"THIS CLOSE" TO ELVIS

When I was in high school, a beginner Elvis came to town. His song, “Heartbreak Hotel” was just starting to climb the charts. He was so young that acne was still a problem for him.

At the time I was going steady with Bobby who was a Ricky Nelson clone.  He not only looked like him but he could do a pretty wicked imitation of him singing.

When Bobby suggested we go catch Elvis's performance, I was only partially enthused. I liked Elvis's song but after all, I had my very own Ricky. Still, it would have been the first live performance of a popular singer for me so I said I would love to go.

Bobby played shortstop on the baseball team and had broken his leg in the last game so he was on crutches. Somehow to my teen brain, that added to his glamor. I was proud of my Ricky look-a-like, hobbling heroically on crutches and wearing his new letter jacket. Ah the superficial teens of the 50's.

So we went to see the baby King.

Neither pictures are mine. Compliments of Google images.

Now Elvis was appearing with someone else that had a much bigger song at the time and for the life of me I can't remember who that person was. The singer that I can't remember came on first and performed for about 15 minutes. He was pretty good though not in the genre I was used to. He was kind of rock-a-billy.

Then Elvis bounced onto the stage. First he sang "Heartbreak Hotel" which brought the house down, then he calmed us down with "Blue Moon." I hadn't heard that one before and it quickly became my favorite.

That was it. Two songs, a bit of wiggly hips and all over. I was feeling bummed but I really felt worse for Bobby. He had spent a lot of money on the tickets and our total entertainment time was under half an hour.

As Bobby crutched his way out of the theater, I raved about the performance so he wouldn't feel too gypped. Of course, we really didn't have any live performances to compare to at that time, so we thought half an hour might be standard. Not fair-- but standard.

As we got to the side walk in front of the theater, a girl I knew ran up to me and shouted, “Patti come quick, Elvis is French kissing all the girls at the stage door."

At that point I had yet to be French kissed by my boy friend much less a celebrity so I was tempted and curious. I looked at Bobby and he just sadly said, “If you really want to go, I'll wait here.”

What a guy!!  Not sure if he had been offered the same deal from Brigitte Bardot that I would have been so compliant.

I actually left him there propped up on his crutches and followed my friend down the alley. It was packed with eager girls and the line inched slowly forward. Soon I could finally  see his face with his very dark  hair hanging in his eyes. My what a wicked grin he had between kisses.  This was one happy fellow.

Not certain if it was the crowd still ahead of me or thinking about poor Bobby out there leaning on his crutches but I never made it to the stage door for a taste of Elvis.

I turned around before it was my turn and went back to my banged up boy friend. I had been “this close” to swapping spit with the King. However, as the saying goes, "close" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Several years later when the “King” became super human, I might have regretted my decision, but not that day. The relief on Bobby's face when he saw me coming back and finding out I was kiss-less, was worth it.

Have you ever turned down a tempting offer that was hard to refuse??