"Smiley," the circa-2014 smiley face painted on Barbara and Mike McNulty's two-car garage overlooking Lockwood Park in Racine, has begun modeling a properly-worn cloth face mask to encourage mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Barbara and Mike McNulty of Racine are shown in 2017 with the smile-cracking smiley face they painted on the back of their garage overlooking James E. Lockwood Park at Ohio Street and Graceland Boulevard.
RACINE — Since 2014, “Smiley” has brightened the hearts of northbound Ohio Street motorists and outdoor recreation enthusiasts at Lockwood Park. Now, Smiley has joined in the fight against COVID-19, recently donning a colorful mask to set a neighborly example.
Smiley, a black-and-white smiley face painted by Westway Avenue residents Barbara and Michael McNulty on the back of their two-car garage six years ago, earned its 15 minutes of national fame after a July 31, 2017 Journal Times report was picked up by the Associated Press, leading to Smiley getting ink as far afield as Indianapolis, Seattle and Tallahassee, Fla.
Barbara McNulty, who has made more than 800 all-cotton masks since the February-March Wisconsin arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, recently decided Smiley needed a mask, too.
“I came home the other day and said ‘let’s put a mask on Smiley’ to inspire people to wear their masks, too,” said Barbara, a veteran Realtor. “Smiley has his mask on the proper way, with the mask covering his nose and his mouth, with the peak where his nose would be.
“I see people with their masks on the wrong way all the time. You’ve gotta wear those masks the right way. I’m hoping it will inspire people to wear their masks more.”
Smiley has received kudos for stepping out in COVID-fighting style.
“It’s gotten a lot of smiles,” Barbara said. “A lot of people are saying it’s a real positive thing. One person said that they wished all the garages had smiley faces with masks on all the garages to encourage people to wear them.”
The mask on Smiley, Barbara said, is an extension of her embrace of mask-wearing.
“I know that there are some people that resist wearing them,” she said. “I wear my mask because I want people to feel safe around me, but, you know, it goes both ways. If both of us are wearing masks, it’s a lot healthier.”
Although Smiley’s namesake smile has been covered, Barbara says the smile shows through, albeit now shining through Smiley’s wide, bright eyes.
“I wanted to inspire everybody to smile,” McNulty said of the original inspiration for Smiley. “I was having a rough time and I needed some inspiration to be happy. Even though things get rough, you’ve gotta smile ... no matter how hard it gets.
“I think smiles are contagious. If you see somebody who’s smiling, it’s easier for you to smile. And now with the masks, you really need to read their eyes to get that smile.”
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This long-lived Downtown Racine ghost sign along Third St. between Main St. and Washington Ave. advertises Dr. Giffin's Diphtheria Cure and Preventive, a patent medicine developed and marketed in 1893 by Neenah physician Dr. L.W. Giffin (1853-1902). At the time, diphtheria, a toxic bacterial infection, was a gruesome killer with no known cause and a plethora of ineffective treatments, including a host of patent medicines "cures." Giffin practiced medicine in Neenah from 1884-1899, and on the sideline produced and marketed his patented Giffin Medicine Co. elixirs, Dr. Giffin's Dihptheria Cure and its successor, Muco-Solvent, from 1893-1902. The medicine on its 1893 debut was marketed as "a sure septic for all diseases of the throat" that could be "procured from any druggist at the trifling cost of $1.00" and "arrest the fatalities of the disease if taken in time." Giffin's 1902 obituary reported that Giffin was "widely known ... throughout the country as the discoverer and maker of a diphtheria cure." An actual cure for diphtheria, a vaccine first developed in France in 1913 and billed as "one of the seven wonders of the modern world," was not widely available until the 1920s.
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This advertising wall sign commissioned by Milwaukee-based Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. along Washington Avenue is one of the many ghost signs that can be found around Racine. The sign includes the image of Schlitz's trademark globe logo.
