Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Love Letter to Memphis


On our road trip in April, we spent one day in Memphis before heading east then 10 days later spent two additional days as we were heading west.

We fell in love.

We walked the city. We walked along the Mississippi. We visited Elvis. We toured the Gibson Guitar factory. We walked amongst the families enjoying the Crayfish Festival. We walked Beale Street closed to traffic and filled with Corvettes for the day.

We sat and listened to the music.

The glorious music.

The music of Memphis.

We also ate too much! The Rendezvous saw us twice. We had to eat at Interstate BBQ, which is a standard that was set decades ago. Then, there was that dive on Beale Street where we ate oysters and sang along with the singer.

My heart breaks when I see the flooding. We were just there. We walked where the water now has taken back the land.

We think of all the people we talked with – the waiters at The Rendezvous, the many families enjoying a Sunday afternoon together, the barkers enticing people into their restaurants on Beale Street, the sweet girls working at Graceland who laughed at Michael’s Elvis impersonations and the workers at the Gibson Guitar factory.

Are they okay?

Will the city recover?

Will there be music again?

Our hearts go out to them. They are the pulse of the city.

Take care. Clean up. We will be back.


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