Thoughts on Elvis Presley on His Birthday

It's hard to believe Elvis Presley would've been 81 years old tomorrow, January 8th. Elvis, the "King of Rock and Roll," was in his early 40s when he died, but he lives on through his music and memories of him.

My mom was an Elvis fan. Sunday nights we sat around the TV and watched Elvis and other musicians perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. At other times, Mom would turn the radio on and dance around the kitchen to tunes by Elvis, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, and Andy Williams. She also loved Tom Jones.

Two of her glitzy (and, to be honest, ditzy) sisters made several trips to Vegas, where they saw Elvis and other famous entertainers perform then they'd come home and tell Mom about their adventures. Mom could never afford to go with them -- although she was thrilled when my sister Kathleen and I took her, much later in her life, to see Tony Bennett and Andy Williams perform when they visited St. Louis on separate occasions.

Back to Elvis. I wasn't a huge Elvis fan. I liked some of his music, especially "Love Me Tender," "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Blue Suede Shoes" was another good one, but I thought his movies were cheesey. Several friends from our neighborhood Bunco, which has been going strong since 1974, adored "The King" while they were teens and well into adulthood. In fact, a few of them were  upset on Bunco night two days after Elvis died in August of 1977; they were so inconsolable they could barely roll the Bunco dice.

Another Elvis story came from Nick Nixon, a contemporary of Elvis. Nick was a local St. Louis area celebrity, a songwriter, and country singer. Nick discovered late in life that he wanted to write something other than songs, and he became a treasured member of our Coffee and Critique writers' group for several years until he passed away a couple years ago.

Nick once told a story during lunch at C&C of how, while he was in the Marine Corps and stationed in Tennessee, he had a run in with "The King of Rock and Roll." Apparently words were exchanged between Nick and Elvis, a gun was brandished, and an apology from Elvis arrived in the form of a telegram to Nick some time later.

How about you? Care to share any thoughts or memories about Elvis on his birthday?  Or, do you have a favorite Elvis song?

Superstitions from Family and Friends

An unusual event happened at Bunco last month. It was strange because the Bunco group I belong to has been playing once a month for over forty years and this has never happened--at least not as long as I can remember.

The Bunco attendance prize was a cute and fancy watermelon knife, like the one on the left. (I had already bought an identical one at a local supermarket for me -- there was a super sale --- and another for my granddaughter to use in her new apartment.)

 Immediately after opening the Bunco gift bag with the knife inside, the prize winner hopped up from her chair, grabbed her wallet, and gave the hostess a penny.  When I asked the winner why she did that she told me it's bad luck to receive a knife as a gift. When you receive one, you're supposed to give whoever gave it to you some money. Curious about why it was bad luck, after I got home I did some research. Seems like there are several superstitions connected with knives.

The next time I saw my granddaughter I told her about the knife-gift superstition and reminded her that I had given her some money, along with the knife, so she was good. She looked at me like it was just another of my weird stories.

That reminded me of my mother's superstitions. Here are a few I remember:

If you spill salt, toss some over your left shoulder.
If your right hand itches, you're going to meet someone.
If your left hand itches, you're going to get some money.
Never put an umbrella on a table.
Never put a hat or shoes on a bed.
It's bad luck for a bird to fly into the house.
Don't let cats near newborns.
Don't cut a baby's hair before it's a year old.
Finding a coin heads-up is good luck.
Dreaming of muddy water mean bad luck. (My grandma would call everyone in the family when she had one of these dreams.)
Bad luck and good luck come in threes.
If it comes in three, let it be -- a warning to watch out for poison ivy and poison oak.

That's all I can think of right now.

How about you? Did your family have any superstitions?