Alive and well.
Elvis Presley is alive and well, living in Mingo, W. Virginia, which for some strange reason is not in Mingo County, but rather in Wyoming County, which is not in Wyoming, but rather....
....Well you get the point.
Srsly, I saw the dude, standing outside a store as we drove down the street. Hadn't aged a bit that I could tell.....course I was watching the road more than the sidewalks since in the steep valleys there everything is built between a creek and the road or the mountain and the road.
Many of the little towns were no more than two lots deep between either the railroad and the road or a creek and the road with the railroad on the other side.
I remember where I was when they reported on the radio that he had died......standing in the milking parlor of my dairy farm, between 12 cows, six on the side with a guy we called "Chunk" because of his girth....well that and the fact that he had the IQ of a chunk of firewood.
For all that he was a faithful employee.....always there in the pre-dawn hours ready to start the milking. If the light wasn't on in my house as he sped up the driveway he'd honk the horn telling me to get up and on the ball.....another 16 hour day was about to start.
I was 27 and while I'd been half-way round the world in two different direction was still just a snot nosed kid with big dreams and no real plan other than getting up each morning and walking out the door into work.
Elvis was hot when I was in school....at least up until the Beatles came along and then every body wanted to comb their hair into their eyes. I'd practice curling my lip and looking sleepy eyed. Looking back I can see that I was better at it than I had sense enough to realize.
Ahh, wasted youth.......somehow it seems wasted on most. If we had only realized.
A lot of conspiracy theories back then about Elvis just wanting to drop off the radar and staging his death. Can't say I blame him much, he had his share of troubles and trials. They say fame and fortune won't make you happy if you don't appreciate them. I think he just wanted to sing.
I prefer to think he really is alive in Mingo.......fat, happy, singing in the church Choir on Sundays.
2 comments:
I hardly think of the farm without thinking of Chunk, I never once heard his real name. I was also a little afraid of him.
Uncle Kudzu, you have always been dreamy-eyed.
Adle-pated would be a better description of me, but, thanks for the thought.
Chunk was a good ol boy whose first name was John. I heard after I shut down the dairy he went up towards Gainesville, got a job and married. I guess it's true that there is someone for everyone if you look far and hard enough. Chunk was only scary in that you could never tell what was going through his head. There were times I thought it might be nothing but there had to be a little spark in there somewhere.
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