With the death of Peter Graves, part of my childhood died too. I loved "Fury"

I think it was Grumblebee over on an AskMe thread who talked about how no one can prepare you for the strange feelings of loss at the death of the iconic people from your childhood years. No, you didn't know them personally, but they were always there in this fixed way, like the stars, and to not have them around anymore becomes sad and disorienting. And as you get older, it happens at a faster and faster rate.

The first celebrity death that felt like that to me came when I was pretty young - Jim Henson's. It was a bummer. But now they seem to come thick and fast, and sometimes when I'm idly thinking about how much I enjoy someone's work, and realize that they're a generation or two older than me, I start to feel anticipatory grief at living in a world without them.

Da-vy
Daaaaaaavycrocket!
King of the wild front-ear!

Joey Ramone's and Joe Strummer's deaths back to back were big wake-up calls telling me that my youth was long gone.

Obscure reference indeed.

I keed, I keed. He was local to the Central Coast area of California for the later part of his life. My parents told me that his hotel was going to be on Indio Muerto (Dead Indian) Street, but that doesn't look to be true unless the road alignment drastically changed, too.