Listen to music while you surf.
 Walkin' in Memphis |
MEMPHIS TENNESSEE |
| My Hometown |
I was born here though, and can tell you a lot of other things about the city if you care to listen. Though I left right after high school and returned only a few years ago, this is the wellspring of my memories. These are my roots. A lot changed in the years I was gone, but a lot stayed the same...
What hasn't changed? The river. It's still there. It's in my blood. I can't describe the emotion I felt when I saw the bridge and the city skyline when I approached it for the first time in many, many, years. A couple of days later, I was given a private tour of "The Pyramid", one of Memphis' newer landmarks. We went around to the back delivery entrance, then walked down to the water. I listened to the sounds of the water lapping the shore, gazed at the reflected lights of the bridge and the city, dipped my toe in it's inky blackness, and knew I was home.
Like all rivers, it meanders -- snakes about like a serpent and changes course from time to time, and cuts off loops which become oxbow lakes. It hasn't done that in too recent history, though experts say we're due for a huge earthquake. Memphis is on the "New Madrid Fault" (pronounced MAD-rid). Nearly 4,000 earthquakes have been felt east of the Mississippi since 1700. The strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the continental U.S happened in the winter of 1811-1812 when three earthquakes of magnitudes 8.4-8.7 occurred near New Madrid, Missouri. These shocks were so strong that observers reported that the land distorted into visible rolling waves, backed up the Mississippi River causing it to flow upstream, and made church bells ring in Boston and Washington, D.C.! Unlike Californians, we seldom if ever feel tremors, but still the danger is there. We just don't live with constant reminders of it. Who knows what the river will do next time -- maybe form a new loop right through the city! The V. A. Hospital here was recently renovated -- The 12-floor main tower was replaced with another 5-floor one -- spread out over a larger area, of course, and built on special springs to cushion it from the earth's movement should an earthquake happen.
Memphis is a beautiful city with large stately trees and boulevards and the land is as flat as a pancake. It's the delta. My mom showed me the highest point not long after moving here -- a freeway overpass! Still, there are lovely old Victorian homes, and beautiful neighborhoods. Mom's house was built in 1911 in what is now called "The Central Gardens District", a national historic district.What do you think of when you think of Memphis, Tennessee? If you're like most people who don't live in this part of the country, you think of Elvis, Graceland, Jerry Lee Lewis (maybe), Martin Luther King, and the Blues. Memphis is the home of the blues, and I grew up on it.
Elvis Presley's GRACELAND
Welcome to Beale Street
National Civil Rights Museum
Mud Island: Memphis Tennessee
The Memphis Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium
The Memphis Zoo
The Pyramid
The Orpheum Theater
The Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Redbirds
Memphis Music (A Comprehensive glimpse at the music that made Memphis!)
Sun Studio
Gibson Guitar Factory
The River Radio
WEVL Radio
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis in May International
Memphis Travel Guide
UT and Local Sites
Memphis City Visitor's Guide
Free Things To Do In Memphis
Boulevards/Memphis
The University of Memphis Home Page
University of Tennessee, Memphis
Christian Brothers University
Rhodes College
Crichton College
LeMoyne-Owen College
Memphis College of Art
Memphis Theological Seminary
Park University
Southern College of Optometry
Southwest Tennessee Community College
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