When I first started out as a computer programmer many years ago, there was a guy in my area who was a software consultant. He later became an employee, and later after that he became my boss.

I liked him. He was always kind and funny, and he was a good boss. I don’t remember what prompted him to share, but at some point he told me a story about visiting Graceland as a child.

He has since retired. It had been years since I have spoken with him, but this story kind of haunted me, for lack of a better word. Not haunted in a bad way — it’s a nice story. But, I came back to it. It is a private story, but I wanted to share it, because I thought it was special.

I reached out to his son (who I had also worked with at one point in time) to get in touch. He gave me his dad’s contact info. I emailed my old boss and asked him I could share his story, and mentioned what I had recalled from the time he told me.

He said it was fine to share, but I had some of the details wrong. Here is his story, in his own words. The events described occurred in 1961.

My mom was a Girl Scout leader for my sister’s troop.  They had a trip to Memphis TN and the Presley property was one of their stops.  At the time, I wore a leg brace on my left leg for the polio.  I was about 6 years old.  I wore shorts that day so the brace was very visible. 

We had full availability to the outside areas of the house.  His cars all parked in the back, including the famous pink Cadillac.  My mom and the girls were all doing their exploring and were not paying any attention to me.  I unfortunately had an urge to pee and being young I just walked up to the back door and knocked. 

Elvis answered the door.  I told him I had to pee and I could see him looking me over.  He immediately stepped back from the doorway and invited me in.  He gave me directions to the bathroom and I made a quick dash to find the bathroom.

When I came out I then took in the unusual room.  It was his jungle room where he played piano a lot and entertained his band members.  Elvis was over by the piano and when he saw me coming he made his way over to the door to see me out.  He asked if everything was alright and did I need anything else.  I said no and then thanked him for letting me use the bathroom.  He said goodbye and I returned to the backyard to continue the tour of the grounds.  I did not mention the bathroom incident to anyone until later.  They were all disappointed that they did not have the opportunity to meet Elvis.

That’s it.

Here’s a picture from the jungle room that I took when I visited from Graceland. It was a week or so before Christmas, so they had decorated all the rooms.

Thank you to my boss, his family, and thank you to Elvis.

Merry Christmas.