The Olympics, French, and Elvis

Watching the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics was interesting and entertaining, as a matter of fact I’m still watching the local commentators summarise as I write this. I’ve only been to Canada twice but have met many Canadians and without exception have found them all to be wonderful people. One married couple did threaten to crucify me once, I met them in a King Cross restaurant in Sydney one night, on hearing the accent I asked which part of the states they were from. That’ll do it every time.

Everyone knows the French connection in Canada, fascinating history, characters, and conflict over many years, but what does that have to do with me and my friend Elvis? Well, when going to high school in Little Rock Arkansas once upon a time, I decided that a good elective subject would be the language of love, French. Not many of you know me well enough, but those who do, know I’m an old fashioned romantic.

I’m not embarrassed to say that I once kissed a ladies hand on meeting her, both she and I were 17 at the time, I even went as far as saying enchanté mademoiselle. Luckily she was a romantic as well, I didn’t get laughed at, I got myself....a friend. Sounds stupid now but you didn’t see her at that moment as I did, weak knees, pounding heart, I had the lot.

As to the Olympics, every sentence heard, and sign seen, must be in both English and French, which is as it should be given the history. I can still count to 10 but that’s about all I do remember of the language, should have paid more attention and practiced more often as it would have been very valuable in my business life later. I did keep the French textbook for many years, I don’t know what happened to it in the end, I wish I did, you see, it had an Elvis connection. Mrs. Presley was my French teachers name.

“The world isn’t all that big” is something I’ve said many times and it’s true, places and people come into and out of our lives more often than we think. There are quite a few coincidences that go into the making of this story, too many to write here so I’ll just stick to the Presley thread and that briefly, we’ll speak of French and the Olympics other times. Before living in Little Rock I had lived further south and had driven past the gates of Graceland in Memphis more than once, just one more of those coincidences that add up to form a connection.

Mrs. Presley had married one of Vernon Presley’s brothers so became an Elvis Aunt. Tupelo Mississippi, Elvis’s birthplace was about three hours drive from where my parents lived back then, in fact they were married in Tupelo about nine months before I was born. Elvis would have been riding around town on his bicycle, he didn’t get his first car until the next year.

Mrs. Presley would often tell the class bits and pieces of the family life she led, in French of course, the Presley’s were very close as many southern family’s were and still are. She even brought photos of the weekends she and her husband spent at Graceland in Memphis. Just the usual family snapshots, heads cut off, blurring problems etc. Splashing around the pool was a big activity, the Christmas photos were great.

My French textbook almost became part of history late one Friday afternoon. As I was leaving school, home a short walk away, Mrs. Presley stopped her car beside me and asked if she could borrow my book for the weekend. She had promised one of her sisters-in-law to teach her son a little French that weekend at Graceland, having left her book in the classroom and not wanting to go back, I was simply convenient. I must have hesitated because she smiled and said “I’ll get Elvis to autograph it for you.” I wasn’t a huge Elvis fan but said “sure, that’ll be great.”

On Monday Mrs. Presley looked for me in class and advised that she had left the book at Graceland and would pick it up the next trip down. After class I had to answer a lot of questions from other kids. I wasn’t worried about the book since I hadn’t been studying anyway. About two weeks later she handed me my book and said that Elvis had put it in one of the spare rooms for her. After she walked away I had a look, no autograph, just a note in pencil on a piece of paper stuck inside saying, “Aunt Silvia’s”. No I didn’t ask her about it, not much point and I didn’t want to appear like a crazy fan.

I could do with that book now, I would sure like to meet a young lady kiss her hand and say “enchanté” and perhaps a few more choice words, should the opportunity arise.

JAWhite                                                 Return To Main Page
February 2010

British Columbia Totem Image, Courtesy Jim Simandi
Elvis in Genoa Image, Courtesy John Burke