Vacation leads to unplanned path

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October 17, 2009

By JAMES BROWN The Glasgow Daily Times Sat Oct 17, 2009, 06:29 PM CDT

GLASGOW — At Priceville exit for Decatur, we turned west without a plan. Nowhere to be. No deadline to meet. No idea what would lay ahead other than adventure.

The sun would not set, obscured behind clouds, but the day was not grey. It was bright with possibility. Before crossing the state line into Mississippi, we found the seldom traveled Natchez Trace. Its speed limit set low enough to force close inspection of the roadside.

On the way to nowhere in particular, we found an Indian burial mound. The children posed before the sign that read “Bear Creek Mound.” The mosquitoes, starving for blood, swarmed over us as we inspected the rise of earth.

We hurried to the car. I recalled stopping along the Trace as a child with my parents; my father running from the woods as my mother read a plaque. The mosquitoes loved him.

Back on the Trace, our next stop was Tupelo, famous worldwide as the birthplace of Elvis. There we found his childhood home, a shotgun wood frame with a comfortable old swing. More poses. More photos. Another shared moment.

In stone, along a circular path around the home, is the King of Rock’s life written year by year.

On a brick and stone pedestal a few feet from the home is a brass statue of a 13-year-old Elvis, holding a guitar, hand outstretched, welcoming all to grasp his life.

In the background is the old church where he learned to sing. It’s restored and has been moved a city block from where it stood on the wrong side of the tracks in 1930s Tupelo.

After brushing up on the early history of rock-n-roll’s most-swooned-over heartthrob, we stopped for dinner in America’s “First TVA City.”

Flashback to a billboard on the highway outside of town. A likeness of “Papa” Demetrios Kapenekas invited us to his restaurant. After leaving Elvis, we found our way to Vanelli’s. They serve Greek and Italian food. “Papa” was born in Athens, Greece, but found his way to America after World War II.

Eventually, he settled in Tupelo, where he opened a restaurant, like his papa in the old country.

A family connecting is nice. Both Papa’s and mine.

James Brown is editor of the Daily Times. He can be reached by e-mail at jbrown(at)glasgowdailytimes.com

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