Put on our thongs and we boarded the plane,
Touched down in the land of the Delta blues in the middle of a sunny day.
Got picked up by Sheryl and drove us to the city,
Yeah we had economy tickets and we were as Aussie as could be.
Then we were walking in Memphis,
Walking with our feet 10 feet off of Beale (the Main street in Memphis)
Saw the statue of Elvis just near the Orpheum theatre
We had our photo in front and 1 with Don King (Mike Tyson’s ex manager)
There’s a pretty little café called BB King’s,
We tried fried catfish and wrote our names on the tables and chairs.
There was gospel in the air and a famous town fair.
We were walking in Memphis, Walking with our feet 10 feet off of Beale,
Walking in Memphis, do I really feel the way I feel?
Put on our thongs and we boarded the plane,
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues in the middle of a sunny day!!
Mr Springstein’s words almost matched our experience so I took some editorial license and adjusted a few of them. Memphis was pretty cool, unfortunately we didn’t make it to Graceland, but neither of us are Elvis fans so it wouldn’t really have been worth the entry fee.
Well we didn’t quite know what to expect of Mississippi but were pleasantly surprised! The wonderful Sheryl (Nat’s friend from Summer Camp) drove us to her apartment in Oxford (yes it is named after the Oxford in England). It is a college town full of beautiful buildings and from what we heard beautiful people (most had gone home for summer). We were truly spoilt by Sheryl for the 2 nights we stayed. Her apartment building was beautiful and is designed for campus use. One of the Sororities has a rule that if the members aren’t living in the Sorority house (which they only do for 1 of the 4 years at college) then they have to live in this building! The cost to be in this Sorority is only about $2,000 a month or something stupid. She took us on a tour of Fraternity and Sorority rows, walk of champions (this is the path the footballers walk before each game where everyone cheers and goes nuts!), taught us a bit of the “Are you Ready” chant and shouted us to the great southern dish of Rotelle Fries, Catfish and Pecan Pie/Peach Cobbler at the local Grocery Store (very popular place to eat, we waited on a table for about an hour on the front porch whilst having a few beverages. The walls and chairs are covered in writing so we decided to add a piece of Australia too, see pics).
Thanks again to Sheryl, she certainly lived up to the Southern hospitality reputation that Junior experienced on his first trip to the states. It was also great to meet Justin and Laurie and to have some people to talk to other than each other. As we left Sheryl we waited for a Greyhound bus that was late, something different, and then arrived early into Alabama. Anyway we met the cutest little kid who was only 18 months old and loved being picked up by strangers with hats, as Junior found out. Zarion loved removing the hat and then putting it back on, he was fascinated by Junior as most little ones seem to be!!
