To break down his childhood even more, page 14 of the book The Importance of Elvis Presley states that Presley was treated with much care as a child. He was a mama’s boy. “‘She worshiped that child from the day he was born to the day she died’” (Woog 14). The Presleys were poor, but they weren’t trash. Elvis’s mother taught him all manner of manners and how to be respectful, and apparently he and his mother would often call each other by pet names. Page 14-15 of The Importance also informs us that Elvis’s father, Vernon, was caught trying to change his check amount because of how poor they were, some of it due to the Depression. Nonetheless, Elvis and his mother visited Vernon every weekend for the extent of the eight months he served. Elvis’s childhood shaped him into who he became in his later years because he learned to persevere through tough times and to value the small things. He didn’t only stick it out through hard times at home, he did it through his music as well. According to The Importance, Elvis was gifted a guitar on his 11th birthday by his Uncle Vester, who taught him a few chords and let him do the