The Jackalicious Files

Mississippi has begotten many music legends and practically birthed Rock n' Roll itself. It produced me too, which I think is pretty awesome! Other than me, Mississippi gave us another interesting guy by the name of Elvis A. Presley who coincidentally was born 75 years ago today on January 8th. While most of his hits were well before my time, having tons of Elvis albums for our large console record player kept me listening to him for hours when I was a kid. Both of my parents were pretty hard core Elvis fans but it was my mother's reaction to his death that I remember most about the man.

It was a late summer afternoon and I was waiting at my babysitters house for my mother to retrieve my sister and I like she normally did when she got off her shift as a desk clerk for the Ramada Inn in Mobile, Alabama. Our babysitter was was preparing dinner for her husband. I recall her teenage daughter saying something to her as she ran to the kitchen and I knew something was going on but being a kid, I was quite indifferent to it all. I can still quite vividly see her tilting her head slightly in a confused manner as the man on the radio was making his announcement. It was just at that moment that my mother walked in to get us and she knew something was amiss. The lady of the house turned up the radio just the announcer said and I paraphrase here, "It is confirmed, Elvis Presley has passed away..." it was at that moment my mother began to cry and she cried, and she cried. For 3 long days she cried about Elvis dying. It got pretty old quick and by the second day I didn't ask her for anything for I knew she'd start crying again.

Mom and Dad both grew up quite poor in rural Mississippi and both came from large and hard working families of sharecroppers. My mother's side were from the flat Delta region of the state and my Dad was from the more central and hilly region of the state. Dad was one of twelve children and my mother one of 10. I think Elvis meant a lot to different kinds of fans but to Mom, I think he represented that same class of poor white families that made it out of the hole. She always hated growing up poor and was glad to put it behind her. Elvis grew up in similar circumstances as both my parents had and being from Mississippi, it gave a sense of kinship in a way like no other musician could.

That photo is of Elvis and his family when he resided in Tupelo.