Memphis Re-ducks

Start your day with a duck

Back to the Peabody we go. I have been to Memphis many times since my son enrolled at Rhodes College. But we may be getting down to the short strokes, because he is graduating in May.

The Peabody never fails to delight, with its de-lucks ducks theme, luxurious rooms, elegant lobby, over- the-top pastries, and the little black bag with a real newspaper hanging on your door each morning.

Edible or just incredible?

I must say I am close to the bottom of the barrel on Memphis attractions. Except my son, of course, who is always the main attraction. But let’s face it, I have done Graceland (twice), Sun Records, the Civil Rights Museum, the Memphis Museum of Art, Beale Street, and the Riverwalk. I’ve eaten barbeque and fried chicken, I’ve seen the sun set on the Mississippi River. I’ve seen the parade of ducks at The Peabody. I’ve even been across the border to a WalMart in Arkansas.

What is left? On this trip I was determined to find it.

Stax Museum

Stax Museum of American Soul Music, of course. Evolved from the site of a Baptist church in 1903, the recording studio was home to the greats, Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs, Wilson Pickett. Where else could you see Issac Hayes’ gold-plated Cadillac spinning around?

Take a spin

And put on headsets to hear Reddings’s version of Try A Little Tenderness, and walk into the studio where it was all produced? The Museum is nicely curated, and about halfway through there is little dance floor in case you need to brake for dancing.

"Ducks"

The other thing I had not seen was The Memphis Pyramid, formally known as Bass Pro Shops at One Bass Pro Drive. They have some primo real estate right on the river. A shrine to the great outdoors and the conquest of wildlife be it fish, fowl or mammal. The store presents a tableau of ways to confront Mother Earth, how to dress for it, how to plow it, how to camp on it, how to navigate its waterways, how to break ice, and climb mountains and defend yourself against it.  But in case you want to stay indoors while thinking about the outdoors, there is a hotel, The Big Cypress Lodge in the facility.

Stuffed bass

Reminiscent of a kitschy REI, the 535,000 square foot Pyramid has a theme-part feel, great fake structures that resemble lodge life and tree houses, ponds with no fish in them, “ducks” flying above you. A basketful of stuffed bass.  And I don’t mean with fennel, and dill, and baby potatoes.

The flags were flown at half staff outside at the Bass Pyramid. I was there days after the Parkland shooting. But inside at check out was every gun magazine ever published. On the rack, so to speak, Guns & Ammo, American Handgunner, Guns, Shooting Times, Garden Guns and Southern Secrets, Tactical Weapons, Handguns, Shooting, Rifle Shooter, Gun World. To be consistent with the flags outside I sort of thought this display should have been shrouded in black.

Moody muddy Mississippi, Memphis

I want to like Memphis, I do. But every time I comfortable I am reminded of the crime rate. The woman who sold me some shoes at the hotel gift store told me that she lives in Midtown and just recently avoided being shot. A fellow jogger reported a car crash in the river.

Home decor

But back to the lovely suburbs. My son and two roommates have a remarkably nice and neat house for three millennial boys. It’s decorated with a large coloring map of the United States that guests can fill in. And a living room with a clear mind to with feng shui applied, living plants, and a kitchen with food in it. and my son’s paintings.

Senior Studio

And right across the street is my son’s college and the art department. Rhodes doesn’t have many students (<2000) and it has very few art majors, so the upshot is my son gets a huge studio space and tons of individual attention from professors that he would get in few other places. His art rocks by the way.

Eat barbecued ribs at the Rendezvous, it’s delicious and almost worth the 40-minute wait. It’s right across from the Peabody. Don’t go hungry, because the only appetizer you can get during that wait is “sausages and cheese.” Big old hunks of sausage cut on the bias and cheese imaginatively cut into cuboids. Covered by piles (literally) of dry seasoning. Like the Memphis version of Old Bay. Meant strictly to induce thirst.

Cafe Keough-Go

Go to the hip café The Overland Cafe to see the kids with the purple hair. Eat pizza at Aldo's Pizza Pies. Have an amazing coffee and breakfast at the stunning, high-ceilinged, very Euro Café Keough.

As my son and I were checking out of the Peabody, racing by us was the dude who manages the duck show, all fancy dressed up in a red brocaded jacket with a white vest and a red tie,  carrying the duck “stage” under his arm. For some reason this prompted Franky to remember the best utterance by our Nationals baseball superstar Bryce Harper. When asked at a press conference if he was going to have a few beers to celebrate, he said “That’s a clown question, bro.”

We laughed all the way to the parking lot.