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Memphis - Part 2
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
The city of blues, music, Elvis and ribs. An adventure in the path of W.C. Handy, to Martin Luther King to Peabody Ducks.
Day 2
We woke up early to grab the Main Street Trolley to ride down to the Arcade diner. It operates starting at 6am during the week, but only after 9:30am on Saturdays, so you might not be able to follow this itinerary we've done if you're doing our "Day 2" on a Saturday. Anyway, we grabbed the trolley to nearly the of the line to go to the Arcade Diner.
The Arcade Diner is famous as being one of the oldest diners in the city, and a favorite haunt of Elvis and his colleagues. It's also featured in dozens of documentaries and films about Elvis. It still looks in the same style and motif as it did in the 1950s, but still kept up very well.
Just for the sake of history alone, it's a must do for breakfast. It's also a great place to try your hand at grits if you haven't tried them already. Unfortunately, the neighborhood around there isn't the prettiest, but fortunately it gives you a chance to ride the Main Street Trolley, and the Arcade is also right next to the National Civil Rights Museum, so both can be done at around the same time.
The National Civil Rights Museum was one of the biggest highlights of our trip. It was certainly more powerful than Graceland, which many people expressed would be our highlight. On April 4th, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was staying at the Lorraine Motel where he was assassinated. The Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation opened the museum in September 28, 1991, where it continues to run to this day. The museum is now housed in the shell of the original motel where the assassination occurred, and in fact, but from the outside, it looks exactly it did like that fateful day.
The museum is powerful in that it is factual and honest. It's not overbearing, but presents the facts in such a manner that it gives you no choice but to feel moved. For example, one of the exhibits is a copy of the bus where Rosa Parks decided to sit in the front of the bus and got arrested for her protest. Sitting in the life-sized bus, you inevitably feel forced to feel a slight example of what she must have felt. Instead of beating you over the head with their message, they use a simple example of a bus, which in turn makes it a very powerful symbol.
We only allocated about an hour to do this, but I would easily spend two to three hours there as there is just so much material, it is almost overwhelming, including original documentation on the civil rights movement from the time of slavery to the present, where you can read and make your own thoughts and judgments.
In addition, the highlight of the entire museum to me were the rooms Martin Luther King stayed in. Each piece lying in the same state of the way it looked when Dr. King stayed in the room, it truly is an example of watching in history come alive.
Anyway, we had a schedule to keep and regrettably did our best to keep it. So we ran through the street to get to the Peabody hotel in time to see the ducks. Everybody in Memphis talks about the Ducks. If the ducks could run for mayor, they'd surely win. And since Peabody owns a big portion of downtown, you see the ducks everywhere on advertisements and statues.
What are the ducks? Well, at 11am every morning and 5pm, the ducks walk. At 11am, they leave their home on the penthouse and come down to the fountain, and at 5pm, they go back. To dispel some of your expectations, no, they don't walk in a perfect line, and they don't wear cute little bow ties. Margherita was heartbroken about that.
It's the kind of thing kids seem to love, and adults seem to love in watching the kids. The kids wait around for the 20 minutes prior, and eventually a pretty deep crowd forms. Once the bell of the elevator rings, the kids go nuts, and the ducks run like hell to the fountain. Again, it's a standard of something you must do while you're here. Every waitress will ask you, "Have you seen the ducks yet?"
The Peabody is right near the restaurant Elvis Presley's Memphis, which is at the beginning of Beale, but we went there not to eat, but to catch the shuttle to Graceland. Sun Studios runs a free shuttle going from Elvis Presley's Memphis Restaurant to Sun Studios, the Heartbreak Hotel and Graceland.
Boarding the bus feels like your entering a bus of pilgrims going to the holy land of Graceland. Inevitably, you'll have an Elvis impersonator on board in addition to numerous fans who will be singing and debating their favorite Elvis songs. Graceland doesn't feel as if it's in Memphis as much as the suburbs since it's a 20-minute drive on the highway out of town just to get there.
Once you're there, you're on the Graceland complex grounds. The entire complex takes up more room than Graceland itself -- that is the house and the lawns. Across the street where we stood right now were the theaters, the car museum, the stores, the restaurants ... the list goes on and on. I recommend getting a Platinum Pass, which gets you into all of the museums, which you'll inevitably want to do. In addition, I recommend blocking at least 2 to 3 hours to cover everything, as you might feel a bit Elvis-ed out by the end of it, but anything less is certainly not enough.
We started off by heading straight to the home of Elvis, Graceland itself. It's not as big as you'd expect and is surprisingly more "normal" than you'd expect. Yes, there's a Jungle Room, decorated with a clearly jungle theme... and yes, the multimedia room with various televisions. But it also has a normal living room, dining room and kitchen. It gives a great view of Elvis's life, showing his normal, everyday family side to the oddly extravagant.
Outside in the backyard is the "Meditation Garden" with Elvis's gravesite. The most moving aspect of the grave must be the tributes. Seeing hundreds of flowers and decorations not from years gone by, but from that morning or that week shows the dedication of his fans.
Across the street on the rest of the "grounds" are the car museum, and other museums. The car museum was the most notable to us, as it not only has a great collection of cars, but wasn't overtly Elvis, so it gave you a nice respite. The rest of the complex has its share of Elvis stores, and shops and diners. It's a great place though to grab a bite and absorb the atmosphere before heading back to town.
Our next stop was Sun Studios, where Elvis, of course, recorded his first songs, but in addition, numerous blues and rock legends recorded there. The studio looks exactly as it did 50 years ago. They in fact have some of the same equipment, the same microphones, and the same recording equipment.
Sun Studios is a great learning experience to expand your knowledge of the beginning of rock and roll. The tour is about an hour and completely goes over the history of the studios and its influence on rock and roll.
Well, after the tour we headed back to the hotel to rest and relax, and then to go out to dinner to Rendezvous to compare ribs.
As I said before, ribs are big business in Memphis, and people were quoting either the Blues City Cafe or Rendezvous as the best ribs. Rendezvous ribs are done differently from Blues City Cafe. Here, they are dry-rubbed with a hot sauce, so it's a bit "dustier." Blues City Café is coated with the sauce and much "wetter." Rendezvous is however talked about much more as the famous ribs place down the alley. It truly is down a dark alley between two of the main streets and does feel like you've found a hidden secret -- that is, of course, until you enter and find the place completely packed. We preferred the Blues City Café's ribs, but don't quote us on that, as the debate is so big down there on the best ribs, it could get dangerous.
Read part 1 | Read part 2 | Read part 3
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