Elvis Is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself

The 1950s were simple times to grow up. For Lewis Grizzard and his buddies, gallievanting meant hanging out at the local store, eating Zagnut candy bars and drinking "Big Orange bellywashers." About the worst thing a kid ever did was smoke rabbit tobacco rolled in paper torn from a brown grocery sack, or maybe slick back his hair in a ducktail and try gyrating his hips like Elvis.

Even as late as 1962, the world still made sense. Grizzard was 16, had his driver's license and a blonde girlfriend. Elvis was still singing, Kennedy was still president, Sandy Koufax was still pitching, John Wayne was still acting. Arnold Palmer was still winning golf tournaments, and restaurants still served hand cut french fries.

But suddenly everything seemed to change. Assassinations, war, free love, and drugs rocked the old order. And as they did, Grizzard frequently felt lost and confused. In places of Elvis, the Pied Piper of his generation, Grizzard now found wormy-looking,...