Memphis Miscellany, Part 1

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Suggested Listening for this Entry: Marshall Chapman's CD It's About Time.... It has very little to do with Memphis other than having a song that references Elvis and the Pyramid, but oh well. The CD was recorded live at the Tennessee State Prison for Women in Nashville, so there probably were some former Memphis residents in the audience.

Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: Tamales....I didn't partake of any while in Memphis or the Delta, but there were signs for restaurants serving them all over. Maybe a reader could explain to me the Mid-South's apparent fascination with tamales. If you visit the Peabody Hotel, you can have a drink that comes in a martini glass in the lobby bar. It's not really my thing, but the Peabody is a class joint that doesn't sell Beale Big Ass Beers.

About this time, most of the regular readers are probably thinking two things in regards to these blog entries. The first is "he spent all this time in Memphis, yet there has been very little mention of Elvis?". Well, hold onto your hat, because after this entry, you're going to get a big a hunka Elvis. The second thought the reader is probably thinking is "did this guy go to Memphis to see anything besides bars, barbecue joints and live music?". Well yes, good readers, I did. What follows in this entry are a few tidbits on some of the sites in Memphis that don't involve booze, blues or barbecue.

The original Peabody Hotel opened in 1869 and has been in its current location since 1925. The Peabody has long been considered the grandest hotel in Memphis and draws tourists not staying there to its grand lobby for its bar, its shopping and its ducks. No, these ducks aren't finely carved decoys or paintings, they are live ducks. Every morning at eleven, the hotel "duckmaster" (insert joke here) leads the team of ducks down from their "duck palace" on the roof, onto and down an elevator, and then a onto a red carpet crossing the lobby to the lobby's fountain where they stay all day. At five each afternoon, the process is reversed and the ducks return to the roof. I have to admit I didn't witness any of the marches that took place while I was in Memphis, but I did go into the Peabody lobby right after the Sunday afternoon march back to the roof and everyone in the lobby was abuzz about what they had just seen.

Upon returning home, I read the ducks are raised on a farm near Memphis. After serving their three month tour of duty at the Peabody, they are retired back to the farm where they live out the rest of their days in the wild. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that what really happens when the ducks retire from the hotel is they go from being Peabody Ducks to being Peking ducks.

For the complete story of the Peabody Ducks, click here:


Among the attractions at Mud Island River Park is the River Walk, a five block long scale model of the lower Mississippi River complete with water running through it. The River Walk lets you see every bend of the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River joins the Mississippi, to the mouth of the Mississippi where it empties into the Gulf Mexico in Louisiana. Each step down the River Walk represents one mile. Along the walk, are signs with historical information about the people and towns of the Mississippi. At the end of the walk, is a one acre pond representing the Gulf of Mexico.

For more information on Mud Island Park and all its attractions, including the River Walk, click here:


The Pyramid Arena, also known as Memphis' white elephant, was built in 1991 as a state of the art arena. Thirteen years later, in 2004, the FedEx Forum opened near Beale St. and the Pyramid was deemed near useless as all its tenants moved to the new arena. Today, the Pyramid sits empty as the City of Memphis and Bass Pro Shops negotiate a deal to turn the Pyramid into one big a** sporting goods store.

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