More on Memphis

Ambition, Pass it On. It's that easy? Memphis has its highlights, no doubt, and I'm glad to be among those who visited. One of the things that make the highlights shine is their contrast with the city's grit. It is definitely not a sanitized town. It's not Boca or the Upper East Side of NY. Downtown doesn't seem to have any great sections. They are all pretty mixed. The four star hotel or the Zagat rated restaurant mingle among vacant storefronts. When you walk down the street you stay aware. It's for real. And it's not like home.

Because tourism is so important to Memphis, it strives to keep visitors feeling safe despite the edge. Beale Street has many cops posted, and security officers check bags before letting you cross the barriers to the street party. Most establishments post "no handguns inside." On other streets, I'm not sure how it works.

We met Mark while we were waiting for the trolley to Sun Studio Saturday morning. He was just hanging at the corner stop, a local with the gift of gab offering us help with which trolley to take. Born and raised in Memphis, he said the city was safer than in the past, with detectives roaming among revelers and he was happy for it. His job? He just helped out tourists and he'd be happy with a $10. Huh? It would make his day. OK. And he's got ambition. Being an ambassador for Memphis is honest work after all and we got the correct trolley. We boarded and took off up Madison. A glance back showed Mark already coming out of the liquor store, brown bag in hand. At the end of the day, Mark was on the corner still, again.

How about the shirtless kid acrobats who do back flips up and down Beale Street? They are ambitious eight and nine year olds. They pass the bucket afterward. Like the musicians out front do, but these are little kids. What are they going to be doing ten years from now?

Today, leaving Memphis we crossed the river into Arkansas and came upon the billboard above. Harvard? How about high school.