3 posts tagged “memphis”

I'm back!

Just returned from a long weekend in Memphis, where I reunited with my best friends from high school. We packed a lot into a short weekend: a road trip from Chicago, a visit to Graceland, the National Civil Rights Museum, dancing on Beale Street, milkshakes and fried chicken, brunch at the historic Peabody Hotel (which, according to a friend of ours, is "the best thing about Memphis...other than the poverty.")

On that topic, I will say that I was struck by how desolate downtown Memphis was, in spite of its rich musical and cultural history. I snapped a few photos of the walk along Second Street from our hotel to the National Civil Rights Museum [see below], because I was so surprised at the landscape. Things were often boarded up, rusting, unpeopled.

But it was lively among the six of us, and we had a great time, even if it was abbreviated by plane delays and people's "jobs." For a small album of more fun Memphis photos, click here.

This sign speaks for itself:

So does this one:
Hands down, best fried chicken I have ever tasted in my life: Today, Graceland and the National Civil Rights Museum. More to come. MEMPHIS!

What do Memphis and Carrie Underwood have in common? (I know what you're all thinking...Carrie's from Oklahoma, Jenn.)

Well, I am going to Chicago en route to Memphis today for a destination high-school reunion of sorts for the whole weekend. And I am listening to Carrie Underwood (my new favorite pop country lady / American Idol winner) to get excited for the trip.

Of note: we will be in Memphis tomorrow for the the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., where he was shot at a motel that is now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum. I had wanted to visit the museum, but now knowing that April 4th was the anniversary, think it's  it was even more important to go.

Growing up, MLK Jr. was of course always a modern American hero; in elementary school we would draw little tributes to him on construction paper and hang them around our classrooms in mid-January, around his birthdate. But we were still sitting in a public school in Chinatown, and there was no way we could understand what the significance of his death meant in a place that experienced much more explicit segregation than any part of New York.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to it (and to Graceland, Sun Studios, fried chicken, bourbon).