Larry Daniels wrote: "My wife and I and 4 other couples are planning on
going to the Beale Street Music Festival in May and would appreciate any
suggestions as to sights/restaurants/bars to take in while there in
addition to the musicfestival, Graceland, Mudd Island, the Civil Rights
Museum, Stax, Sun Studio, the ducks at the Peabody and Al Green's church."
No trip to Memphis is complete without eating at The Rendezvous. It is
a bar cum restaurant located in a basement with buckets of charm and
character. When I ws stationed there, I had a ritual of going to The
Rendezvous every Sundy night to drink beer, eat pretzels and a ham and
cheddar on rye sandwich, and watch the Sunday night TV shows like
Maverick. Now they have, I am told, the best bar-b-que in all of
Memphis. The people of Memphis were letting the Memphis Belle (B-17)
deteriorate, so it was removed from Mudd Island and taken to a museum in
Dayton, Ohio. The ducks at the Peabody Hotel are just that. Ducks. No
big deal. The real story about the Peabody was that it was integrated
back in the 1930's when the Ole Miss football team brought "Blind Tom",
a young Negro who had lost his eyesight in a construction accident at
the university, and for the rest of his life was adopted by each
entering freshman class. The Ole Miss football teams had refused to
stay at the Peabody until "Blind Tom" stayed with them. Sun Records was
still there when last I visited for a sports car reunion about four
years ago. Sam Phillips has since died, so I don't know what happened to
the little hole-in-the-wall "studio". Beale Street? I never got there
because for all white Navy sailors, it ws "off limits" and "out of
bounds". Get caught there and you were assured of a captain's mast.
Now, they have a racetrack out near the Navy base at Millington, so you
might want to check on what events they have when you will be there.
Have a great time.
Buster
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