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With apologies to Elvis, it’s down at the end of West Main Street, it’s Hardware Hotel… in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Continuing our Elvis education our Presleyphile pals are flagging up the 80 years since our hero got his first guitar there.

And because I often do things back to front and I hit Santa Monica Pier first on Route 66.

Before marking off the start of the trail on South Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

My Elvis odyssey then ought to have seen me party with the other Elvises in Las Vegas at the end of the journey.

Or have got his first guitar at Tupelo Hardware and then having to strum an air one at Sun Studio.

The wonder of you

Ra King: The Scottish Elvis in Sun Studio

And instead start at the very beginning which is why Presleyphiles should return to sender.

And the address that IS known is 114 West Main Street, Tupelo.

Which is turning 100 next year so would have been well established when Gladys Presley popped by with her lively 11-year-old in 1946.

And famously a shop employee settled the young Mississippian down when he sulked after Gladys refused to buy him a rifle.

Of course, the rest is history and while Tupelo foxes and birdlife breathed a sigh of relief.

The rest of the world sucked in and got ready for the musical trip of a lifetime.

It’s nail or never

Now today’s employees at the Tupelo Hardware Store exude the same good ol’ Southern hospitality that Gladys and Elvis knew back in 1946.

And will be happy to share stories about the Presleys as you browse for guitars, rifles, nuts, bolts and spirit levels.

While you stand in the spot where musical history was made.

Tupelo Hardware Store is one of 14 significant sites in Elvis’ formative years in Tupelo.

All marked with bronze plaques on the Elvis’ Tupelo Driving Tour.

And our Tupelo buddies gladly give us a virtual tour on their site to see what they’re selling,which is still hardware essentials with a little hard rock Elvis.

If I can dream

Mark off all 14 plaques because you’ve come all this way in the first place.

But maybe spend more time at the Hardware Store, compiling stories to tell y’all when you get home.

And the Elvis Presley Birthplace & Museum on 306 Elvis Presley Drive.

The house, built by Elvis’ father with $180, which draws visitors each year from across the world.

And is part of the 15-acre Elvis Presley Park, which includes many exhibits and Elvis’ childhood church.

It’s the question on everyone’s lips… just who is Grover Cleveland and his American towns?

The 22nd and 24th President of the US who served in the late 19th century was for all that an unremarkable figure.

Unlikely to ever be considered for Mount Rushmore.

But, of course, the New Jersey lawyer achieved what Teddy Roosevelt could not.

And what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln chose not to.

Though that option was obviously cruelly taken away from Honest Abe by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington DC.

By becoming until this week the only US President to serve two discontinuous Presidential terms.

Two comeback kings

This year’s blond: With ‘The Donald’ in NY

Political observers, and nosey sorts, have been thumbing through the pages of American history to search for similarities with Donald Trump.

But, in truth, other than their comeback status they look to have little in common.

Other than a colourful love life with Grover siring a child out of wedlock and the Oval Office and, Donald Trump, well…

So while Grover was the first Democrat President since the Civil War, Trump is a populist Republican.

Grover was undone by robber barons in his reelection bid while Baron’s dad was ‘robbed’ of victory by the liberal elite.

And Grover built his career around opposing tariffs, while Trump’s MAGA movement is built around protectionism.

So how did Grover get back in?

Well, his big foe of the time Benjamin Harrison, whose grandfather William had been President, crashed the economy and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, well…

A town called Cleveland

Hail to the Chief: With Isabel and Georgie

Grover Cleveland’s legacy, of course, has been more and more assured with every passing decade a beaten President has declined to run again.

And in the cities named after him in the US, agreed to be 13.

Yes, almost half of the 25 named for Founding Father George Washington.

The convention about named cities is believed to derive from presidential visits.

The 48th President of America: In Washington DC

Which is why you’ll find Jeffersons, Jacksons and Madisons scattered through the States.

And when a President would pass through a newish town they would rename it after them.

And wouldn’t that be good for the self-esteem, and something that ran through this VIP’s mind?

Our Cleveland

On an MLK 50 commemoration tour of Martin Luther King’s assassination, and passing through Civil Rights town Cleveland in Mississippi.

The Trump name, of course, shines bright in hotels the length and breadth of America.

Though as yet The Donald has yet to have his own city although he now has his own country.

Whether the newly re-elected Donald J Trump tops Cleveland’s achievement and serves a third term would require a change in the constitution.

Say it again, Donald

Following the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1951 which addressed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four election victories.

Of course, it would be folly to restrict The Donald’s ambitions but all that is for our tomorrows.

For these todays we’ll allow the 22nd and 24th President his place in the sun and indulge the question on everyone’s lips…

Who is Grover Cleveland and his American towns?