Introduction

I'm 21. I've lived in Fayette County my entire life. As a child, I made the drastic move from Uniontown to Connellsville, and at 13 I made the drastic move from Connellsville to a little patch outside of Uniontown. Although my elementary school was technically in Westmoreland County, I spent both middle school and high school in Fayette County. I still live there (and so do most of my friends), plus I work there and try to entertain myself there. The past 21 years have provided me with plenty of stories about what goes on in Fayette County, which people occasionally doubt. Unless they've spent their lives here, too, in which case they aren't even phased.

Some things worth knowing:

• Fayette-Nam really is the county's nickname. The story goes that crime in the county was so bad that cops dreaded working there, and started to call it Fayette-Nam. My seventh grade social studies teacher told us this and my friends and I haven't called it anything else since. We've even shortened it to simply "the Nam," as in text messages that say, "Are you going to be home in the Nam this weekend?" or "Finally, I'm back in the Nam for break!"


• Our only Starbucks is inside of our only Target.


• My high school is the only Catholic high school in the county. My graduating class in 2007 had about 70 kids, while my brother's class in 2010 had no more than 40.


• We have a gay bar. It used to be called Illusions, with rainbow lettering and a marquee that proclaimed it as an "alternative lifestyles club," but it is now Club 231. The sign is not nearly as colorful.


• We're the home of The Clarks. In "Cigarette" they mention the county fair, where they play every summer. This year, "Cigaratte" was part of their encore.


• Our news stories are regularly featured and mocked on Pittsburgh's Kiss FM.


• We're the home of Nemacolin Resort. According to rumor, Princess Diana was supposed to spend Christmas there the year she died.


• We're also the home a few pretty notable people, but the only one anyone ever really talks about is George C. Marshall. He has a statue, park, and mural in Uniontown.


• The Big Mac was invented in Uniontown.


• We've been visited by royalty and the Clintons. I met Bill when he was campaigning for Hillary in 2008.

Plus more.