Elvis, You Ruined a Beautiful Day

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of summer... swimming, biking, and staying up late! Yes indeed Summer is the best season and mine were also filled with Packing, Moving, a New School, New Friends, then doing it all over again in just under twenty-four months. This was my life since I was born. I didn't mind too much as Mom made it all fun and Dad's career took us to some great places. Travel to Foreign countries is a great way to learn about the world and its inhabitants, their lifestyles and favorite things. Music and food seem to be the things held in common by everyone everywhere! We really have more similarities than differences.

What was Dad's career that made this great life possible you ask? I am the daughter of a United States Navy Sailor. We have lived in Taiwan, visited Hong Kong, and a small part of mainland China. We lived in Virginia and camped in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, we took family road trips across the country to visit friends and family in every state of 'The Lower 48' while the Navy trucked our belongings to our new location. We lived in Hawaii and so many others of these beautiful United States. Packing and moving, living light on stuff was easy for me. I was a happy kid!

Making new friends was pretty easy too. Just find the other kids that liked the same music and movies. Find the library and bowling alley, learn where the fun places were to go after school, and always invite the new kids to our house for games, sibling's birthday parties, and Mom's great food for everyone.

Now sadly, When I say invite the new friends to our house for stuff it was never for MY birthday party as Dad's transfer date, and therefore the packing and moving days kept my birthdays to family affairs. He had signed up right after his High School graduation so everything centered around late July through August, and you guessed it my special day is in August so the new friends were too new for invitations or we weren't unpacked yet.

It's really not as bad as it sounds because back in my day, the best music was Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and some Folk singers that sang what we all felt about current events. All the schools held regular dances, especially after the Friday night football games. Any sports team one had joined held end-of-season banquets with food and music. Dancing to Elvis was easy and no one had to feel left out because EVERYONE loved him!

The year my father retired I was a Junior in High School in Hawaii. I pushed through extra classes to graduate so I could attend the graduation with my current friends and then attend university in our new home state.

We arrived in California right after school let out and I was excited to get a job and research the University system. To my shock, horror, and surprise I was too young to get a job without a 'work permit'...having graduated early I was only Fifteen and a half so my plans were dashed and so off to the local High School I went to sign up for two classes so I would be allowed to get a job.

This actually turned out to be a great thing as I made many new friends and when the end of that school year came around I had invited well over 30 young people to my beach birthday party! Mom and I planned the food, drinks, and games. Dad purchased Barbecue supplies and lots of food, and everyone said over and over how excited they were!

Finally a real birthday party for me!! The night before the big day I was on the phone with several friends arranging rides for those without their own cars. A nice boy I liked even promised to bring the music for us all to dance to!

Early in the morning of MY BIG DAY, the phone in the hallway started ringing. Friend after friend calling while crying to say "did you hear the news?" or "The King is dead" but what each of these calls had in common was that these so-called new friends could not bear to attend the party on a day filled with so much grief.

WHAT? I even sarcastically asked several of them if they were related to him that their 'grief' was so deep. I loved his movies and his music but not so much that his death was going to stop my life.

Unbelievable! I couldn't believe these 'friends' could do this. Thankfully, the cute young man with the music and a few others were undaunted by this tragedy and attended anyway. Mother Nature complied with a perfect temperature, light breeze and even the waves were just right for jumping and Boogie-boarding. We tried to celebrate my day but more and more news kept coming about Elvis' death and how he was found, all the grim details so we left the beach earlier than planned.

I know that sounds as though that was a horrible birthday...BUT that's not the worst part, oh no! ... EVERY year since that day, the news of the day is about the anniversary of his passing, his music is played all day, and one can't go anywhere without someone asking "where were you when...?"

One year, five years, ten years ...Grrrrr! Can't a gal catch a break?

Some years later our jobs had moved me and my husband (the cute boy with the music) to Las Vegas, Nevada, and since it was nearing the twentieth anniversary of this date I had what I thought was a brilliant idea!

I called the local Hilton hotel where Elvis always stayed and had his shows and suggested they do an anniversary celebration with the local Elvis impersonators providing the entertainment. The best part of the idea was that they could invite Everyone with that birthdate to attend for free and only have a charge for the birthday person's guest. They said it was a great idea... but it didn't happen...until the twenty-fifth anniversary and it was a celebrity-only party certainly not for those of us that deserved a reward for needing therapy for him ruining our celebrations every year!

Ironically, just after the 40th anniversary, I was hit with another birthday downer... The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin passed away. Now there's a reason to grieve.