When
I first arrived in Memphis I felt like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz"
only it wasn't Kansas I wasn't in anymore but New York! Yes people
talked and walked and did things slower with the attitude, "If it
doesn't get done today it will tomorrow", and when I finally adapted
that attitude I loved it but getting use to it plus understanding the
Southern accent and the sayings took a little while! I must say
from day one I found all Southerners to be gracious, opening their homes
to these Yankees, cooking us meals and eager to take us around. I found
out that many did invite us to their homes and/or joined our WW class to hear "..those funny guys from the North talk." It
really didn't take long for my favorite word to become 'Sho-o-o-o-o-t'!
I found Southern women to really be 'steel magnolias' and though I
thought Southern gentlemen were soft spoken and a bit effeminate and
that most were gay the first two traits hid tough guys who didn't take
or give any bull.

Here
it is 43 years later and I still remember walking into the Giant (that
was the name) supermarket on White Station Road for the first time and
it lived up to the name. New York had grocery stores like A & P but
this was a SUPER market! It was huge and bright with spacious aisles and
even had a lever to lift up your wagon so you didn't have to bend over
to put things on the cashier's counter. The shelves had so many items I
never heard of and the meat section parts of animals that I have never
tasted. I fell in love with Memphis that moment, if not before. At the
same time I discovered Sessel's (on Union?) who made the best in store
carrot cake I ever tasted! I became so Southern I went to my first--and
last--football game.

On
Mount Moriah Road, or was it Mendenhall Road?,  there was a 'hair
stylist shop'--in Memphis???--where I had my hair cut every 10 days,
since I read in "The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit" that a gentleman has
his hair trimmed every 10 days, and gray sprayed in my temples to make
me look distinguished and older. I don't have to do that anymore as the
temples are naturally gray without spray!

After
that, going west, was the Perkin's Pancake House right between the
railroad tracks and Goldsmith's department store--funny the things you
remember though I had a good reason to remember the latter which I will
get into later--while across  Poplar was Sears which didn't have any
outside windows though Johnny (as I would learn later) was their 'window
dresser'!

Memphis
is the home of Beale Street and the blues, along with Stax records and
the start of rock and roll and, yes, became the home of Elvis. The
original Holiday Inn and Fedex started here. In 1969 the airport was
renamed the Memphis International airport. While I was there work
started on Mud Island which had a walkway showing all of the Mississippi
river from where it started to where it ended. They were also building a
pyramid along with an amphitheatre where a few years later, when I
returned to Memphis on  vacation, I saw an outdoor performance of "A
Chorus Line".

On
October 21, 1969, I got my driving permit and got my driver's license
on October 29 and a week later I was driving a white Eldorado Cadillac
convertible with a MARTIN license plate. I was moving on up!

In
1972 I was making enough money to not only start a month long vacation
but doing it going first class with airplanes, hotels, limousine and
personal guides though I much preferred going out on my own. My first
vacation was to Dalls, Honolulu, Papeete, Moorea, Bali Hai, Bora Bora,
Auckland, Sidney, Cairns, Melbourne, San Francisco and back to Memphis.
Sadly I was drinking heavy and missed a few trips such as the Barron
Gorge and Falls, Kuranda, Atherton Tablelands, Tinaroo Falls along with
other side trips. My excuse? Most were scheduled in the morning and my
travel agent knew not to book me any morning trips! I don't have a
single picture from that trip but I still have the trip ticket and a
couple of sheep scatter rugs that someone I had met in Auckland sent me
as a gift.

The
following year it was South America starting off with Rio, on to Buenos
Aires, Iguassu Falls--where I got lost in the jungle--Sao Paulo,
Brazilia, Caracas, Guatemala, Mexico City, Acapulco and then Puerto
Vallarta where I got so sick I don't remember cutting the rest of the
trip short, getting to Memphis without knowing how I got through customs
and ended up in the Baptist hospital. Again no pictures and considering
how much I drank on the trip I am surprised any germ lived. The one
thing I did was write a lot of letters to Bernie and myself so I have a
journal of that vacation as I had asked Bernie to hold all the letters
for me and I still have them.

The 1974 vacation would be brought to a halt for another reason.