Pride of Peabody

They say that whenever you are visiting Memphis, Tennessee for the first time you absolutely have to by the Peabody Hotel at 11 am. So we did, and found an interesting spectacle when we got there. We got there around 10:30 and found a complete pandemonium of people waiting in a huge crowd surrounding a red carpet that flowed from a set of double doors. Everyone was walking around with cameras and Starbucks coffee, and I almost forgot I was in Memphis until I heard a couple speak with that classic Southern drawl. Honestly, it was pretty ridiculous but at the same time the excitement that these people had was quite infectious. I felt myself growing giddy when I didn’t even know what exactly I was expecting to see. Soon a gentleman dressed in a maroon hotel uniform busted through the double doors armed with a cane. The audience grew silent because of his mere presence and I was intrigued…for a coupled seconds. He walked with authority and charm, but as soon as his microphone was turned on, disappointment began to set inside my head. His robotic voice made it clear that he had given this speech so much that he was past the point of caring about anything he was saying. Proud to introduce…Ringling Brothers…blah, blah, blah…He finished his apathetic speech and headed back through the double doors. After several minutes of more waiting a large voice recording filled the room announcing the arrival of the Hotel’s featured performers. People began positioning cameras before there was even anything to shoot. Then suddenly the double doors busted open and out came the stars. Cameras flashed everywhere, but that did not deter them at all. They kept their pace moving quickly in a single file line: one attractive male followed by four equally attractive females. The more they walked, the more the crowd cheered, and then suddenly something quite unusual happened. The male reached the end of the red carpet, climbed the flight of red stairs and jumped—into a body of water that was less than 2 feet deep. After him went each of the four females subsequently following in his footsteps. Before you knew it, the five were swimming happily in circles and that was it; it was time to go. As the crowd started to disburse I couldn’t help but feel cheated, because I had spent the last thirty minutes waiting for five DUCKS to jump into a fountain. Welcome to the Peabody Hotel.