Hey, Juls....

[scottcny]

I read in the Mlps. paper today about the hubub about the smily face on a building in Delafield, Wi. Isn't that where your place is? It said the new owners want to paint over it but the owner of the resident bait shop, Dick Smith, wants it to stay and has a petition of 600 people who agree with him. It went on to say that the new owners of the building want to use some of the space to sell Amish furniture and the Amish agree it should be painted over, they disagree with human likeness displayed as such.... all of this over a smily face on a barn!! what is this world coming to! I hope you guys get to keep it the way it is!!!!

[FJH1]

I heard that the new owner will put a :-) face on the barn, but not the same size :-) face, and on a different side of the barn. The news report that I heard said that the barn was in need of major repairs. Not sure if this is true or if the "new owner" is spinning the story in the direction of "if I didn't buy it it would be torn down, I'm going to save the barn, but the :-) face has to go". Anyway, Wisconsin will be losing a little piece of roadside nostalgia :-(.

Best Regards,

FJH

[Juls_WI]

WOW! We made the paper all the way out there too? It's been in every paper in Southeastern Wisco, but I never thought it would make the news out there. Cool..;-)

Yeah, the new owners want to paint the barn red with white trim. Like there aren't enough red barns in Wisconsin..heheh
The yellow smiley barn has been a landmark since 1979. It was an easy way for people to find us, or tell their friends where to meet before the day of fishing. You see, we sit right on the intersection of two highways between Milwaukee and Madison, and it's easy to find. Now we will have to say, "Um, you can find us in the big red barn with the horse and buggy on it"..UGH! LOL

Well, Patty, the new owner, has the right to do what she wants with it, and I will be sorry to see the smiley face go. As far as I know, she still hasn't totally decided to lose the smiley face, but she is determined to paint the barn red. She has another Amish store, in a barn, just South of Madison, and she wants to keep the theme going in the new barn. My guess is, that she will completely renovate the outside..which is badly needed. It's just nice to know that someone bought it, who is going to fix the old place up, instead of some corp. that would have torn it down. We can be thankful for that I guess.

There has been a lot of contraversy over this, because some people think it should be an historical landmark. I like the big yellow barn, but I can live with red too. It's the only barn on that corner, so it should still be easy to tell people how to find us. I will take a picture of it before she paints it, so I can remember it the way I have known it for so many years. Life goes on and is always changing..sometimes for the better and sometimes not. The smiley barn was a good advertising gimmick. Back in 1979 the owner at that time was told that it is a proven fact that black on yellow is the most popular color combination for advertising. So, he cut out wood for a black smiley face on both ends of the barn, that face the highway. I was told that it had improved his business by 50%. Anyone traveling East or West on Hwy 94 gets flashed a big smile when they pass by. That will be missed.
I guess Patty doesn't know this..heheh Oh well, too bad for her.

One thing for sure is...Patty sure has gotten a lot of free advertising out of all of this!!

Juls

[cisco]

Face it (pun intended), it's an ugly building now and was equally ugly in 1979.

If people need directions, just tell them it's immediately west of Perkins. By the time you see it at 70 mph on I-94 you can't exit anyway.

Paint the ugly beast! Leave happy face to WalMart.

[Backwater Eddy]

How about if you paint a black hat and a beard on it?

Maybe then it would fit the new sales' scheme a bit better?

:)

Backwater Eddy

[buzzer IA]

When the in-laws moved to that little town, it was the first thing that I saw when we went up there for the first time..Kinda made you feel welcome..Then to find out that there was a bait shop there was just icing on the cake!!My vote is for keeping it just the way it is-Juls and all..lol

[Gunga Din]

LOL. Actually, you'd just have to paint over the face and leave a big, yellow circle to be Amish compliant. Their dolls have no faces. But I like the hat and beard idea better. :)

[Skeeter]

Hi Juls, doesn't have anything to do with this topic
but wondering if you have ever heard where the tapes
went?? Nels