MORE THAN ELVIS & GENUINE HUGS

My friend, Martha, told me quite a while ago about an entertainer who sings just like Elvis.  She asked me if I would go to see him sing when he came back to The New Wild West, aka SCA.  I said that I might go and asked her to let

me know when he was going to be here.  Apparently, I also said that I would write about him in my blog.  Truthfully, I have zero recollection of that conversation, but Martha, all 80(ish) years of her, remembers and almost a year later coerces me into keeping my ‘maybe’ to her. 

Several weeks go by and Mary reminds me every time we bump into each other, which is fairly regularly, as we both have dogs and walk them mostly every day.  We make arrangements for me to pick her up on the big day, since her place was on the way to The Beam, an old barn which was converted many moons ago to a party room in North Park.

The concert is to start at 2:00 p.m. and finish at 5:00 p.m.  OMG, I thought to myself, how will I ever sit still for that long?  Also, I have found living in a community of silver heads, everyone just has to get where they’re going well in advance of whatever time it is they need to be there.  So, Martha instructs me to pick her up at 1:30, for the 5 minute (not even) car ride to The Beam.  Of course, I sometimes forget, it does take some silver heads a little longer to navigate the 3 or 4 steps out of their house and then up the longish ramp/stairs up to the venue.  I join the ranks of vehicles snaking their way up the incline and drop Martha off at the top, so she wouldn’t have to cane her way up all the steps.  That would have taken a while.  It was very cold out and the wind howling like a band of pissed off monkeys.  I wish I was Martha for a few minutes, after I park my car in the Outer Limits and run up the ramp, ducking around the cars coming down.  You just never know how well any of the drivers here in SCA can see.  I almost got smunched by someone just yesterday, when I was leaving South Park, by a man who obviously did not see the stop sign he had.  Sigh.

Elvis was already in the building when we arrive at 1:35 and Martha anxiously peers around the room to find her friend Wanda, who is saving us seats.  Not bad, three rows back from the stage.  I just know that we will be able to feel the sweat should Elvis choose to fling some our way during his performance.   We get settled and Martha introduces me to her other friend Sarah, sitting on the far side of Wanda.  

I’m a people watcher from way back and enjoy seeing the interaction, not only between people who live here in SCA and have known each other for a long time but also between Elvis and the people who have come to hear him sing.  Elvis is sharing hugs with abandon and obvious enjoyment and it’s hard to tell who’s enjoying the hugs the most. I have to say that I am a sucker for a genuine hug and wonder if I’ll get to share one with Elvis.

                       

       

                                                                             

                                                                                                              

Terry Chisholm, aka Elvis, spends the time before his show starts mingling with his obviously adoring audience.  He

doesn’t seem to notice me or the others capturing his image and if he does, certainly doesn’t seem to mind.  He is a man who appears to be in the moment with the people who have chosen to come and see him perform and there is nary a smart phone to be seen.  Actually, I did not see Terry whip one of those out at all, including during the intermission, where again, he chose to spend the time chatting with the people, sharing more hugs and snagging a coffee and a cookie (which were excellent by the way).  All that talent, beverages and great cookies and hugs, including one for yours truly, for just 12 bucks.  I’m thinking that sometimes it does pay to be old(er) and living here in SCA.                                 

The time just flies by and I think back to thinking how I would have to sit still for 3 hours.  I don’t think there was 2 seconds I sat still ‘cause Elvis, plus a bunch of his friends were definitely in the building.  Toe tapping, shoulders be-bopping to the music and rhythm and my entire body swaying to the golden tones and tunes of not only Elvis, ‘cause he brought company - Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, The Beatles, Kenny Rogers, Tom Jones, Roy Orbison and Englebert (who could ever forget him, with a last name like Humperdinck?), which brought back my teen years, to name a few.  Sigh.  I close my eyes and feel the pulse of the music and the passion of the artist saturating the words, the old barn boards just-a reverberating. Although Terry is described as a tribute artist to the legendary Elvis Presley, I have to say that I think Terry does it better. 

                       

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