Union Avenue
Sun Studio
Ghosts
Strip joint
Memphis, New Year’s Day
Eerie emptiness
Wasteland
Wonder Bread
Memphis Redbirds
The Pyramid
River boat
History, at the end of the block
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It really does look like a zombie movie, just before the protagonist is faced with the first horde of undead. I love the old style signs and billboards – I can see what you mean about the history of the place being retained.
hahaha Yes, it would be a great setting for a zombie movie!
Sheila, thank you so much for the article and pics. Although I’m a California boy, now living in the Bay Area, I grew up in Memphis, and I still have relatives and a friend or two there. If you get the chance don’t miss the band, Freeworld. They’re a great Memphis group and they play a lot on Beale Street and out in Germantown.
Spooky seeing such empty streets. Your waterfront pictures were taken within a hundred yards or so of where my brother used to live on the riverfront with his family.
Thanks for the memories!
John – hello! I love love that riverfront area! I love how there’s the bluff and then down below is that park, and the walkway along the river. It’s just so scenic. So beautiful.
I have loved my time here. It’s a welcoming place to outsiders.
Sheila, I am enjoying your despatches from Memphis a lot. If I ever get to travel to Memphis I would do, as you are doing and experience it alone when going off the beaten track or at off-peak hours. I would bring family/friends but I would have to take that time out to see and “feel” the Memphis that has been conjured up within my imaginings from music and film references too. Tupelo would be a must in this regard. Have a happy and healthy new year.
Yes, I have loved having the time to just hang out here, not just do tourist stuff, but actually have the time to just BE.
I went to Tupelo! I was there on a Sunday morning, around 9 a.m., and it was a total ghost town. Literally: filled with ghosts. The frost was on the grass. I walked around. I found the hardware store where he got his first guitar. I got a feel for the place. I’ll post pics eventually.
I also went to Horn Lake, Mississippi and tracked down the Circle G, which was a very interesting excursion.
Looking forward to your posts on Tupelo and Circle G. The quality of the Memphis photos(and writing) is first class. I always get a kick out of the fact that Elvis got his first guitar from a man called Bobo and that Vernon’s landlord was Mr Bean. Hope to get there some day. My only walking in the steps of Elvis experience was in Paris @ the Prince De Galles Hotel a few years ago and even that was magical. There is no rationale to it, but even my non-Elvis friends who were with me say that he has left some serious vibes in his wake ……..from 59/60. Yes we had been drinking.
… what, no interior shots? ;)
I get the feeling it was no longer in operation. One of the many abandoned buildings I saw.