I'm Going to Graceland Remembering the Elvis I fell in Love with in my Youth
If you Love Elvis? Fly your freak flag Maybe when I was ten years old I was crazy into Elvis when everyone of my peers was into heavy metal I was retro and loved Elvis. That memory of the rebel I loved who died when I was 12 was almost destroyed when I was forced to visit Graceland with my Grandma Elda as I was used by my father to be like a toy dog for my grandmother instead of thinking about her granddaughter's love of Elvis? What can I say Elda Del Bino Willitts Teresa or whatever she named herself in 2004 to glamorize herself is not the same woman portrayed in her autobiography and I don't have much respect for any writer who does not write their own biography, but rather pays someone as did Elda Willitts to fluff up her image. My image of my grandmother and my trip to Graceland was one of broken promises and lies. My grandmother accused me at the time when I was 15 of hanging out at the Memphis pool hotel to pick up boys when in fact I was only thinking of my upcoming visit to a guy I admired and loved good old Elvis Presley, but my grandmother was intent on make false accusations that I was with a boy at the pool when I was playing Donkey Kong. I reached my level and the reality that my grandmother was insane when she called my father and repeated the accusation to which I swore to god was a lie on the part of my grandmother, but we're talking two narcissists's here the ON (original nariccist) Elda and her only son and therefore the guy she passed her narcissism onto. When my father failed to stand up for his daughter? That was it for buying the lie of Elda Willitts. We flew home early and thank god I got to avoid having to attend Dolllywood with the Crazy Grandmother and took away the memory of my visit to Elvis. In honor of Elvis when I was driving to the Cliff Cruise 2020 from New York I decided to make that quick stop and reclaim my love of Elvis and rid myself of the bad memories and replace them with good. Rock on Elvis.
If you love Elvis? Hell yesss! Me Too!
Even though I couldn't get in the grounds during a pandemic? I still waved my freak flag. Nothing but mad respect.
In 1977 while other girls had the usual Shaun Cassidy posters plastered over there walls? Well who even spalls Shaun like that (it's Sean btw) maybe back then I thought the name sounded more like a girls name? His music? I guess now it wouldn't be correct to call it "girlie", but at the time? That's what 10 year old Shannon thought of Shaun Cassidy, and honestly? A first solo album titled "discoology? Can you say Da Doo Ron Ron? I couldn't run away from that music fast enough, and looking back now? Figures that Phil Specter would be the producer. We won't get into my option of Phil Specter and women here as I've been writing about Me Too since 2006, before there was a hashtag or a movement. Long before that time as I child? I saw Elvis, Yep even if he was "fat Elvis" as the King. I'm probably one of the few fifty seven year old women who can say she's actually a live performance of "The King" but yes I have. At Nevada's Cal Neva at the age of ten in 1975? As a ten year old crying "oh Elvis"? I didn't much of a father I respected, and so if I was screaming Elvis's name in my father's presence? It's probably because I looked at the way Elvis treated his daughter Lisa Marie, with jets named after her, and with deference and respect, and yeah. I respect that. I also respect the music the man made.
Elvis wasn't just an iconic singer who was the real deal, and not some Hollywood invention. Born in Tupelo Mississippi January 8, 1935 he'd relocated to Memphis at the tender age of 13 and his breaks? They weren't some Hollywood invention. Elvis? However he wound up at the end of his life with has tragic death? His beginnings were humble and his "discovery" in 1954? You had Elvis onrhythm acoustic guitar, accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Black Bill who actually was black. At the time? Elvis was breaking a lot of taboos and his music? An upbeat tempo that combined country and fused it with rhythm and blues produced by another legend "The Colonel" Sam Phillips who wanted to bring African American music to the masses, and bring it? Oh Elvis brought it! Elvis couldn't help that he wasn't black even if that's what his music sounded like at the time. So to me? Elvis was more than a fleeting fad. He'd birthed rockabilly to the white masses the real deal. his song, but upon discovery? Elvis brought to the music scene something Shaun Cassidy never could: controversy. His body movements to the music he created? Those were his natural reactions, and at the time he was criticized. When I fled Seneca Falls New York and decided it was Cliff Cruise 2020 or bust? I knew if I was anywhere near Memphis? I was going to go back and pay my proper respect to the Kin
The last time I had seen Graceland? Well I loved that one moment in the trip, but traveling with grandmother at age Fifteen and a half right after the death of my grandfather when my father had pawned me off to my Grandma Elda like I was her service animal? Well I treat my service animal Gigi who's there for my PTSD with nothing but respect, and my grandmother? I'd say she kicked me around like a dog during that trip, but really she just played gaslight games and when I would go for a break from her at the hotel in Memphis to simply play a game of Donkey Kong? I'd return to the room and get "kong'd" with false allegations. "I know you were down there with that boy" she'd accuse, and I would have zero idea what the crazy old lady, umm I mean my grandmother was talking about. I'd answer with the truth "you gave me four quarters I used a couple of them for a soda and the other two for a couple of games of Donkey Kong". She'd come back with some illogical timeline an another accusation. "It doesn't take an hour to play an arcade game" I'd have rolled my eyes, but she wouldn't have cared. So I just continued to tell her the truth. "I made it to the fire level". Grandma Elda was clueless about video games and obviously fired up about something and finally it came out. "I saw you with that boy" I'd ask "what boy" I hadn't noticed to boys noticing me. I was interested in the video game and as much time out of my Grandma's view as I could afford: two quarters had bought me a quarter hour, but if I'd have known all of her perverted ideas about myself and boys? I was fifteen and a half and I had only started menstruating at her husband's funeral a couple of months back, and back in 1980? Well when we're talking about my grandmother and she'd been watching men (her brother) trying to suck the gaslight in out of the family's home, and instead of seeing this as a cry for help? My grandmother? Oh she had a nice "final solution" for my Great Uncle Rico. Why not have the guy arrested for a false crime and lock him up at Napa State and never visit him for like four decades? And she called him crazy? Back in 1980 at Graceland our trip was over. She called my father and made false allegations about myself and boys based on her own perverted and inaccurate perceptions of men and women, and so my father? Well rather than believe a daughter who got on the phone and said "I swear to God she's lying" referring to my grandmother? End the trip there and then and fly back to San Francisco. Fine. I had seen the grave of Elvis and done the tour of his house and grounds, and really did I want to go with this crazy old lady, umm I mean my grandmother to "Dollywood"? Fuck Dollywood. Fuck bad grandmothers, and fuck bad father's. It might have taken me forty years to pay my proper respect to a good father (Elvis Presley) not my father in 2020, but by that year? Yeah I was 20/20 on who was worthy of my respect, and so for Elvis? You rule dude. You're daughter's life might not have turned out like you'd have wished, but you know what? You loved her unconditionally, and that I respect, and so when I flew my "freak flag" at Graceland? Fuck yes I was saying hell yessss Elvis!
