onto the things that’s real beautiful to me, or make me remember something I love to remember. I’m gonna write about what each one of these things make me remember, and I might ramble, but darlings, my memory rambles these days, so it is what it is.

When Elvis Came to Lexington

Elvis is the King. We all know that now, but back in 1956, he wasn’t so well- known or well-revered. In fact, most everyone had never even heard his name.

But my Mama, she was ahead of her time back then, and one morning I woke up to a house filled with new music...a kind of music I’d never heard before. A man’s voice, crooning a song that made my hair stand on end. Something about it was just so different from anything I’d heard.

I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen. My Mama was there, dancing with reckless abandon, and she looked so happy, so beautiful, so free of worry. I joined in, dancing like I’d never danced before, feeling the music in a way I’d never felt the Appalachian Music we normally listened to.

When the song ended, my Mama just started it right over again, which delighted me.

Well, since my baby left me
Well, I found a new place to dwell
Well, it’s down at the end of Lonely Street
At Heartbreak Hotel
Where I’ll be--where I get so lonely, baby
Well, I’m so lonely
I get so lonely, I could die

I was only twelve-years old...the end of childhood, but not really the beginning of adulthood. There was a lot about the song I didn’t understand. Concepts of love and romance and lonely desperation were beyond me at the time, but I felt that rhythm like it was part of me. I’d never seen Elvis and I didn’t know how he danced, but the music made me swing my hips around anyway, and it was so exciting.

We danced, Mama and me, for a while longer, until my Daddy came in and told us to turn off that racket, and why wasn’t breakfast on the table? So we turned it off, and Mama finished breakfast, but I felt like a changed person...more grown up, and on the edge of something I couldn’t put my finger on.

In early March, 1956, my Mama told me that Elvis was coming to Lexington, which wasn’t too terribly far away, for a concert, and she was going to take me! By that point, we’d fallen in love with some more of his songs, like “I Forgot to Remember I Forgot” and “Tutti Frutti,” which wasn’t his song, but we agreed he sang it best.

So on March 21, we loaded into our Studebaker and headed to Lexington. On the way there, we laughed and talked, and my Mama seemed so carefree. We rolled the windows down once we got off our mountain, feeling the Spring air whip through our hair. In fact, it was the first day of Spring, and everything seemed like a celebration.

We didn’t think there would be many people there. Elvis hadn’t even released a full album yet...just his singles album, which we had been listening to over and over for weeks. It was tucked safely inside my Mama’s pocketbook.

But I reckon we weren’t the only people who had noticed how different, how electric this music was. I don’t think the folks in Lexington realized how popular he would be either. There was just no way the enormous crowd that was waiting would all fit into that YMCA. That was pure crazy talk! I’d never even seen so many people in one place in my whole life, and I wouldn’t see that many people again for a long time.

I remember that tickets were one dollar each, and that seemed fair. I heard later that there were over 5,000 people that came out to hear him, mostly teenagers who were very, very enthusiastic.

I’ll be honest. I could barely hear a word he sang over the noise of the screaming crowd. But I didn’t care. I didn’t come to HEAR him. I heard his music every day. I came to SEE him, and boy, was he handsome. Later, I heard he had the flu, but you couldn’t tell. What you could tell was that this was a star in our midst, and that music would never be the same.

He sang just four songs: “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Rock Around the Clock,” “I Got a Woman” and “Heartbreak Hotel.” Of course we all wanted more, but four songs was enough to give us all hoarse voices for days. Every time he shook his hips, the crowd went wild.

There were police all over the place, but even so, a couple of girls managed to get onto the stage, and ran to Elvis like he was some sort of God. Maybe he was. He was certainly worshipped.

It was an excellent show, and we were exhausted when it was over. Mama decided she needed some coffee before we started the long drive.

We had no idea how lucky that decision would be. We sat down at the counter at March Hotel’s Coffee Shop, and ordered her coffee, and some chocolate milk for me. Elvis walked through the main doors. My knees turned to jelly, My Mama’s cheeks got red. She grabbed my hand, and we stared, mouths agape.

He saw us, and smiled that smile that would soon be known all over the world. He said, “Did you see my show ladies?”

My Mama stammered out, “Yes! We just love your music, sir.” I’d never seen my Mama call someone so young “sir” but it seemed to please him.

My mama seemed kind of dazed...now we’d call it “star-struck” but she did have the good sense to request an autograph.

He was happy to oblige, and he signed the album that we’d almost worn out by that point. After he signed it, he winked at us, thanked us for liking his show, and asked me what grade I was in. We chatted for a few minutes, and he seemed as shy as I felt. We left him alone to sit and order his coffee, and he let out a big sneeze, which was the only clue I got that he’d been so sick.

Two days later he released his first album, called “Elvis Presley,” and the world seemed happy to immediately crown him the King of Rock and Roll. Of course, we bought that album, and another copy of the first one we’d had, so we could keep his signature safe and sound, and still hear the music.

It turns out, that concert was the last small-town show he’d ever play. From that point forward, he was a super star. His new album stayed at the top of the Billboard Top Pop Albums Chart for ten weeks, and was the first rock and roll album to sell a million copies. The cover eventually made it onto Rolling Stones’ list of best 100 album covers of all time. In early April, about two weeks after Elvis left Lexington, he signed a seven-movie contract with Paramount Pictures, and the rest, as they say, is history.

That trip holds some of my very best memories of my Mama, and I still think back on it fondly. I suspect when most people think about Lexington, they think about Barbecue, but I’ll always think about Elvis Presley.