I knew some Elvis songs, but I hadn't paid much attention to Elvis the man. I didn't know much about him. I didn't know his personality. But I knew that I wanted to visit Graceland when I was in Memphis.
I had a picture of what Graceland would be like in my head. It would be a monstrous mansion, with rabid fans of Elvis dressed up to look like him, and with people doing terrible impressions of his singing and dancing outside the gate, hoping for money.
I could not have been more wrong. There were no Elvis impersonators to be seen. It was not a "silly" place for the rabid fans. It was a very normal place, and a very normal (dare I say ordinary) house. Sure, there were some strange rooms and two airplanes parked across the street at the visitor center, but those were expected.
One of those strange rooms was the famous Jungle Room. I noticed how relatively small it was compared to what I had expected, but it was not lost on me how many "interesting" stories happened in that room, and how many people had "visited" Elvis in that room.
But the rest of the house that was opened to visitors (the upstairs and its bedrooms are reserved for the Presley family only) is surprisingly normal. Sure, it's decorated from the 60s and 70s, but that was also to be expected.
That was my first glimpse into the kind of person Elvis Presley was. And then the museum exhibits showed me even more. He volunteered for the army, and didn't want any special treatment while enlisted. He gave incredible amounts of money to charities. He was a family man. The more I learned about Elvis, the more I respected him as a person. Because of that, I've become an Elvis fan. I listen to more of his hits. I tell lots of people to visit Graceland and gain a great appreciation for him.
And when it came to pay my respects to Elvis Presley at his gravesite on the property, I spent a lot of time there. I felt my respects were due, not only because of what he gave the world through music, but because of what he gave to the world in others ways as well.
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