Driving into Memphis on the radio Paul Simon is singing Graceland…we’re going to Graceland, Graceland…oh yes we are Paul…Rosie and The Operator cant wait, turning off the motorway we enter the city proper and it is full of big red brick buildings, grass is growing in vacant abandoned lots and rundown houses line the roadside.
In the city proper there is a lot of shut up and abandoned buildings…some factory sized, with broken windows and large red brick chimney stacks….faded painted names on the side alluding to their faded heyday.
Rosie is shocked, she wasn’t quite expecting the grittiness that greets her, it is such a contrast to glitzy Nashville…Memphis is like a faded photograph of once was, famous Beale Street (above and below) is grimy and run down in the daylight, and so small, it looks like we have just entered the historic precinct of a town, one that is a time capsule of its good times in the 1950s….but, it is full of bars and blues music is coming out the doors.
Rosie is not disappointed, these are just observations, the fact that the town seems to be lost in time makes it feel like an awesome place to be, it is like stepping back to a place that is perfectly preserved yet it feels real, not like a touristy Disneyland exhibition.
Above are two pictures of A Schwabs, this is the oldest general store in the city and it sells abit of everything, as you wander around the wooden floor groans and squeaks, this is the original soda fountain bar….they were selling bourbon and brown sugar ice cream…Rosie never did get to try it, gutted.
We are away and running, lets have a look around…….after lunch that is. We head to the Flying Fish – its essentially a Fish and Chip shop – Southern Style. Its gimmick, most places have them, is that it is a Billy Bass Adoption Center.
You know, those mounted fish that sing and flap when you push the button…well, bring yours in, sign the adoption form and your fish will be put on the wall with your name under it.
The walls looks so cool but it would be the stuff of nightmares if suddenly they would all start singing…Rosie and the Operator order a basket of Deep Fried Catfish, Battered Oysters and Fried Prawns with Fries and Coleslaw – its a big mouthful for ordering this at the counter so it says on the menu to ask for the Hog Wallow,
Rosie has to repeat ‘wallow’ a few times as the counter boy is having trouble understanding her…ooooh, he says, you mean Haaaawg Walla….oh yes, the accent is getting broader the further south we go. How was the Catfish you may ask? A little taste of the Mighty Mississippi lingered, but it was nice white fish…Rosie didn’t think it was much different to snapper.
At two O’clock we had a date with another Brandon…who was just as cool as our former Uber Brandon, he is one of the proprietors of Rockabilly Rides, they do guided history tours around Memphis in their classic cars.
Brandon has the 1959 Ford Skyliner, only a handful these two door, hard top convertible versions were ever made. The top was down, the weather was fine and all eyes were on us from the footpath.
This was an all in one orientation and history tour of Memphis, we revisited alot of the sites he showed us and did the tours associated with them on his recommendation, we had alot of fun.
Gliding past some of the old diners and buildings still displaying their fifties finery, we fitted right into that golden era.
Memphis is a poor city built on the historic wealth of a few, it was the biggest cotton supplier in the world built literally on the back of slave labour. The cotton warehouses lined the banks of the Mississippi and during harvesting season in Sept/Oct when the cotton was moved from farms to the warehouses it was like it was snowing with tufts of white cotton fluttering in the Memphis air.
These are only a couple of the mansions left standing today from the cities wealthiest merchants. A turret was built on this house (left) so the owner could watch his warehouse through a telescope to make sure everyone was working.
The population of Memphis is mainly African American, having had one of the biggest slave populations in the south. After the civil war and the abolition of slavery a lot of freed slaves came here and made Memphis their home.
The National Civil Rights Museum charts the chronological events of the emancipation of Africans who were stolen from their homeland, transported to America and forced to work as slaves on Southern Plantations. It charts the Civil war and freedom from slavery, it shows how even though they were deemed free they were still segregated in every way, from schools to shops to public transport. African Americans were deemed inferior and had no rights….slowly after alot of fighting the law and non violent protest the tides of equality started to turn.
We all know the story of Rosa Parkes and how she wouldn’t move her seat on the bus for a white man, there are hundreds of stories like that here. Stories also of how white people who sympathised and tried to help out blacks were persecuted by the clan and their houses were burnt down. There are triumphant stories of how with through lobbying and perseverance, laws were finally changed and coloureds were allowed to attend white schools, universities and given equal rights.
The story also includes the last days of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, in 1968. He was in Memphis attending meetings and protest marches supporting the black sanitation workers who were being treated unfairly, paid less and worked in lesser conditions to their white counterparts.
They went on strike and paraded through the streets holding banners saying ‘I am a Man’ . Dr King was staying at the Lorraine Motels, one of only a couple of Motels designated in Memphis were blacks were allowed to stay. He had just come from speaking at a packed rally in a local church, he stepped outside on the second floor balcony in front of his room, number 603 and was shot from across the road, the bullet killed him, he was aged 39. The Lorraine was later bought by black businessmen many years later after going bankrupt, they restored it to its original condition and it is now part of the museum complex.
A wreath hangs, like the original one, in memorial to a great man taken before his time. Inside room 603 which is accessed from the museum, the rooms either side have been furnished as they were on the day. The perfect time capsule commemorating a sad day in history.
What Rosie really found heart wrenching was seeing the amount of elderly African Americans shuffling through the museum, this is their history, one they would have personally lived through, having put up with racism, exclusion and segregation in their own lifetime, only a generation removed from that of Rosie herself. This Museum is a must visit for everyone, Rosie left, feeling sad and ashamed to be white.
Round the corner from our hotel is the Blues City Cafe, it was busy, when you walked in the place has a slight haze of smoke from the grill.
In this basic joint we had the BEST BBQd ribs to date, the meat just fell off the bone and dissolved on your tongue, we also had gumbo, stuffed mushrooms and on a recommendation the apple dumplings to finish. Rosie and The Operator just rolled away.
Tomorrow, yes really, we are going to Graceland and then visiting Sun Studios and the Memphis pyramid……plus, Rosie cant believe she went to see….the Peabody Ducks.
