Where cool was born

 FAIRMOUNT, INDIANA. After crossing Illinois, which made Iowa look mountainous, we spent three days in Urbana. It was good to see our friends from high school and college and our bodies really needed the rest. When we left Urbana we followed county roads most of the way across Indiana. The roads we were on weren’t on the map so we only had a general idea where we were at any given time. It made it a little difficult planning breaks and restocking our supplies.
One of the towns we did happen to go through was Fairmount. When we stopped at the first stoplight we had seen in a hundred miles we heard oldies music and saw classic cars lining the streets. We stopped to look around and found that we were in the town that James Dean grew up in and that they have a festival for him every September. We ended up camping under the water tower and went to the car show the next morning.

The museum in town had a lot of Dean’s stuff, including the motorcycle he owned when he died. There was also a room dedicated to Garfield, because Jim Davis, his creator, was also from Fairmount. That’s how Garfield made it onto the water tower with Dean.


At the car show, called the Annual James Dean Run, there were lots of fifties-era Mercurys like Dean drove in Rebel Without a Cause. We decided to get our pictures taken in front of our favorite cars. Neither of us chose a Mercury, nor the replica of the Porsche Spyder that Dean was driving when he died.

Finally, on our way out of town we stopped at the cemetery where Dean is buried. It’s true, his marker is smeared with lipstick from loving fans. You can also see an unlit cigarette someone left for him.