On the way back and while waiting to cross Main St., I noticed this new beige Lincoln Mark II heading south but stopped at the light.  As the light changed and the car passed under the light, the driver leaned over to the passenger side and tipped the comb that he had been using in a friendly acknowledgement that impressed me, I was waving back at him like the idiot I was.  He was so familiar to me since I had seen him in Sheffield 3 times already that in my naivety I thought he was someone I knew from back home.  When the car was two or three lengths past me, it hit me that that was Elvis Presley.

I skipped on down Madison Ave. to the YMCA and in just a little while it came on TV that Elvis had been in a fight at a Standard Service Station on Union Ave.  It was reported that he was smelling gas fumes coming up from the floorboard and he stopped at the station to get it checked.  That was about 3 blocks from where I had seen him. Some girls recognized him and were getting his autograph when a station attendant told him to move his car he was blocking the pumps.  Elvis told him he would "in a minute".  Then the station owner comes out and demands he move with a few expletives.  Elvis exited the car and slugged the guy several times. 

Both Elvis and the owner were arrested and when they were booking Elvis he told the Desk Sgt. that his name was Carl Perkins.  The station owner was charged with something like disturbing the peace and had to pay a fine of maybe $50.00.  It was in the paper a few days later that some guy up in North Carolina sent the station owner a dollar to go on his fine because he didn't like Elvis either. 

Weren't the fifties fun?

 

Ron Newborn