When in Roam
December 30, 2020 — January 3, 2021: Memphis & Little Rock
On December 30th, as we drove west on I-40, we passed by Bucksnort, Tennessee — my favorite town name so far!
It started raining an hour before we got into the Home of the Blues aka Birthplace of Rock ‘n Roll — population 650k as of 2018, the second largest city in the state and the largest city on the Mississippi. The forecast indicated that the wetness wouldn’t stop till the morning of January 1st and the weather service was correct. So, we’re indoors for 40 hours. It felt like we ended the year in a quarantine, which seemed fitting for 2020.
The room at the Courtyard by Marriott Memphis Downtown was large, but only had one chair, an ottoman, and a king-size bed. It felt like someone stole that awkward couch that had been a signature piece of Courtyard furniture in most of the rooms I’d inhabited during years of business travel. It worked out nicely though, as we had plenty of space for our suitcase caravan.
We started the evening Zooming for a Codenames grudge match with Spence and Will. We followed by chowing down leftovers served into to-go coffee cups over the bathroom sink to minimize spillage. Then, watched The Prom on Netflix which Carol loved and I appreciated for what it was.
By midday on New Year’s Eve, we made a break for it and drove by these landmarks which were too far apart to cover in a walking tour:
The Memphis Pyramid: in the same state that has a copy of the Parthenon? Hmmm. It started as the home court of the Memphis Grizzlies, then Bass Pro Shops bought it over and stocked it with everything that you need their gear to catch, starting with fish. Not sure how many grizzlies are still there, though.
The Peabody Hotel: It was raining so much, the ducks wouldn’t even come out for their hotel room for their twice daily parade!
Sun Studio: Pretty cool to go to a shrine that looks as it did when it was in use in its heyday. Those kids with a dream named Presley, Cash, Perkins, Lewis, and Orbison went into that Recording Service with no idea of how it would change the trajectory of their lives. I knew about them, but wasn’t aware that B.B., Ike Turner, and Howlin’ Wolf also made early recordings there!
FedEx Forum: It’s where the Grizzlies play now. They spent some money on the entrance, but from the outside, the rest of it resembled what the L.A. Forum would have looked like if it was built in Russia.
National Civil Rights Museum: We HAD to get out of the car to check this out. Standing below the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, in front of room 306 (I never knew the room number where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed) it felt like it does whenever I see something iconic in real life that until then I’d only experienced in pictures. It was hard to believe I was seeing it in person. I tried to imagine what it must have felt like to have been there when that event occurred and changed the arc of history. Then I tried to walk in the shoes of the killer, a 40-year-old single white man, the first of nine children, discharged from the army due to ineptitude and lack of adaptability, who had escaped from jail while serving a 20-year term. He was able to procure a rifle, scope, and 20 cartridges — though he only needed one — and set up shop in a rooming house directly across from the Lorraine Motel. And he was able to pull the trigger. It's easy and appropriate to demonize him. But what have we done over the last 42+ years to prevent similar attacks from occurring? Here’s a clue. Since 1968, more Americans have been killed by gun violence than in all U.S. wars — combined.
Stax Museum of American Soul Music: While the Sun Records site got more publicity, Stax has had a greater impact on my ears as it was the home of Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, and Isaac Hayes. I only wish the part of the city where it’s located was in better shape.
Graceland: No disrespect to this King, but if you net it out, the place is a colonial, right? What am I missing? My goal here was to use his toilet. But, alas, I was denied.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Hard to get close to it during COVID. We saw it from afar. A large complex, whose buildings are all pink, actually coral spar. It was founded by Marlo Thomas’ father, Danny Thomas, born Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz of Lebanese descent. While he was undeniably a star who had an 11-year run in a sitcom that bore his name, it feels like he had made greater use of his resources and a more profound contribution to the world than many other celebrities of the same or greater wealth and acclaim.
On our way, back we tried to procure party food for New Year Eve but weren’t able to find any ready-to-eat protein. Downtown Memphis during C-19 is a bit of a food desert, so we celebrated with chips and salsa. We wished all siblings a “happy new year,” and then watched Death to 2020 on Netflix that wasn’t really funny to us. The highlight of the night was playing Bar None Trivia, hosted by Spencer Fertig, on a team with our fellow Forest Laker co-operators.
