Priscilla reads this memoir to us herself, and that makes it much more fun to hear. It’s hard to imagine now, but at that time, no birth control pill had been invented, and a pregnancy outside of marriage was likely to ruin a young woman’s entire life. During this time period, the Madonna-Whore dichotomy was alive and well, and any girl or woman known to have sex outside of marriage was likely to be ostracized by former friends and in some cases, family. Most of it was untrue, of course, but the one thing he adhered to was not having sexual intercourse. Rather than being the single event that the family anticipated, Elvis made their visits regular ones when her parents balked, Elvis spoke to them personally, turning all of his charismatic charm on them, and telling them everything they wanted to hear. He groused about the fact that someone other than Elvis would be transporting her, but the reason was a legitimate one: Elvis could not drive himself anywhere without the car being mobbed. Seeking a happy medium, her stepdad set boundaries: they were to be chaperoned, never alone together, and he wanted her home at a certain time. On the other hand, if they refused to let her go, she would never have forgiven them this was an invitation that literally millions of girls yearned for. On the one hand, she was just fourteen years old, and Presley was twenty-four, a grown man. I have to feel for the bind her parents were in. It was while they were stationed in Germany that one of Elvis’s employees saw Priscilla and invited her to meet with Elvis, who was doing his own tour of duty. Her stepfather, the only father she knew, since her own died when she was an infant, was a military man, and so the family moved often. Priscilla grew up in a strict but loving household. A quick online peek at old film and television clippings says it all. Today, Elvis would probably be considered a predator, but within the context of the American South in the 1950s and early 1960s, he was regarded as a romantic, and women threw themselves at his feet. That said, this was still a truly messed up pairing.
The relationship between Priscilla and Elvis took place in a completely different time, with completely different sexual mores and assumptions.
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