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Happy face still appears in Simi
Blackened icon keeps grinning off Highway 118
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More from Other NewsThe famous happy face in the dusty hills north of Highway 118 between Yosemite Avenue and Kuehner Drive survived the fire, even though the flames scorched the whole grinning thing.
"You can still see it!" Mayor Bill Davis said when asked about the face. "I said, 'My God, it's still there, just as big as ever.' "
Sonny Klamerus was just as delighted to hear the face, although blackened, had made it through OK. He's the guy who put it there in the first place.
In 1998, Klamerus, a 52-year-old gardener from Northridge, tried to put a similar face in Granada Hills. But it didn't work.
So he took his idea to Simi and found the perfect, undeveloped hillside along the 118.
Without getting permission from the landowner, Mount Sinai Memorial Park, Klamerus took a container of weed killer and simply walked in a circle.
He added beady eyes and a broad smile -- just like the Wal-Mart logo and countless yellow smiley faces everywhere -- and Simi Valley had what eventually would become one of its most recognizable landmarks.
"It was just a nice thing to do, you know, something that wasn't political, something to make people smile," Klamerus said.
Over the years, he has maintained Mr. Smiley, and carries a permission letter from the Mount Sinai folks to do so.
Police have stopped him a couple of times, but he flashes the letter and continues.
When the fires roared through last week, Klamerus wondered if his creation would emerge unscathed.
He has yet to see the new burnt version, but is, well, happy to hear it's still there.
"I'm excited about it because even though this terrible thing has happened," he said, "a nice thing still remains."
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