Graceland Too
In a completely unrelated post to anything about Cameroon but everything about awesomeness, I feel the need to attempt to delve into the greatness that is Graceland Too.
In Holly Springs, Mississippi Paul McLeod lives in a large house. This mansion has been painted various colors, including pink, but had black accents when I visited. The gated in lawns were filled with old Christmas trees and wreaths. Two concrete lions grace (pun intended) the stairway and they are draped with Christmas lights and tattered red plastic bows. Due to Graceland Too being open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why would anyone go before midnight?
My friend had been there 4 times before so he knew that even though Paul didn’t answer the door after 2 rigorous knockings, he had to be home. I stood on my tippy toes and peered through the window on the door, tantalized by all the posters and photos covering every square inch of ceiling and walls. The third knocking did the trick, sending my down-trodden spirit soaring. And inside Paul began to clear his throat (consequently he didn’t really stop throughout the entire tour). We stepped in to pay our $5 fee (after 3 visits you get a Lifetime Membership card and no longer have to pay) and Paul started his spiel. Paul is in his late 50s, with crazy eyes and he talks out of the side of his mouth.
There are pictures of the actual Elvis mansion, Graceland. Paul repeats time and again that Graceland Too is not out to “duplicate it, just resemble it”. For the next hour and a half, Paul highlights his collection of …assorted goods. It takes me 5 minutes before my brain can wrap around his continuous stream of Southern speech with no consistent intonations. He’s turning on a huge set of colored lights, loud record recordings, and pointing out a gold suit in the corner. In between outrageous stories and offers of fantastic amounts of money for his items, he slips in jokes about his ex-wife and sex (“And I said to her, are those carry-ons?…I’m talkin’ ’bout titties!”). I’m literally agog and he’s whistling at me to get my attention so he can point out a pile of books all containing every moment that Elvis was ever on TV, he’s grabbing my arm to show me all the guns Elvis used to own, he’s saying “Yo!” and telling me to check out his vast array of Coke cans and bottles featuring Elvis. Room after room, all covered with photos that he claims he took in Elvis’s last performance. At one point he pulls out a tiny Magnum that the cops gave him… I think that’s what he said, I was too stunned that there was suddenly a gun. Some of what he says are ridiculous jokes, some of them are just lies, some of it is his family history (“and don’t my son look like the spittin’ image of Elvis?”) and then some of it is an insane amount of crap he knows about Elvis.
Overall, it’s the type of house that could have ANYTHING tucked in corners behind dusty statues and plywood boards filled with polaroid photos of all the visitors to Graceland Too (he claims over 480,000 I believe). Our tour ended when another group of college students stopped in at 1am to have the grand ol’ tour. My friend said it could’ve gone on another hour otherwise. I left feeling amazed that Paul spends his life giving this tour, for years and YEARS this has gone on. That there simply IS that much stuff about Elvis. And a little bit violated through his bullying speech and the ridiculousness of it all. I’d say not half bad for $5 in the middle of the night.
