I hadn’t been to Graceland for twenty-five years. It sure is a lot different now than when I first went many years ago. The house itself is mostly the same, untouched. Everybody who goes there for the first time remarks on how small it actually is once you’re inside. Not much bigger than a typical suburban house now, but back in the day it was considered a mansion. The grounds are lovely and peaceful.
The thing that has really changed since the first time I came here are the exhibits. They have some giant buildings now on the other side of Elvis Presley Blvd. with a lot of stuff I hadn’t seen before. Very well done, unlike the old days here.
I dig Elvis. I will always love his music and the incredible body of work he left us. Wrestling with the Elvis legacy, especially as we go into the modern era and beyond, is a strange thing. Most of the voices I heard talking on the tour were speaking in foreign languages, people obviously on vacation from other countries.
Graceland will endure as one of the great cash-grab tourist traps, perhaps the greatest the United States has ever known. But we still want to see it, don’t we?
By the way, I will stand by my own personal conspiracy theory: I don’t think that Elvis is actually buried in the meditation garden at Graceland. I visit a lot of my heroes’ graves, and I always feel some sort of metaphysical spiritual connection with them, being that close to them. Sometimes, I’m even moved to tears when I stumble across one of my heroes’ graves. I’ve been to Graceland a bunch of times, and every time I’m there staring at his grave marker in the meditation garden, I feel nothing. Zip. Zilch. My personal belief is they probably buried him someplace safe, then just put up an elaborate, fake grave for the tourists to see. We shall never know the truth, though, will we?
See many more photos at Deke’s original Facebook post!
