Sam Thompson, Bodyguard:
“One time my sister Linda, my wife Louise and I had been down with Elvis to see the old Circle G Ranch in Mississippi and were on our way back to Memphis in Elvis’s Stutz Bearcat.
We passed a little boy, maybe ten or eleven years old by the side of Highway 51. It was summer, it was hot – dust in the air. The kid was caked in dust, sitting at a little watermelon stand.
As we go by, Elvis pulls over; this was the middle of nowhere. This little kid – I know he knew who Elvis was, but he wasn’t gonna let Elvis know that he knew. He was a businessman this kid.
He sat there and waited for Elvis to walk up. Elvis had to initiate the conversation, “How much are the watermelons?” A price was established. The kid was real tough and he wouldn’t come off the price.
So finally Elvis just turned around and said, “We’ll take the whole stand…”
That’s the only time the kid’s visage cracked…Elvis bought the whole watermelon stand, bought all those watermelons and took them back to Memphis…..