Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Age and Elvis






Biking into the University I looked right in preparation for a complicated street crossing. I saw a man driving a slightly battered black car. He was very heavy set, corpulent even, and sunk so low in the driver's seat that I wondered if the original bucket seat had worn away and been replaced with an old, legless easy chair. The man had big sideburns, wide, dark sunglasses, was smoking a cigarette, and possessed something I can only describe as presence.

He looked exactly like Elvis. Exactly.

"Oh my god!" I thought. "It's Elvis!"

But my place in time corrected me. This man was at most in his late forties. I did a brief, rough calculation and thought "If Elvis were alive today, he'd be dead."





4 comments:

  1. I believe it was Ralph Waldo Emerson you saw. He has been making his way across the United States.

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    Replies
    1. The whole United States? By himself?????

      Gosh, he sure is self reliant!

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  2. He is indeed! And he likes to thoreau opening day pitches at baseball games.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, think I heard about that. I understand in Milwaukee he was hit in the mouth with a baseball and chipped a tooth. Emerson, unfortunately, is allergic to Novocaine. Luckily there was a dentist down the street who uses hypnosis to control the pain. So Emerson headed over there to the trancing dentalist.

      Delete

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