Today we had breakfast at the motel and then traveled to Natchez Trace Parkway to Tupelo Mississippi, the boyhood home of Elvis Presley to age 13. We took pictures along the rest of the trace, but we will not go all the way to Nashville--it is 455 miles long and really beautiful scenery with road markers all along the way. There is a lot of history, especially Indian history along this trace. When we got into Tupelo, we immediately got our room and then went to Elvis Presley's boyhood home where he was born and raised to age 13. The family was very poor. BUT, as his 2nd cousin Sybil says, they didn't know it. A friend loaned the elder Mr. Presley $1800 to build the house and because he lost his job, he could not pay the man. He offered him a pig in exchange for payment, but the man only gave him $4.00 for the pig. He felt he had been gyped, so he altered the check and the man sued him and he won, so he was sent to prison for check altering and received a sentence of 3 years, but served 8 months. In the meantime, the wife lost her job too and had to go live with a cousin, where they made their home in a corn crib. Remember our corn crib playhuse Virginia and Judy? There were a lot of cousins...one family on the property had 10 kids and one next door had 17. So, there are lots of Presleys in the region. A school teacher heard Elvis play at a school assembly and immediately observed that he had unusual talent, and told the parents who took him to Memphis and thus a career began. Incidently, he wanted a BB gun for his 11th birthday, but the mother talked him into getting a guitar. Also, he was a twin, but the other little fellow, Jesse Garon died in childbirth as there was no MD present for the first birth. A doctor did arrive to deliver Elvis Aron however. The mother was very protective of this little fellow...he actually slept in her arms in her bed for many years and she walked him to school every day which prompted the other kids to call him a mama's baby. That he was! It was fun to listen to the docent tell the story of the family first hand. I got her autograph...she was very gracious. The lady at the museum wasn't as pleasant however, and they allow NO PHOTOGRAPHY in the museum. THUS, WHAT YOU SEE IS ALL OUTSIDE. THE ONE PHOTGRAPH HERE SHOWS THE NEIGHBORHOOD AS IT LOOKED IN 1935
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