The Autism Diaries?! (Part 6)

A new occasional series here at “Sounds Good”

We bought my mum an Elvis Presley record for Christmas one year. It was the tenth anniversary of Elvis’ death, and mum had always been a huge fan, so me and my brother combined our pocket money and bought the record. It had all the big hits on it, and in many ways it was my introduction to Elvis Presley. Of course I loved Hound Dog and Heartbreak Hotel but actually it was the songs like Wooden Heart, Teddy Bear and Didja Ever that I loved the most. They were brand new to me. We played the record a bit during the day, and I started getting obsessed with the songs almost instantly. Later that day we had the whole family around, and it was the 1980s, so there was an impromptu pool party. My mum cranked up the Elvis Presley record for its sixth or seventh spin of the day. My dad’s dad took his tri-pillow (Christmas present) and went and sat in his car in the driveway. He was not going to support an Elvis Presley Pool Party, no sir. He had not been happy when his teenaged son had tried to go to Wellington to see The Beatles, and wasted money on Beatle Boots. And even though Elvis was dead, he had been the bloody ringleader, and the records were still very much alive. My grandfather was not going to be an enabler at all. So he sat in his car with his giant new pillow, and his book (also a gift). And he waited until he no longer heard that rock’n’roll music. Then he returned to the house. Not that he was ever much of a party-man anyways. I think about this Christmas in 1987 an almost unfathomable amount. Bob Dylan says you can touch and twist and turn two different kinds of doorknobs. The Cherokee say there are two wolves inside us. The two wolves in me are the one that listens to Elvis Presley album tracks obsessively, until they cannot possibly hit as hard as they did when they first presented themselves, and the wolf that turns the knob on the door that allows him an exit. He takes his pillow and book to the car, not wanting to stop the party at all, but most certainly not wanting to be a part of it either.