Well, I am sitting in my room at the AmeriSuites in Memphis on Easter Sunday.

All things considered, it’s not too bad. It’s a nice room with fast Internet access, but I did miss my usual Easter rituals. Easter is usually spent with my family, and Mom cooks a big meal, but for the last couple of years we’ve been going to Southern Pines for a gourmet Easter meal with the Kaufmann’s.

Both rituals were put on hold since I had to be here and Andrea is just now driving back from Miami, where she was visiting her grandmother who is very ill.

Back in 1992 I spent most of August here in Memphis. It was hot … Africa hot … Tarzan couldn’t handle that kind of hot. At the time, Northern Telecom would have me out here for two weeks at a time, doing testing on Directory Assistance for South Central Bell (now part of BellSouth).

I remember only a few things about that month outside of the heat. First, the barbecue. Memphis barbecue is prepared a bit differently than God intended (God’s barbecue is served mainly in central and eastern North Carolina), but they do use pork, which is a good start. They are best known for preparing baby back ribs. These are served either dry (no sauce, just spices) or wet.
Rendezvous is probably the most famous of the Memphis rib restaurants, but
Corky’s is also pretty well known, especially for wet ribs.

It turns out that I am very near a Corky’s, so I went there for dinner. On the way I passed a Homewood Suites that seemed very familiar. Yes, that was the hotel where I had spent my August almost 12 years ago, and the Corky’s I went to was the same as well.

It wasn’t the Easter dinner I was used to, but it would do in a pinch.

The second thing I remember is seeing a museum exhibit on Napoleon. I am not sure why it was in Memphis, but it featured the French copy of the Louisiana Purchase (it is probably held in less regard there than here).

Finally, I was here during “Death Day” – the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. Pretty bizarre, actually. Lots of candlelight vigils.

I hope to eat at Rendezvous again before the week is out. I do have a funny story about my last trip. After our meal we walked across the street to the Peabody Hotel (home of the famous ducks) and a coffee shop where we bought dessert.

Steve Hughes from BellSouth was part of our group of about six people, and they all ordered coffee, except me. I don’t drink coffee much, but when I do I like it strong, so I ordered an expresso. Also, everyone ordered cheesecake, except me. I wanted key lime pie (a little more traditional than cheesecake with respect to Memphis barbecue, I might add).

When the coffees showed up, Steve took one look at my demitasse cup and he couldn’t resist letting me have it (he was much more of a comedian than I was at the time, believe it or not).

“Boy, ” he said, “if you couldn’t afford a whole cup of coffee, I’d a loaned ya a dollar. Tell ya what, I’ll save a little bit in the bottom of mine and we can refill yours …”

etc. etc. for about five minutes. He was a funny man.

Well, the desserts showed up and everyone got a large slice of cheesecake, but when the waiter came to me, he put down a tiny, perfectly proportioned piece of key lime to go with my expresso. “Here’s a little piece of pie to go with your little coffee”.

The laughter lasted a long time.

He did bring me a real piece of pie a minute or two later, and I left a big tip.