I thought we were about to have a little fun?

Re:

The first time I went there was with this guy I worked at a record store, this was back in 93, with who ran a local independent magazine in Northwest Indiana called the Midwest Beat and he wanted to do a story on Dean, who was a big hero of his, but in this cliched kind of rock and roll way. But I was a kid and I liked Dean who I'd gotten into via Morrissey.

We drove down there and we went to the James Dean Gallery, which is now long since gone, and it was a big old Victorian house on a corner turned into a museum. It was owned and run by David Loehr, the guy credited on Strangeways, Bigmouth and Best...1 for loaning Morrissey the James Dean stills.

So anyway when we walked in, Kill Uncle was playing. We got a tour and after the store closed David and Lenny made us spaghetti and then we watched David Bowie videos all night; it was cool.

But the next day me and Tom drove out to the Winslow farm where Dean grew up, and we got to go inside the barn and meet Dean's...nephew, I think, who was old. The barn was private property but he let us go inside there and take pictures and it was just like in the Suedehead video where Morrissey is breathing fog reading Riley. I was on Cloud 9.

Then we went to the high school, which had been closed down for many years, and in the back was this old wall and there was TONS of Morrissey-inspired graffiti all over the bricks. All those fans who had come on pilgrimages, probably as much for Morrissey as for Dean. We didn't get to go inside the school but I wanted to so I could see Morrissey's little scratched in the wall "You Can't Go Home Again" handwriting. On the wall I just wrote, "I can come and go as I please/ nobody knows me" in Sharpie.

Let's see what else...oh yeah at the other museum the lady who ran the desk was about 700 years old and I asked her if she remembered Morrissey and she said yes he had been extremely polite and shy. She pulled out an old registrar from five years earlier and I got to see where Morrissey and Tim Broad had signed the guest book. It was cool and I got chills. What made it kind of cooler was that since Tom was this 70s rock dude -very nice guy but not into good music- he had no interest in the Morrissey stuff so it was like this private little thing for me.

Anyway yeah. I've gone back multiple times with friends or girlfriends, but the last time was in 2004; I just drove down there by myself, playing Bloodflowers on a loop, I think.

It was cool.

Really lovely story. I haven't been there in a while either, but i think the James Dean Gallery is back and it's still in the same old victorian house it was always in. I spoke to David about a year ago or so. I was introduced to Morrissey through my life long love for James Dean about 23 years ago. Oh, and, that was Jimmy's nephew you met. His name is Marcus Winslow. They have always been very considerate and hospitable towards Jimmy's fans. Anyway, nothing else to add...just wanted to say I enjoyed your post.
 
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