Conaway: Mongo, the chimp, a new suit and all our Memphis stories
Dan Conaway
Dan Conaway is a lifelong Memphian, fascinated and frustrated with his city, but still in love. A columnist since 2010, his distinguished advertising career has branded ribs in the Rendezvous and ducks in The Peabody, pandas in the zoo and Grizzlies in the NBA. Stories in Memphis tend to write themselves. He’s helped a few along. Two book collections of his columns have been published.
Last Monday, Jody Callahan had a fine piece in The Daily Memphian headlined, “Who the heck is Prince Mongo? And he ran for Memphis mayor?!”
To many of us — those of a certain age (say, Mongo’s) and some much younger (say, my kids and my grandkids) — the headline should be, “Who the heck is Robert Hodges? And what does that have to do with Prince Mongo?!”
Mongo is the stuff of stories. Memphis is the stuff of stories.
Mongo and I once stood next to each other one cold winter day at the original Seessel’s grocery store meat counter debating the qualities of bacon. I was in jeans, a sweatshirt, a wool jacket, a baseball cap and Timberlands. He, too, was in jeans, but he was also wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt, fur vest and buffalo head hat complete with horns. He was, of course, barefooted.
That was a normal Midtown Memphis afternoon.
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