Jerry took some wonderful photos when he went out to the venue we want to use last week. His friend Jerome works there Saturday nights as an Elvis impersonator. Oh, wait, I mean Elvis tribute artist. I don't want to be offensive. I think that's what they want to be called now. He's really good, too. Being a person who was born in Memphis and has most of her relatives still living in the vicinity, I feel this is the time for me to share my Elvis stories. I think it's some kind of law. They aren't impressive, but they're true. My granddaddy lost his job during the McCarthy era due to a coworker seeing him at lunch listening to someone standing on the street corner preaching about how communism is the way to go. Here's something you should know about my granddaddy - he was a pretty nosey guy. Conversation going on? He'll wanna hear it. So, commie or not, the blabbermouth who told on him got him fired from his good paying job. And why didn't the guy who told his boss about it get fired, too? How would he have known what the speechmaker was talking about unless he stopped to listen himself? It's kinda like chastizing someone for seeing them in a whorehouse, when the only way you know they were in there was you being in there yourself. At any rate, my grandfather took a job selling insurance to poor folks, and this took him all over Memphis. One of his clients was Vernon Presley, Elvis' dad. Second true Elvis association story - one of my mother's female cousins was asked to go over to Elvis' house back in the days before Priscilla and all, when he had lots of young girls hanging around. Now, most of you know that Elvis had certain standards for girls - they had to have clean fingernails and wear white panties. Needless to say, mom's cousin only went over there once and was never asked back. I'm hoping her nails were clean but she had on black drawers. The last and best story is about mom's cousin Paul Glaze. He and Elvis went to high school together, and one day Paul saved him from a bully. They became fast friends after that and hung out together. When Elvis started to get popular, he and Paul would sit around a diner and sign autographs on Elvis' photos. That's right, get yours authenticated, or you could have an original Paul Glaze autograph on an Elvis picture! Sadly, Paul has since passed away. He and I used to email each other quite a bit. He told me how my great grandfather Hutchison had telekinesis, but I won't go into that story right now as I don't want to be thought of as totally insane.
Back to the venue. The place seems bigger than I remember, but that's good. I'd rather the place be too big than too small. I saw a whole lot of folding chairs, and quite a few tables, 10 at least, I think. The tables were covered with blue and white checkerboard tablecloths. Crap, why didn't I go with the blue I originally wanted? Oh, well, it isn't that shade of blue, anyway. So, looks like tablecloths are on my to-buy list. Dollar Tree here I come! We went there a while back and I saw that they had so many party favors. I was really impressed. I remember paper plates, cups, streamers and cutlery in all sorts of colors. Looks like that's where I'm going to pick up our dinnerware for the reception. I'll have to go back to see if they have tablecloths, but I'd think they would. They even have a wedding section. Last time I picked up 4 packs of rose petals in pink and white to scatter over the tables at $1 each. That same day I did some pricing and a smaller box of petals at the old standby Wal-Mart were over $5, so I got all of mine for less than 1 box there! I doubt I'll find chair covers, but I'm not planning to cover the chairs, anyway. What a cruel trick to disguise a folding chair as a comfortable, supportive piece of furniture, only to be jarred into the reality of hard metal when sitting down. The venue is kinda rustic anyway, so the chairs can looks rustic as long as they aren't rusted. I think the next step is pinning down a date so we can reserve this place before it's booked up!
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