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hanging with Elvis in Tupelo…

May 5, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner 6 Comments

hanging with Elvis

Oh, you know, I’m just hanging with Elvis as one does, especially when one visits Tupelo. Quick story: I was invited to the Alabama Book Festival and immediately said YES not only because—Book Festival!—but also because to get there from here, I would drive smack through Tupelo and into the depths of Mississippi Blues land.

Tupelo is Elvis’s birthplace. He lived there until his family moved to Memphis when he was thirteen.

Graceland is Elvis’s deathplace. And what a contrast between the two.

I’ve experienced Graceland many, many times. When you grow up in the 1970s just across the river from Memphis, Graceland drivebys are a normal thing—just to look at the iron gate, to see the trees in front of the house, to see Elvis’s gardener outside, that sort of thing. Elvis was ours because of the nearness of him, and news of his death tore up our little town.

I toured Graceland BK and AK, which for non-Memphis people means before the kitchen was open to the public and after the kitchen became part of the tour. Graceland is most certainly worth a visit, but, not to brag, having grown up just down the interstate in the Bat Cave which boasts its own jungle room, major earthquake fault line, and scars from a real live state trooper shootout spanning three states and culminating in your own carport, well, it takes a lot to impress me.

Really, I’m more impressed by not a lot.Continue Reading

when I think of Alabama…

April 20, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner 9 Comments

When I think of Alabama

When I think of Alabama, I think of Carlene, my mom’s college roommate, and her son Gary, and how we visited them a long, long time ago, and while I want to say it was summer it couldn’t have been because of the clothes we wore. Those memories are preserved forever by faded polaroid pictures. I thought their house was amazing mainly because it was two-story.  We took turns riding up and down the street in their neighborhood in Gary’s go-cart which was a new experience for my sister and me. Big wheels keep on turning…

When I think of Alabama, I think of Roll Tide and Bear Bryant and his houndstooth fedora that classed up the sidelines every Saturday and college football for years. He was born in Arkansas, you know.

I think of Harper Lee and Monroeville and Scout and Atticus and Boo and Dill and the tree that held gifts.

I think of Hank Williams.

And Alabama Shakes, my new fav.

gulf coast

I think of the trip we made that summer, Continue Reading

Talya Tate Boerner


Hi! I'm Talya. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

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Talya Tate Boerner books
Gene, Everywhere

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