é

A2 - Sunday News, January 3, 1982

strictly personal |

by Bob Hunter

Bury Elvis for good

Unlike the rest of us, he Yes, I had a duck-tail that I don't think for a minute,
wasn't subjected to the glistened and wore my collar as his malicious biographers
I'M TOTALLY fed up with the flow of garbage as the Roman emperor experience of running into turned up. would have us believe, that
that has been published lately about Elvis. Caligula. limitations in life, so he Atone me or another, 1 his life was a waste. Au
- . “ee forfeited his chance to adjyst Owned seven different contraire, he gave men
We're told that he liked to male sex symbol in the world He apparently ended up todowngraded expectations, guitars, without managing to. dreams to dream. .
watch teenage girls mud- and not have an ego utterly depraved by the i.e., to grow up, as it's ever learn _more than two Self-indulgent dreams,
wrestling, thathe wasadope problem? experience of having “gotten called. chords. As it turned out, I'm sure. But what's wrong with
fiend who used 50 different Shooting television sets? I. “it on” with tens of thousands I'm not entirely convinced tone deaf, so there really a bit of self-indulgence
drugs to get through the say more power to him. of the most beautiful young the world is such a grim wasnt much point. anyway? ; ;
night, that he had an ego as Wish I could afford the women ever invented. place that there’s no room The fact that I went Elvis, they're doin’ ya
large as any to be found on habit. Tch. Tch. . for the occasional immature through puberty at the very wrong.
Planet Earth, and that he It is fashionable these days Poor Elvis. human being who gets away “me Elvis was appearing on Just a bunch of hound- -
was. so decadent he used toto lament the plight of poor I mean, it’s a bit difficult with completely indulging the scene Saenes my life in dogs, I guess.

shoot his television set if he
didn't, like the guy who was
appearing.

I'm not sure, for openers,
that there’s anything all that
wrong with watching
teenage girls mud-wrestle.
As for drugs, obviously he
overdid it. Ego? How could
you be the Numero Uno

exploited female stars like
Manilya Monroe. Yet Elvis is
portrayed as some kind of
Dracula who shambled at
dawn into the dark cavern of
his opulent mansion.
According to the spate of
biographies that have just
been published, Elvis was
almost as gross a character

&

to feel sorry for him, isn't it?

On the other hand, the
kind of vitriolic attacks that
have been launched against
his memory lately have to be
countered.

Obviously, a lot of it is
motivated by substantial
doses of envy, which I can
understand.

What | can’t understand is
the failure of Elvis’s
biographers to show the

slightest sign of compassion

for a man who was a victim
of his own success.

Quite obviously, Elvis’s
development as a mature
person was arrested
somewhere along the line.

himself.

The thing I always loved
about Elvis was the man's
sheer blind undeserving
luck. The world was a
brighter place because Elvis
showed so clearly that you
could win it all without doing
a single thing really to earn
at.

NV District wants ‘park and ride’

COMMUTERS in North
Vancouver District may
someday find it easy to park
their cars and ride the bus, if
District council has its way.
Council recently passed a
motion requiring its traffic
and safety committee to look
into ways of encouraging
‘park and ride’ in the

o*
xe

ge

District, though at least one
alderman was sceptical of
the idea.

Peter Powell, who sits on
the Greater Vancouver
Regional District (GVRD)
board, which is responsible
for mass transit, said the
GVRD may not have the
money for park and ride

facilities on the North Shore.

The traffic committee, he
“better come-back with
a dollar figure and who pays

said,
for it.”

Council decided to en-
courage park and _ ride

because of problems with
people parking on the south

WINTER

side of West 15th Street in
the 1700 and 1800 block.

To prevent people from
parking on that side of the
street and then taking a bus
along Marine to Vancouver,
council, acting as a policy
and planning committee,
voted to limit parking to two
hours only in the two blocks.

be

Oh. Except sing.

And gyrate.

Boy, did 1 ever wish I was
him. And of course I wasn't
the only one.

I might as well confess
that I was an early Elvis
clone. That is, as soon as |
could, I grew sideburns.

many ways. Every young guy
at that stage identified with
him, however secretly.

And so a part of our
permanent identity, years
later, is a kind of closet
Elvis-self that gyrates upon

- the stage of the mind while a

gillion = imaginary

. girls
scream in ecstasy.

Makea New Year’ S
resolution:

go with Avis...
and leave vour worries bchind.

“7999 Marine Or.
int. Plaza Hotel

Chevrolet Citation .
1. ny a Car 1s one thing you won't nave
lo worry about with Avis Our cars are
weli-mamtained Our rates are eco
nomical And our service is always Avis
bes! Every car comes with a full tank ot
gas yQu Nay only for the gas you use So

arm jeave your wornes behind

986-5326

© 198) Avs Rent A Car System. inc Avs" and We try harder ° eis features GM cass and trucks.

We try harder.

PROGRAMS

mm starting
~~ dates:
Jan. 4 fitness
“Ss xp Jan 11 general programs

Neighbourhood
Programs

gro,
'

at vanous low ations A typ
aS

throughout West Van

a ie
E> oa hey

way VW)

floor hockey ,

babysitters

pottery

theatre & dance

fitness

SX ~~
SVP

/
eS

for more information call

West Vancouver
Recreation Centre

780 - 22nd Street, West Van

Conteh Ome Hex with wont cd Raisua Sasice

JU of Sole Augusto
(on gwe to other ivvestistible temptations)

the Savour Ww Dap Cove Veserve 924.2373

926-3266