Have A Nice Day

09-01-11

It’s not a timex - but it is still ticking. For 38 years! I won the shiny bright yellow Smiley Face clock for selling magazines for band in the 8th grade - in 1973. Incredible. The clockworks seem to be as enduring as the symbol on the face.

The clock has been proudly hung in every place I have ever lived since then. Smiley moved with me to my college dorm room and helped me get to classes on time. From a prominent place in all the kitchens of my adult life Smiley has made sure the family stayed on schedule.

When I moved back to my childhood home, Smiley reclaimed his original spot on the wall in the north bedroom. From there he helps me stay on track to get to work on time every morning.

The Smiley Face was born in 1964 for a moral boosting "friendship campaign" at State Mutual Insurance. Harvey Ball spent 10 minutes designing and drawing the graphic and was paid $45. He should have copyrighted it! When the Smiley Face craze hit in 1970 Bernard and Murray Spain did after adding the words "Have A Nice Day" and the rest is history. It became a symbol for an entire generation of Americans, and is one of the most well known images in the country. The number of smiley buttons produced by 1972 was estimated at 50 million.

Since then the Murrays and their imitators have created posters, greeting cards, shirts, bumper stickers, jewelry, key chains, CLOCKS, and many other items. In 1999 United States Postal Service unveiled the Smiley Face Stamp and that same year the first World Smile Day was held.

My first Smiley was a felt patch that mom made on her sewing machine and sewed on a jacket for me. It is the universal symbol for happy. I often sign my cards with a Smiley face of sorts. And the ascii version helps convey my mood in text and email messages. :) You can hand someone a smile with the happy face printed on a card, and medical professionals have even adopted the symbol for their pain scale. Smiley with a smile for feeling no pain on one end, and Smiley with a frown for feeling bad on the other end.

Smiley is here to stay and we will no doubt see him in various and unexpected places. Not everyone in my family shares my love for the cheery yellow Smiley Face Clock that wishes me a happy day - but they can appreciate the tenacity with which he keeps on tickin’!