Forty years ago today, Elvis Presley "died."

[Aristus]

21. I was eight. it was a bright, sunny summer afternoon.

My sibs and I were excited, because we were getting ready to go out to eat, a rare treat in my family growing up.

I knew who Elvis was. My mother played his records a lot, especially the greatest hits one with the picture of him in his gold lame suit.

We were watching the early evening news on TV when the anchorwoman announced, almost casually, that Elvis had died.

It didn't really affect us that much. There were no hysterical paroxysms of grief like the ones we saw expressed all across the country over the next week or so. I wouldn't say we shrugged and went on with our lives. But we went out to dinner, and didn't talk much about it.