I closed the night by celebrating the new year twice. Once EST, and then CST with my bride!
We started 2021 off walking to the Peabody Hotel to see their first duck parade of 2021! A sign outside said the procession was only for guests. We chatted up an employee who confirmed that was a recent decision due to the state’s COVID uptick. He also said there were only a few people inside, and that if we would comply with masks and staying six feet apart, he’d let us in. We told him that we don’t even stand within six feet of each other, and graciously accepted his offer. Ah, the kindness of strangers!
We entered and found a spot that provided a great vantage point while being as physically distant from others as possible — the mezzanine! Not only did we get to see the parade, precisely at 11am, but it was led by the Peabody Hotel Duckmaster, who prior to fetching the mallards from their rooftop domicile, shared the ducks’ origin story! Do they possess superpowers? You decide. But if punctuality is one of them, then I’d say yes.
We walked down to Beale St. and hit the entertainment district. It’s a smaller version of Nashville’s Broadway, and Nawlins’ Bourbon Street, but has the same feel. Only, instead of listening to live country music, or jazz respectively, wafting out of the joints, it seems that Memphis has gotten the memo re: C-19. We only heard prerecorded classics by Gladys and the Pips I’ve Got to Use My Imagination and Stevie’s Superstition (which happens to feature Jeff Beck on rhythm guitar). And, of course, B.B. King’s House of Blues welcomes you, or says, “see ya,” if you enter or leave Beale from the west. It was a cloudy grey New Year’s Day afternoon, and though we weren’t feeling the effects of the night before, the city seemed to be — not just from NYE though, but from the last nine months.
Even the restaurants we were told to check out, primarily The Rendezvous for BBQ were closed. We ordered take out from The Slider Inn, think boutique White Castle, which we consumed back at the ranch while listening to sounds of Memphis, including: Chuck Berry’s Memphis, Tennessee, Dylan’s Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis, and a Memphis Sound playlist on Spotify.
We stepped out and walked across the street to watch the nightly light show from the iconic Horatio de Soto (HdS) bridge, and knew that we made as much lemonade as we could here. Then it was onto Little Rock, AR, for one night to close out the deep south before moving west to the Lone Star state…
A sign that we’re making hay roaming this large, amazing country of ours, is that once we headed west over the Mississippi River, all TV and radio stations (not that anyone watches or listens to them anymore) start with a K instead of a W.
From there, we pointed Sweet Chariot west on I-40 and 140 miles later we rolled into town and checked the following two boxes:
Clinton Library: not much to do outside except take a picture on the banks of the Arkansas River. Too new to visit any gravesites.
Little Rock Central High School: I always confuse this scene with that of Gov. George Wallace at the University of Alabama, but this came first. It’s a huge, worn, building. As we walked to the entrance, we imagined the tension on September 29, 1957, as 1,200 angry white locals tried to deny nine black high school students aka The Little Rock Nine, access to attend classes there. Ike had to call in the National Guard to enable the students to enter, and that was through a side door. The documentary Little Rock Central: 50 Year Later examines what the state of the school was in 2007. We haven’t seen it yet, but from the reviews I’ve read, it seems that the scenario there maps to what we see across our country in terms of which neighborhoods continue to get resources.
This is our last stop on the civil rights trail and visiting these sights has been even more compelling to us than we expected. I feel that if our country walked the talk, i.e., lived up to the Preamble of our Constitution,
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
there would have been a far greater chance that my father would not have been killed by gun violence long before his time. If that hadn’t occurred, I feel that I probably wouldn’t feel as passionate as I do now about the inequities I continue to see in our country. But it did happen, and I do feel it. I’m thankful that I have a partner in life who feels the same way and who, in many ways, has motivated me to explore this together. While we have come a long way, there’s still a lot more work to be done.
We checked into the Little Rock Marriott Courtyard for one night. It’s our 14th stop and we’re now a well-oiled machine when it comes to unpacking/packing Sweet Chariot. Before we knew it, we were strolling down President Clinton Boulevard, which felt like an area that was been developed relatively recently, since the opening of the presidential library a mile away. We ended up taking out from Stickyz Rock ’N’ Roll Chicken Shack, which we consumed in our hotel room, while the scent of cheeba wafted in from one of our neighbors.
The next morning, we filled up for just $1.89 a gallon and it was onward to Dallas!
