Dang Willy! Was that you who smacked me over the head with a PBR bottle that night?

We were living in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1968 when my dad was offered (and he accepted) a better paying job in Memphis. I was going to go to Memphis with my dad for the weekend to help him find a house to rent before relocating the family (mom, dad and 6 kids!). I went to school on Thursday and was going to skip school on Friday. When I got home from school, he was waiting for me and we hit the road about an hour or so after I got home. I remember it was about a 4 hour drive. On the way there, he told me he thought I'd really like it there and he thinks it'll be a good move. As we approached Memphis, he said he'd take me through town to show me where the (Cadillac) dealer was located where he'd be starting work, then we'd grab a bite to eat and check into a hotel for the weekend to use as our base while we did some house hunting.

Well, we pulled into town around 8:00 PM and it looked like a frigging war zone! Cops EVERYWHERE, flashing lights, detectives, firetrucks ... you name it, it was on the streets. People were actually boarding up their windows and loading their shotguns! WTF??? We were heading over to Union Avenue where the dealership was located and would be cutting down Mulberry Street but it was blocked off with a ton of police activity. It looked like the whole city was going nuts. I looked at dad a bit wide-eyed and he just shrugged his shoulders ... clueless. It turned out, Martin Luther King had just been shot a couple of hours prior to our arrival! Mulberry Street was blocked off as he'd been shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

Needless to say, it was a crazy weekend and my introduction to Memphis was an interesting one.