All of us of a certain vintage remember where we were when Elvis Presley died, much in the way those of more recent vintages have embroidered in their memory banks the shock of Michael Jackson’s death and, this week, the joy of the Miracle in the Mine in Chile. (As an aside, one of the 33 rescued miners led the others in singing Elvis songs during their entombment.)
Meanwhile, on that day in 1977, we were close to home when the news broke. One of us was pulling into the driveway with a visiting friend, the other was driving past the mailbox, half a mile from our house. That’s the kind of detail shocks like that evoke.
So now the day his music died in Memphis, besides being uncontrollable sadness for fans of The King, is celebrated each year with seances and flowers and all-day-Elvis on a radio station somewhere.
Was it November 4?
No, it was August 16.
Each year, there are birthday parties for Elvis, who would be 75. Was he born November 4?
No…January 8.
So what’s with the whole November 4 thing? That’s the date The Elvis Cruise leaves Jacksonville (you were wondering what all this retro Elvis had to do with a cruise blog, weren’t you?) on a 4-day trip to the Bahamas. It’s on the Carnival Fascination, it’s being sold by “Elvis’s people” and it features one of his close friends, Larry Geller. How many of you know Larry Geller was a close friend of Elvis Presley? How many of you know who Larry Geller is?
You don’t get to spend four days remembering Elvis on the two most significant days of his life, but you do get to meet others connected to him…co-stars in one of his movies, his historians, his karate companion and his favorite jewelers. Oh yes, and the voice of Elvis Radio on Sirius, DJ Argo.
The cruise will be on its way to Nassau three weeks from now, and there are still tickets available. That tells you something about Elvis fans. Either their numbers are shrinking in the 33 years he’s been gone, or they know The King himself won’t be on the ship because they’ve already seen him working at Walmart in Iowa.