How 'bout A Date?

This is a true story of the author's encounters with the young Elvis Presley, whom she met at a local concert only months before his rise to national fame. The future King was then still the Hillbilly Cat; a local up-and-comer in Sam Phillips' stable of young rockabilly artists on Sun Records. Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash - who also performed that night - were both part of a package tour headlined by country star Webb Pierce at the Sheffield Community Center on the night of August 2, 1955. After an outrageous onstage flirtation, the twenty-year-old singer asked the seventeen-year-old high school student for a date on the scrap of paper he was using to sign an autograph after the show. The couple headed out in Elvis's pink Cadillac Fleetwood Series Sixty only to find themselves leading a spontaneous parade of vehicles through the small town streets. After stopping at a roadside diner for a late night repast of soda pop and burnt bacon sandwiches, they began an ongoing discussion about life, love, fame, and destiny. Unknown to Caroline at the time, Elvis had just come to a historic crossroads in his life. A complex series of events was taking place behind-the-scenes that would critically impact his career and his personal fate. In "How 'Bout a Date?" Caroline Cahoon Hauser captures the feel of small-town America in the South during the 1950's and paints an authentic portrait of the young Elvis Presley on the brink of stardom.
About the Author: Caroline Cahoon Hauser was born in Corinth, Mississippi, not far from Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis Presley. She grew up in Sheffield, Alabama, home of the "Muscle Shoals Sound," and graduated from Sheffield High School. Caroline went on to attend the University of Alabama, and worked in the travel industry during her early twenties. She married and raised three children in the Philadelphia area, worked in real estate, and then began a second career as a flight attendant at the age of sixty. In nine years with ATA Airlines, she traveled extensively all over the world while doing commercial flights and troop transport for the U.S. military during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. She currently resides in Florida in the Tampa Bay area.