On Sunday, while the rain poured down, I was cruising the Internet and headed on over to Find A Death.    The site is run by Scott Michaels, who runs the Dearly Departed tours out in Los Angeles.  Every once in a while, I’ll go spend the day on the site – guess that makes me a Death Hag – to learn on a famous or infamous person died.  On this visit, I ran across the piece on Donald Turnupseed.

I know what you’re thinking:  Who is Donald Turnupseed and why is James Dean mentioned in the headline?

I’ll answer both:

Donald Turnupseed is the unfortunate man who literally changed James Dean’s life into death.  He was the driver of the car that Dean hit on that fateful night where a brilliant young actor was called to the stage in the sky.

Mr. Turnupseed passed away back in 1995 according to the article.  And, here’s the best part – he never publically discussed the accident.  Never.

Doesn’t that seem strange in this day and age?  Can you imagine someone NOT using his fifteen minutes of fame?  Nowadays, a guy will stand in line at a coffee shop with Brad Pitt and will discuss it on every talk show out there.  Okay, maybe, that’s a little bit of a stretch.  But, look at how long we paid attention to Joe the Plumber.

I guess my whole point is that sometimes, I wish things could be like that again.  Yeah, I know, if they were, I wouldn’t have much about which to blog.  But, maybe, I would.

R.I.P. Mr. Turnupseed.