Anyone who spent their childhood during the Great Depression did not forget it. It was a traumatic experience in the lives of parents who struggled to protect their children from its grim realities..universal unemployment, low salaries, breadlines, apple vendors  and, in the rural areas, farmers forced to destroy their crops and losing their land.  

Elvis was no exception, as he recalls “I remember  as a small boy that I sometimes went hungry. I can still see my father, crying real tears, because he couldn’t pay his bills. I rememeber my mother working long hours, just like dad, so we could keep the roof over our heads and have something to eat.”

Gladys and Vernon were not excessively religious, but they were solid members of the Fundamentalist Assembly of God and could be counted on to participate in church affairs. In church, Elvis and Gladys began discovering each other and, at the same time, Elvis first noticed a world beyond his mother’s arms. He began singing ..or humming..at an early age. Gladys encouraged him. Gladys later recalled that little Elvis would run out of his seat during services, trying to reach the choir and sing with them. She maintained that he could carry a tune at three. He would also wiggle and strut when he was singing the religious songs, causing more than one raised eyebrow among the congregation. A foreshadow of things to come? As in many small towns across America, the life of the poor people in Tupelo revolved around the church and its activities, and for very good reasons. There was no money for anything else, not even for movies which then were relatively cheap.  

Gladys and Vernon were not excessively religious, but they were solid members of the Fundamentalist Assembly of God and could be counted on to participate in church affairs. In church, Elvis and Gladys began discovering each other and, at the same time, Elvis first noticed a world beyond his mother’s arms. He began singing ..or humming..at an early age. Gladys encouraged him.

Gladys later recalled that little Elvis would run out of his seat during services, trying to reach the choir and sing with them. She maintained that he could carry a tune at three. He would also wiggle and strut when he was singing the religious songs, causing more than one raised eyebrow among the congregation. A foreshadow of things to come?  

Vernon Presley played an interesting part in the early development of Elvis’ voice. Like many farmers, Vernon was a splendid whistler. It offered a way top keep going during the long hours of work. After school, Elvis joined Vernon in the fields and enjoyed whistling along with him. Without even thinking about it, Elvis was developing the lung power that other entertainers struggled for. For Elvis, it was becoming a part of his everyday life, like singing in church.  Elvis said, “I loved it. It wasn’t the ordinary church music. It was borrowed from the Negroes and had a rolling thythmic style. It depended on the preacher. Sometimes you’d get one of those quiet ones who’d lead the singing and then it all came out pretty dull. But the smart ones knew how to whip up a congregation. They’d swing and jump, cuttin’ up all over the place. I learned from them, and it seemed a little crazy that the preachers got so down on me when I started out because I wiggled. But, shucks, they were mostly big-city preachers. What did they know about how it swung at a Fundamentalist singin’ night?”    

It’s undoubtedly true that at the beginning of his Memphis years Elvis was labelled “Freaky” with good reason. This was the era of the grey flannel suit and crew cut. A kid who dug sideburns and long hair, worn in a high pompadour, was bound to stand out in a crowd.

But Elvis had so much going for him that the label “freaky” eventually became a term of affection. There were his good looks, his charm, his singing and his guitar. He was neither reticent nor aggressive about entertaining, but once he started he gave it all he had. All the kids’ respect and appreciation began to grow. Eventually, Elvis was taken for granted, indentified as “the kid with the sideburns.”  

Still, Elvis remained a loner. The fortunes of the Presley family had improved a little with the move from Tupelo to Memphis. Elvis earned his own spending money by moving lawns and performing the usual odd jobs done by high-school students. Whenever Elvis laid his hands on a few dollars, he spent them on Beale Street, buying the hot pink shirts, the black and yellow pants and the studded belts he favored. Even on Beale Street, Elvis turned heads, as he explored the neighborhood hungrily.

He heard the music coming out of the saloons along Beale Street, and discovered how different it was from the stuff he was singing.. Elvis had begun to invent himself.

Two events stand out in the Memphis years that represent turning points in his life and, unlike the legends, they have been documented.  

The first occurred in his senior year at Hume when he was chosen to appear in the school’s big variety show. When he appeared in his cat clothes, he got his first taste of cheers and whistles  emanating from the throats of an audience of 1600. He lapped it up , strummed his guitar and began to sing. When he finished he left the stage to cheers and the stomping of feet. “He was so surprised,” said one of the teachers, “that he couldn’t believe it. He kept saying over and over, “They like me, they like me.’” They wanted more and Elvis came through. It was traditional at the Hume shows that whoever got the most applause could do an encore. Elvis had one handy.

The second milestone occurred in the late Summer of 1953. Elvis had become a working man promptly after graduation. An uncle had gotten him a job on the assembly line at the Precision Tool Company, making $40 a week. But Elvis’ s  sideburns and glossy outfits were too much for the bosses. He was let go and switched to driving a truck for Crown Electric.