Painting of the Gus Grissom Rocket Monument

Mitchell, Indiana

Down the street from the Gus Grissom Rocket Monument, on the outer brick wall of a downtown building, is an ambitious mural that also honors Gus, one of the original seven NASA astronauts. We were told that the now-faded mural was painted by a local high school student. On a backdrop of a rippling American flag are a paddlewheel steamboat, a school bus, empty railroad tracks -- and the Gus Grissom Rocket Monument. Not a portrait of Gus, or the rocket blasting off into space, but of the limestone carving of the rocket -- which is within sight, only three blocks away.

Which, of course, makes it perfect. If Gus was still around, we know he'd appreciate it.