The King is Dead, The King is Dead!

In this my 70th blog, on this very day, I mark the 61st year of my sojourn here on this planet. The date is August 16th and for those of you in the know you will recognize this as the day that Elvis Presley, in 1977, left this life for the next. This year the media will be doing special presentations on Elvis to mark the 30th anniversary of his passing. History records that King Herod the Great actually left orders for several hundred highly respected men to be killed immediately upon his death to make certain there would be mourning throughout the territory when he died. In some ways I guess Elvis dying on my birthday brought more attention to it since there is typically much in the way of remembrances of the King. Prior to this, to mark the 16th, I had to settle for some obscure battle won by the Americans against the British in 1777.

I certainly well remember that very day that Elvis left the building for the last time. That afternoon, as we took our places on our commuter van it was obvious that people were acting very strange. Some of the ladies riding with us were either crying or they had been crying. Those waiting for buses on street corners were boo hooing as well. It was a surreal scene and the fellow driving and I commented how absolutely bizarre it was that Elvis would still have this kind of impact on people. It was maybe not as widespread as when JFK went down but it certainly was in the same ballpark.

This was a uniquely strange situation but I had other fish to fry. One of the things my wife had drilled into me was that I should come home ready to be surprised for my birthday. She and our three boys had something planned and I had been warned not to come home all grumpy and washed out like normal. With all the stuff flying around about Elvis this was going to be even harder but I set my mind to psyching myself up for the big welcome. I’m one of those people who enjoy doing big birthdays for my wife and my boys but I do not care for a big birthday being done for me. This is another one of those quirks that I am sure someone from my past is responsible for and as soon as I find out who, they have a lot to answer for. It’s a joke, you can smile now!

In fact, I well remember a big birthday done for me at the big company by all of my employees. I had made it clear that I did not want anything done but they went behind my back and put together a huge deal and invited everyone in the department. I got wind of what was going on and made it clear I was none too happy about it. One of the ladies who had worked for me a long time came into my office, closed the door, and her message went like this: “Now you listen and you listen good. These people all love you. Why, I’ll never know, but they do and they have gone to a lot of trouble to do this birthday deal for you. So, you need to get yourself down the hall and into that conference room and whether you like it or not, you need to show them how much you appreciate what they have done for you”. And, that’s exactly what I did!

The closer we got to my drop off place I continued to pump myself up to get ready for the big celebration awaiting me at home. I tried to guess what they might have done. Okay, now I was nearing the house. Big smile and get ready for the big welcome. I came to the door and knocked. Nothing. I unlocked the door and walked into the hall ready to have the whole crew jump out and say surprise, surprise! Nothing. What’s the deal? I walked to the end of the hall and could see all of them, my wife included, in the family room glued to the TV set watching the news reports about Elvis. I finally grunted and up jumped our youngest who was six at that time. He ran over to me and shouted out, “Daddy, daddy, the King is dead, the King is dead!” So there you have it, thanks Elvis for croaking on my day, and happy birthday to me!”

One final thought, God has been good to me in that while Elvis has left the building for the last time, through His mercy and grace He has allowed me to continue in this life and it is my prayer that I will use wisely the remaining time He provides to me. More later……………..