2 Chapter 1 Tupelo

Chapter 1 Tupelo Elvis wasn't always rich. He didn't always own a mansion or a garage filled with Cadillacs. He didn't always have fancy clothes and expensive jewelry. As a boy, Elvis was poor. Very poor.

图珀洛·埃尔维斯并不总是富有的。 他并不总是拥有一座豪宅或一个装满凯迪拉克的车库。 他并不总是有华丽的衣服和昂贵的珠宝。 埃尔维斯小时候很穷。非常贫穷。

Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. His mother, Gladys, was pregnant with twins, but she didn't know it. Like a lot of poor people in the South, the Presleys didn't have the money to see doctors. So Elvis's mother gave birth at home. The delivery was difficult. At around four in the morning, Gladys gave birth to a son, but sadly he was stillborn. Then Gladys realized there was another baby still inside her. About a half hour later, Elvis arrived. The family named the baby who died Jesse Garon. The healthy boy was named Elvis Aron. Gladys and Vernon Presley couldn't even afford a gravestone for little Jesse Garon. Though he never met Jesse Garon, Elvis thought about his twin all the time. He wondered what life would have been like with a brother. As a boy, he would go visit Jesse's grave. As a famous rock star, Elvis still talked about the brother he never knew.

埃尔维斯·阿伦·普雷斯利于1935年1月8日出生在密西西比州的图珀洛。 他的母亲格拉迪斯(Gladys)怀了双胞胎，但她并不知道。 像南方的许多穷人一样，普雷斯利一家没有钱去看医生。 埃尔维斯的母亲在家里生了孩子。 分娩很困难。 凌晨4点左右，格拉迪斯生下了一个儿子，但不幸的是，他胎死腹中。 然后格拉迪斯意识到她肚子里还有一个孩子。 大约半小时后，埃尔维斯到了。 这家人给死去的孩子取名杰西·加隆。 这个健康的男孩被命名为埃尔维斯·阿伦。 格拉迪斯和弗农·普雷斯利甚至买不起小杰西·加隆的墓碑。 虽然他从未见过杰西·加隆，但埃尔维斯一直想着他的双胞胎。 他想知道如果有个哥哥，生活会是什么样子。 小时候，他会去给杰西扫墓。 作为一个著名的摇滚明星，埃尔维斯仍然谈论着他不认识的哥哥。

Elvis's childhood wasn't easy. His family struggled. The Presleys lived on the poor side of town. Their house had only two rooms. Vernon hadn't finished high school. He married Gladys when he was just seventeen. Without an education, Vernon found it hard to find or keep a good job. At different times he worked on farms, painted houses, and drove trucks. A lot of people were going through hard times, just like the Presleys. Elvis was born in the middle of the Great Depression. All across the United States, people couldn't find work. They couldn't make enough money for food and clothes. People had to beg for food, or hope for free lunch at a soup kitchen. Families moved from town to town looking for work. Some people had to live in cardboard boxes.

埃尔维斯的童年并不容易。 他的家人在挣扎。普雷斯利一家住在镇上的贫民区。 他们的房子只有两个房间。 弗农还没有高中毕业。 他17岁时娶了格拉迪斯。 没有受过教育，弗农发现很难找到或保持一份好工作。 在不同的时期，他在农场工作，刷房子，开卡车。 很多人都在经历艰难时期，就像普雷斯利一家一样。 埃尔维斯出生于大萧条时期。 在整个美国，人们都找不到工作。 他们赚不到足够的钱买食物和衣服。 人们不得不乞讨食物，或者希望在救济处得到免费午餐。 家家户户从一个城镇搬到另一个城镇寻找工作。 有些人不得不住在纸板箱里。

At least the Presleys had a home. It didn't have electricity or running water. There was no indoor bathroom. Instead, Vernon built an outhouse in the backyard. An outhouse is a small, wood hut with no real toilet. Just a hole in the ground. Gladys couldn't have any more babies. So she became very nervous that Elvis might get hurt. She walked him to school every day. She gave him a whipping when he did something wrong. Elvis didn't like getting hit, but he loved his mother very much. He would hurry home after school in the afternoon to be with Mama.

至少普雷斯利一家还有个家。 那里没有电，也没有自来水。 没有室内浴室。 相反，弗农在后院建了一个外屋。 外屋是一个没有真正厕所的小木屋。 只是地上的一个洞。 格拉迪斯不能再生孩子了。 所以她非常担心猫王会受伤。 她每天送他去学校。 当他做错事时，她打了他一顿。 埃尔维斯不喜欢挨打，但他非常爱他的母亲。 下午放学后，他会急匆匆地回家陪妈妈。

The Presley family went through ups and downs. When Vernon got a good job, the family would usually buy a new house. When he lost a job, they would have to sell it and move into a smaller, rented place. One time Vernon was so desperate, he tried to cheat someone out of money. That got him in big trouble. A judge sent Vernon to jail for eight months. Gladys and Elvis were forced to move in with Vernon's family. Most weekends, they rode a bus to see Vernon in prison. It was ten hours round-trip. Elvis, who was just three, sometimes sat on the front steps of his house, crying. He didn't think his father would ever come home.

普雷斯利一家经历了起起伏伏。 当弗农找到一份好工作时，家里通常会买一栋新房子。 当他失业时，他们不得不卖掉房子，搬到一个更小的租来的地方。 有一次弗农太绝望了，他想骗别人的钱。 这让他惹上了大麻烦。 法官判弗农入狱八个月。 格拉迪斯和埃尔维斯被迫搬到弗农家。 大多数周末，他们都坐公共汽车去监狱看弗农。 往返需要10个小时。 年仅三岁的埃尔维斯有时会坐在自家门前的台阶上哭泣。 他认为他父亲再也不会回家了。

But Vernon did return, and he found a new job. The family joined a local church. It was at church that Elvis first started singing. He was so good that he sang with the choir. Right away, people could tell that his voice was special. He even won a prize at a fair for singing. Gladys always encouraged Elvis. The family couldn't afford much. However, for Elvis's eleventh birthday, Gladys gave him his first guitar.

但弗农确实回来了，而且找到了一份新工作。 这家人加入了当地的一个教会。 埃尔维斯第一次开始唱歌是在教堂里。 他唱得很好，和唱诗班一起唱歌。 人们马上就能看出他的声音很特别。 他甚至在歌唱会上得了奖。 格拉迪斯总是鼓励猫王。 这个家庭负担不起太多。 然而，在猫王11岁生日的时候，格拉迪斯送给了他第一把吉他。