adminElvis Presley is born on 8 January 1935 in a small town called Tupelo, Mississippi in the USA. His twin brother Jesse Garon Presley is born still. His mother, Gladys Love Smith (born 25 April 1912) is the fifth of nine children, comes from a very poor family. After completing her elementary school education Gladys works as a seamstress at the Garment Company in Tupelo. Elvis’s father Vernon Presley (born 10 April 1916) is also born into a family living in deep poverty as the first of five children. Vernon works on the fields, picks cotton and drives trucks to earn enough money to support his wife and child.
Vernon and Gladys marry on 17 June 1933. Gladys falls pregnant in 1934 and stops working. Vernon builds a small two-room house for his family where Elvis is born. There is electricity in the building but the family cannot afford to use it. There is no running water and it is brought in from a nearby well. Elvis is brought up in this loving but basic environment without any comfort. On 4 January 1938 Vernon is arrested for forgery of a cheque of 15 dollars and he is sentenced to prison for 3 years. To repay the debt Gladys sells their home and moves in with her cousin. Vernon is released with a suspended sentence in February 1939. These difficult years had a large impact on the diet of the young Elvis. In many books about him it is often noted that he knows polenta sooner than he is able to walk. In the 1930s in Tupelo and in the South US, cornmeal is a basic staple for most people. It is eaten in many forms such as pastes, breads etc. Corn at the time was ground only very roughly and it required several hours of cooking to make it edible.
Elvis’s first meals is polenta with milk and sugar, served in a wooden bowl, which he loves. When he is a little older, Gladys also makes him ‘Goody Mush’ which is tinned beans mixed with bits of corn bread. Another dish Elvis loves all his life is called ‘Soaks’, cornbread dipped in yoghurt.
Glady’s auntie Lilian had a vegetable patch and shared some of her crops with the family. In the spring there would be mustard greens, in the summer peas, beans, okra, aubergines, tomatoes, in the autumn turnips, kales and collard greens. Usually, the vegetables would have been cooked in lard seasoned with salt and pepper. More expensive vegetables such as carrots or parsley were not eaten. Gladys loved her son and husband but she was not a very experienced housewife. She could neither cook nor did she have any interest in housekeeping. Instead, she was longing to become a movie star. Gladys’s mother Doll Mansell died in January 1935, just before Elvis was born, so Gladys couldn’t rely on any help or advice from her mother.
The daughter of the locals shop’s owner sees their desperate situation and she becomes a patron of the family. She gives them some food and also helps Glady’s look after the household by teaching her some basic skills. While Vernon is in prison the family receives some financial support from the government in the form of sustenance and food. This is when they first encounter ingredients such as butter, cheese or white flour. At this time Gladys can only prepare basic meals such as polenta with butter and cheese. Gladys also finds support in the Afro-Carribean community through the Assembly of God Church where food was served after the service where all attendees were invited. This was called the Bible Belt. Attendees brought home-made dishes to this event such as roast chicken, cakes, biscuits etc.
While Vernon is away Elvis and Gladys forge a very strong bond. They develop their own language that only they can understand and make up unique words, such as ‘butch’ for milk, ‘sooties’ for food and so on. Apparently Elvis continues to use this baby language with those closest to him as an adult too.
Following the release of Vernon Presley the family moves to Pascagoula at the Gulf of Mexico where he finds work at the docks. However this job is short-lived and the family moves back to Tupelo soon, much to the delight of Gladys, who apparently cannot stand the smell of the sea. Gladys’s dislike of fish and seafood is shared by Elvis too, which persists into his adulthood. The only exception is the Dudie’s Diner in Tupelo, a very cheap burger place, where the schoolboy Elvis would buy bread with tinned salmon.
