The Pin

I always like to look at the pins they wear on their aprons.
It is fun to read them as I stand in line at the grocery store.
Some cashiers have many.
Some have only a few.

It brings me back to the days when I wore pins.
I wore quite a lot of them.
It was the only thing that was allowed to be different.
It was the only way to express myself, within reason.

I went to an elementary school where uniforms were required.
I wore a certain color blouse, a certain kind of knee high socks, and certain kind of shoes.
There was a little flexibility as the years went on and new uniforms were selected.
Everyone looked the same.

There was one pin in particular that I wore all the time.
I had them in multiple colors.
It was a simple smiley face on a pin that caught people’s attention.
Have a happy day, became the slogan to go with the pin back in the early 70s.

The late Harvey Ross Ball, an American graphic artist and ad man. Ball came up with the image in 1963 when he was commissioned to create a graphic to raise morale among the employees of an insurance company after a series of difficult mergers and acquisitions. Ball finished the design in less than 10 minutes and was paid $45 for his work. The State Mutual Life Assurance Company (now Allmerica Financial Corporation) made posters, buttons, and signs adorned with the jaundiced grin in the attempt to get their employees to smile more. It’s uncertain whether or not the new logo boosted morale, but the smiling face was an immediate hit and the company produced thousands of buttons. The image proliferated and was of course endlessly imitated but according to Bill Wallace, Executive Director of the Worcester Historical Museum, the authentic Harvey Ball-designed smiley face could always be identified by its distinguishing features: the eyes are narrow ovals, one larger than the other, and the mouth is not a perfect arc but “almost like a Mona Lisa Mouth. Neither Ball nor State Mutual tried to trademark or copyright the design. Although it seems clear that Ball has the strongest claim to the second most iconic smile in history, there’s much more to the story. (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/who-really-invented-the-smiley-face-2058483/)

In the early 1970s, brothers Bernard and Murray Spain, owners of two Hallmark card shops in Philadelphia, came across the image in a button shop, noticed that it was incredibly popular, and simply appropriated it. They knew that Harvey Ball came up with the design in the 1960s but after adding the the slogan “Have a Happy Day” to the smile, the Brothers Spain were able to copyright the revised mark in 1971, and immediately began producing their own novelty items. By the end of the year they had sold more than 50 million buttons and countless other products, turning a profit while attempting to help return a nation’s optimism during the Vietnam War (or provide soldiers with ironic ornament for their helmets). Despite their acknowledgment of Harvey’s design, the brothers publicly took credit for icon in 1971 when they appeared on the television show “What’s My Line.” (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/who-really-invented-the-smiley-face-2058483/)

It was the brothers’ Spain pins that I wore proudly on my uniform.
I had the classic yellow pin.
I had neon green and neon pink.
I even had a sad face pin that emerged somewhere along the line, but did not wear very often.

Being a happy face pin connoisseur, I tend to look at people’s pins.
This particular organic market uses pins to communicate messages to customers.
There is even a pin that a cashier wears when favorable comments are received about them.
Some cashiers have only one of those pins; some have quite a few.

As the cashier was scanning my groceries, I noticed it.
This pin was different from the rest.
I read it twice.
Love thy neighbor. (No exceptions)

I love your pin, I told her.
It is the only contraband pin I am allowed to wear, she admitted with a wink.
This was not your run of the mill pin.
This pin was not worn by anyone else in the store.

If we could only be like little children, I said, that might be much easier for us to do.
She smiled as we both looked over towards the play area that was near her register.
There, children of all colors, sizes, and shapes were playing together.
Except for the occasional scuffle over a toy, they got along; no exceptions.

Why do we adults have exceptions?
You are not like me…
You are another political party…
You go to a different church or no church at all…

We line up our categories and put people underneath each one.
We have exceptions.
We have distinctions; we make excuses.
The children just played.

 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30,31)

I wish I had saved my happy face pins.
I would wear one right about now.
I hope I see that cashier again; I will know her by her pin.
I would love to talk more about it.

It boils down to this.
Love God.
Love your neighbor.
No exceptions.