Geoff

dwmiii

what part of memphis did you live in?

when elvis died i was living in the bartlett area. i was 16 years old. my friends and i were playing a sort of ballgame that we’d made up out in the street. my little bro. ran out of the house to tell us that it’d been on a news special break in. we only had four channels back then, and they were all local channels. we were all in shock. elvis was a really big deal in memphis. and, since i worked as a delivery boy for a florist, i knew my life was about to get busy, and it did.

david

As news trickled in of airflights being canceled I felt a weakening in my mind. What will bring us to our knees more than a tragedy such as this? I cried for the families who lost loved ones. I’d met Rick Pitino, basketball coach for Louisville, and interviewed him once and felt his grief over the loss of his brother in the towers.

Today I sit and am grateful for the men and women in uniform who bravely fight to promote liberty and protect liberty. Today I pray for them in Iraq, Kuwait and around the world. Today I know we are far more hated for condoning our western decadent culture than the worship of our Lord. Our hypocrisy may be our enemies greatest weapon of propaganda. Today I pray for our enemies who know not what they do.

Living in a military town in Lawton, Oklahoma and having friends who are stationed in Iraq, lends a greater appreciation for the battles we wage for truth and freedom. selahV

I was sitting in the hospital with my son who had been in a terrible wreck the night before. A nurse came into our room and said, “Something’s happened!” and turned on our TV (without asking) and stood at the end of his bed staring in disbelief at the screen. Our music minister was in the room making the pastoral call (our pastor didn’t lower himself to that) and we watched as the second plane hit. I’ll never forget – on the channel we were watching, the commentators were verbally dumbfounded. They were stammering, obviously confused as we were. I just new it was the beginning of WW3 on American soil. Maybe it was.

I watched the tape of the live feed from CBS the other night and those commentators (Jennings and others) seemed to have no feelings about the tragedy or the possible implications. It was weird. They were all business. I am glad that there were some news people that were human that day. I don’t know what channel we watched. Probably local Tulsa channel.

and David,
I was living in Memphis when Elvis died. My husband worked across the street from Graceland in a shopping area that used to be there.

I saw it on TV and was crying like all other silly women in America and the World (disgusting, isn’t it!). A friend of mine that had two Japanese exchange students living with her came by. When I answered the door, she asked me what was wrong and I told her. She started crying. The Japanese girls did not understand English, but they did understand “Elvis.” We tried many ways to tell them that Elvis had died, to no avail. Finally, I said, “Elvis is dead” as I sliced my neck with my finger, hung my tongue out and closed my eyes. They got it! You have never heard such wailing in Japanese nor seen such jumping and hugging. They almost scard me. I was not what you would call a “fan,” but he was loved around the world. I think I saw him last week!

We stopped work for that day and I had a four hour drive ahead of me to make it back home. It was an intense time and my constant prayer was for God to protect my family as I headed home on the Turnpike.

The roads were completely empty by the time I hit the Turnpike. By that time even the toll booths were empty since the tolls had been lifted by the governor. I’m not sure how fast I was traveling, but I know that I made it to Fort Lauderdale from Orlando in about 2 hours.